Escape From Alcatraz : Shark Threat Didn’t Stop Joan Jeter From Winning Another Triathlon

Joan Jeter was told that sharks would try to eat her as she swam across the San Francisco Bay and that she’d never make it through the cliffs, mud and rocks of the running trial that followed.

Such are the hazards of the Alcatraz Challenge Triathlon.

“I had heard all these horror stories about it,” Jeter said.

Still, Jeter went for a 1.5-mile swim earlier this month in the choppy, chilly waters between the Alcatraz penitentiary and Aquatic Park in the San Francisco Bay. For five years, in the Alcatraz Challenge Triathlon, athletes have been conquering the waters that once helped keep prisoners from escaping the maximum-security facility there.

Jeter, of Costa Mesa, is one of 155 triathletes who swam the treacherous course that was the first leg of the triathlon. A bicycle ride and rugged run followed.

“It’s plainly a difficult swim,” said Peter Butler, Alcatraz Challenge triathlon director. “You really have to be well-trained and prepared both physically and psychologically.”

The bay water is so cold (mid-50s) that participants are given an extended transition period so they can jog three-quarters of a mile after the swim to warm up their legs for the bicycle ride.

“It can be very intimidating,” Butler said of the course.

The swim is followed by a 20-mile bike ride and a 14.2-mile run along the mountainous Dipsea Trail. The run starts with a climb of 671 steps and winds over steep hills with names such as Hogsback Rise, Suicide Plunge and Cardiac Hill.

“The swimming wasn’t even the hard part,” Jeter said. “It was the run.

“I had to climb over occasional broken trees, roots and go through mud. I really had to watch my step.”

Jeter, 47, was the first woman over 40 to finish the event. She finished in 4 hours 24 minutes 5 seconds, the second-fastest time for a woman in that race. Cynthia Nesvig, 32, beat Jeter by about eight minutes.

It was Jeter’s sixth first-place finish in her age group (45-49) in the seven triathlons she has entered this year. This is only her first year competing in triathlons.

“She’s a serious athlete who trains hard and gets results because of it,” said John Loeschhorn, Jeter’s running coach for the last couple of months.

Loeschhorn is a world-ranked Masters marathoner, who has been running for 29 years and has coached adults since 1983. Before that he coached kids.

“I just wish more people Joan’s age were out there participating,” he said. “A lot of people think they’re dead at 47.”

Jeter, who works as a sales representative for her cousin’s Ohio-based filing company, competed in her first triathlon in April, winning her age group in 2:34 in the Los Angeles Triathlon Series.

She took another title a month later in the Orange County Performing Arts Center triathlon at Mission Viejo, where she finished the 1.5-mile swim, 32-kilometer bicycle ride and 10-kilometer run in 2:22.

Lew Kidder, editor of Triathlon Today, called her progress “remarkable.”

“She seems to be irrepressible,” he said.

After a second-place finish at the beginning of June in a second Los Angeles triathlon, Jeter finished the Orange County Biathlon at Doheny Beach in first place in her age group and 25th overall in 1:18.

That was followed by firsts in her age division in Ohio, Portland and Chicago.

Jeter is ranked 10th nationally by Triathlon Today in the 44-49 age group, but she beat No. 8-ranked Chris Young in Portland and No. 9 Graciela Val of Illinois by 12 minutes in Chicago on humid day in 96-degree heat.

Jeter says her performance in Chicago was her best. She finished the .9-mile swim, 24.1-mile bike ride, and 10-kilometer run in 2:29.55, beating by two minutes the time recorded the previous week by No. 2 Susan Bradley-Cox on the same course.

“I was really impressed with my finish at Alcatraz,” Jeter said, “but my performance in Chicago was very good because I was really mentally up for it and, of course, I beat Susie’s time.”

Not bad for someone who refused when her doctor suggested that she start jogging to gain strength eight years ago. Jeter had an undiagnosed pancreatic infection and felt weak all the time. It lasted about four years.

“I told him, ‘I don’t even walk from my car. I always park in the loading zone because I detest anything to do with my feet.’ ”

Jeter’s 5-foot 5-inch frame was down to 100 pounds during her illness.

“I always felt sick,” Jeter said. “My project for the day was going to the grocery store and that was it. Then I had to come home and lie down.”

So Jeter decided to start swimming to gain strength. She was a synchronized swimmer at the University of Colorado for two years.

In 1980, she won four gold medals in freestyle and breaststroke events in the Senior Olympics, which took place in Beverly Hills.

Jeter continued swimming in the masters division after that, and four years later, while practicing at Tustin High School with an 18-and-under age group, she started running because it was part of the group workouts.

“They ran three to four times a week,” Jeter said. “I decided if I wanted to practice with them, I had to do everything they did.”

A couple of weeks later, she entered her first five-kilometer race and placed fifth in under 25 minutes without any training.

“By the third mile, I thought I was going to expire,” she said.

Instead, Jeter became obsessed with running, and within a year she ran a 21-minute 5K. She figured since she had swimming--which is still her specialty--and running down, she might as well compete in triathlons.

“I love to over-train,” Jeter said, “and I decided to spread out my body-killing pleasures into different sports.”

Next month she will go to Hawaii to swim the 9.3-mile Maui Channel and the 2.5-mile Waikiki Surf Swim, an event she won in her age group in 1982.

At the end of September, Jeter will go to Hilton Head, S.C., for the U.S. Triathlon Series Nationals. Only the top 10 in each age group can participate in the 1.5-mile swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run.

A national title at Hilton Head means personal satisfaction and another T-shirt for Jeter’s collection of 80. That’s because there’s prize money for the open division in triathlons, but zero for the various age groups.

“Naturally we’re never going to place with the pros because of the age difference,” Jeter said. “But we work just as hard.

“Not only do the pros get money, they get all the top spots. They start earlier when it’s cooler and their transition spots are carpeted while we old folks have to go through the gravel and glass on the ground to get to our bikes.”

Those things may bother Jeter, but not enough to quit.

“It does get a little irritating at times,” she said. “But it’s still a lot of fun and it sure beats being a couch potato.”