Report by Mark Burkhardt
With a large contingent racing at Alcatraz, Jeff, Kendall, Prasad, David, Noa, and I decided to brave the glassy 68 degree water of Lake Almaden; the flat, mostly straight bike course around San Jose; and the run course that took us past many surprised spectators who had come to the park for a leisurely Sunday morning stroll.
The air horn starting the race was sounded by ex-NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski, who was at one of the booths promoting nutritional supplements from his new company. After the race, David and I tried one of his smoothies, which is supposed to make us leaner, sharper mentally, or sleep better (I'm not sure which variety they were handing out). So far, nothing.
Congratulations to David and Prasad for finishing their first Olympic triathlon, and to Kendall for placing 3rd in his age group! After starting a couple of waves behind me, he flew past me at mile 6 of the run. About 200 meters from the finish, an extremely helpful spectator informed me that there was a Stanford guy just ahead of me. I'm sure he was disappointed when I didn't immediately break into R pace to close the gap. Maybe if I hadn't had to stop and pick up the water bottle I dropped on the bike, it would have been a little closer...
Full results are up here.