Reilly Brennan

My friend Shane ran the absurd Escape from Alcatraz triathalon last year and Andrea and I went down to watch. We managed to miss seeing him at any of the transition stations, but I spent a good amount of time watching the other competitors come in and swap into new gear (swim 1.5 miles, bike 18 miles, then run 8 miles). This transition area (called T1 during the first transition from swim to bike and T2 from bike to run) is sometimes referred to as the fourth race, since it’s just as important as the race itself. It’s really a one-man pit stop area. I watched the competitors go through the transition area and nearly all of them had a different method, disrobing and handling their gear in a state of half-off, half-on that looked like one of those high-speed films of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. There has been a lot of work in this area, and there are some cool videos of experts showing time-saving tips. 

I’m proud of him, just for finishing the event. But he was able to go a step beyond that and even beat his 3-hour goal. His time of 2:56:06 was made possible because of smart, fast transitions at T1 and T2. I’d like to find more transition zones in the stuff I do to eliminate waste.