John Dahlz, a pro triathlete and head triathlon coach at Cal was the top bay area finisher at Sunday's Escape from Alcatraz. In a world-class field, Dahlz finished sixth with a time of 2:06:57 ahead of 13th place finisher Craig Alexander, a two-time World Ironman champion. "It looked like Craig was having an off day. You can replay this race a hundred times and it would be the only time I get in the same area code as Craig."
Dahlz would have liked to replay a wardrobe malfunction on the boat. "My buddy asked me to zip up his wetsuit and the zipper got stuck. We're stressing out as there's a one-minute countdown before the start. I yanked the zipper as hard as I could and luckily it zipped. We run over and realize that there wasn't any more room next to Andy Potts and all the good swimmers lined up on the left. So I went as far right as possible. When I hopped in, Andy and the other swimmers were so far over they like seagulls. There were ten people that were clear of me."
Dahlz managed to close some of the gap and exited the water 15 seconds behind second and third place finishers Bevan Docherty and Matt Chrabot. "What killed me too and I don't know how they do it, but Bevan and Matt and Andy can really haul on the run from the water's edge. I lost 30 seconds to those guys just on that run. This is the first year I put on shoes because when I go barefoot my feet hurt for days. It's amazing how fast those guys are moving on transition. It's a whole separate leg of the race.
I started the run in fourth but I couldn't hang on. Jesse Thomas and Brian Fleischmann caught me on the downhill section before Baker's Beach. No shame in that. Both guys, especially Jesse can seriously run. He's an ex Stanford steeplechase runner and I am pretty sure he had the fastest run split of the day."
Will Dahlz return to Alcatraz?
"Yeah, I love the course and it's always nice racing at home. I'll definitely do it again."
Look for the Cal coach to be loaded for bear the next time he sees a Stanford runner.
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