Escape! From Alcatraz

I know, I know. I have been entirely delinquent and haven't posted anything since the end of my winter season. But I've actually been busy running around to different events the past couple of months, though not with the same intensity as the winter. However, summer is upon us and the event season is picking up once again!

Last weekend, I finally got to work an event in my home city--San Francisco! We were sponsoring the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, which is an iconic event in the Bay Area and around the world.

Yes, it's true. There are 2,000 crazy athletes who jump off a ferry boat (all 2,000 within 8 minutes!) and into the freezing cold water on their 1.5 mile swim around the Bay and towards the shore. Then they grab their bikes for a nice 18-miler out through the Presidio towards Ocean Beach, then start up the run towards Baker Beach and back to the Marina Green.

Despite the torrential downpour on Saturday, it was absolutely one of my favorite events of the year. Sunday brought a decent amount of sun and warmth as we all milled about the Marina Green watching the athletes take on this incredible course.

I should probably note here that my colleague Emily and I are NOT draft technicians--we are marketers. When we go to events, we are not pouring beer--we are standing in a booth and talking to folks about our brewery. For this race, we posted signs outside our booth for the athletes to pose with:

Though we come from marketing backgrounds, we are both fiercely committed to learning as much about beer as possible. This weekend, the two of us executed an entire beer garden and 3 VIP pouring stations all by ourselves, setting up the draft systems, switching out empty kegs, and problem-solving for the volunteer bartenders if the beer was too foamy. We are, admittedly, quite proud of our achievement. And it's also a pretty serious workout! Maneuvering 170 pound barrels is no joke.

Here's Emily in her full rain gear, wheeling around a keg.

I absolutely loved watching the athletes come down the finish chute as they made their Escape from Alcatraz official. Here's a shot of the winner--yes, he's quite fit, as was everyone else in the race:

Overall, it was a successful weekend and an incredible event to be a part of. I'm already looking forward to next year. Hopefully the Beer Garden will be even MORE packed than this:

In the meantime, I was pretty inspired by everything and I'm playing with the idea of training for this thing next year, but I'll need one helluva swim coach!