Escape From Alcatraz

It took me a long time to post this, I wanted to do it sooner. Busy, busy
San Francisco is amazing. It is so beautiful there. The race course is incredible.
Up at 2AM, at the race site too early, about 4AM, didn't let anyone in until about 4:30. Got all my stuff sorted out. Got on the bus, got to the boat, had to wait about half an hour to get body marked. Got to watch the sunrise, which is always amazing. Finally got marked and on the boat. All those people, ~1800, just incredible. They do a loop around Alcatraz, then the pros go and then we all go. Controlled mayhem of sorts. We go out through two doors, and then out through 1 of 3 openings in the railing. It is amazing to watch all those people in the water. The swim was not that bad, water cold initially. About half way across there were some rollers. Strange to swim without bouys, just follow the cell tower and let the current push you towards the beach. I am amazed I hit the beach after all the stories. T1 was long.
Bike was frightening, the downhills are incredible and I don't have the bike handling skills to be aggressive enough. Used a lot of break. Again, the views were amazing, just unbelievable.
The run course is much the same. Along the bay, under the bridge. I took a hard fall, avoiding a branch, hit a slippery rock, scraped knee and bad wound on left hand. Bloody 5 miles. Running on the beach is terrible, heavy, poor footing, sand in shoes, ugh. Sand stairs\ladder. Ugh, 400 steps of pure hell. I was not very fast, about 3 hours 16 minute, but the point was to do it. It felt great. It was an amazing experience, hopefully I can do it again next year. Hooray
Swim (1.5 mi) - 37:03 (1:24 min/100yds)
T1 - 9:24
Bike (18 mi) - 1:11:29 (15.1 MPH)
T2 - ? (apparently issues with the timing mat)
Run (8 mi + T2 apparently) - 1:08: 23 (Guess with timing mat)
Total - 3:16:19
Overall - 946\1617
Age - 149\239