Christie Sym and Madeleine Oldfield 2nd – 3rd at San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz

Christie Sym and Madeleine Oldfield have both raced well to place second and third respectively at the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz. Sym was only 35 seconds behind winner Becky Lavelle with Oldfield a further two minutes back. Sym spent the day chasing Lavelle and got very close to her before the race finish eventually beat her. After swimming almost five minutes slower than Lavelle, Sym then set about putting over two minutes in to her on the bike and then over another half a  minute more in the run. Sym must have transitioned very well as in the end she almost had the race.

Madeleine Oldfield also raced well with a quicker swim than Christie but over five minutes slower on the bike. Oldfield had the quickest run of the day in the pro field with a 49:03 well over a minute faster than Christie.

Kiwi Bryan Rhodes also raced this weekend finishing 9th overall. Rhodes is used to racing 70.3 so the shorter and faster paced race is not his usual bread and butter.

This year the athletes swam about 800m more with an 800m run thrown in. According to Madeleine this was a good thing. “We had a mini 4th leg of the triathlon with an 800m run from swim exit back to the bike. This was actually pretty good as it helped get me warm for the cycle.”

Madeleine was 5th out of the water and remained in the position for the whole bike leg. “Out onto the 7 mile run, and I was still sitting in 5th so knew I had to put in a strong run if I wanted to improve on last years 5th place.” The run begins with a 2km long flat section, followed by a climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge. The runners then dropped down to the beach for 400m of sand running before coming face to face with the 400 step sand ladder. “This is the toughest part of the whole race, with what seems like 400 steps of pure pain. I had managed to run into 3rd place at this stage, however the girl in 4th was starting to make up some ground so I knew as soon as I hit the top of the ladder it was time to get going, not look back and hold on. I made sure I pushed the down hills and finished strong along the final 2km flat section.”

“I ended up crossing the line in 3rd place with the fastest run split of the day. I was aiming for a podium finish so was stoked to come in 3rd. It’s an awesome race and if anyone ever has the opportunity to do it I would definitely recommend!”