In a moment of bravado, I entered the lottery to win a place in the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco, and to my considerable surprise my name was drawn from the hat. As a result, at 7.30am on Sunday 7th June 2015 I jumped off a ferry moored alongside Alcatraz prison for a 1.5 mile swim to the St. Francis Yacht Club, an 18 mile hilly bike ride through the Presidio and an eight mile trail run through Baker Beach to the infamous Sand Ladder.

The swim was great and I stopped after a couple of minutes to soak up the view of Alcatraz and the ferry, which was pretty cool. I exited the 1.5mile swim after 38mins in 635th place, in a field of 1812 - I mention that now because that's as good as it would got. A loud crowd was cheering everyone on - so I never worried about my dodgy calf. I did, however, take the sand-ladder pretty gently; Andy Potts did the 400-step climb in less than half the time it took me, but I'm guessing he took two steps at a time. I finished in 135th place (in my age group*); but it was all about the taking part.

San Francisco is a lovely city and the Escape From Alcatraz is a great event - the lottery for the 2016 event opens in September. Go on, you know you want to!

Having, hopefully, established some fitness for the Escape From Alcatraz, I thought it would be a shame not to carry on; so I’ve also entered the Gullane Triathlon on 5th September. 

In a second moment of bravado, my sister-in-law and I entered the lottery to win a place in Loch Gu Loch, and to my considerable surprise our names were drawn from the hat. As a result, at some crazy hour on the Saturday 26th September we will be embarking on a 61km swimrun event, which comprises of 13 swims, beginning with a challenging 2km crossing of Loch Ness, and 53km of running.

I’m mad. But hey I’m doing it for a good cause! Please sponsor me.

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