Race reports, adventures, travel, fun, misc...

Now I know why they say that Ironman Austria is one of the best destination races out there.  With amost 3,000 participants, 100,000 spectators and a large part of the city and surrounding towns closed to traffic for most of the day the event just takes on a life of its own.  Think Olympic village + Tour de France vibe all in one.   I signed up for the race through Enurance Sports Travel (EST) again. Ken Glah's group (world record 29 Kona finishes) provides incredible service and I highly recommend them for any destination Ironman and Ironman 70.3.  The swim takes place in lake Worthersee. One of many gorgeous lakes in the Carinthian region of Austria. It is the clearest and cleanest lake I've ever seen.  It puts many Caribbean beaches to shame.  2,700 participants line up on two sides of a pier and prepare for a mass start.  This race had many more people than last year so they created a 1st way of 400 elite to go off right...

Telling people that I was going to be doing an Escape from Alcatraz triathlon usually triggered a “dude, you’ve escaped from your mind” look.    In this case, totally warranted.  This event was intense.  I hesitate to call it a race because for me it was just a slugfest from beginning to end.   I thought I was ready for it physically I guess but that’s about it.  This event proved (again) just how mentally prepared one needs to be to participate in this sport. I showed up in San Francisco already tired from only getting 4 hrs of sleeps the night before plus the 5 and a half hour flight.  Staying off your feet and resting the day before is highly encouraged for any triathlon.  That didn’t happen.  Race registration at Marina Green was a mile and a half walk from the hotel.  The lines were huge and it took about an hour to check in, sign 4 wavers, get my bib#, body marked etc..    That was follo...