I was fortunate to complete this triathlon over the weekend! It is always a thrill to jump from a ferry in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. The swim is a big unknown but thanks to location based information (coming soon around the planet) some things are being demystified.
How far is it from Alcatraz to the Marina Green beach? Well, it isn’t the 1.5 miles that Tricalifornia claims. Have a look at this GPS activity from Motion Based, a very cool company doing slick stuff with location data. Would you believe 2.16 miles. Of course, outside of intimidating a newbie, the actual distance is mostly moot due to the tides that are chosen for race day (very friendly, I am an OK swimmer and did it in 44 minutes).
Here is a breakdown of all of the disciplines (it curiously omits the swim data that is available in the first link). Turns out that the run is 0.75 miles shorter than advertised!
No Soap, Radio! 