Finding Treasure

Triathlon training is really cranking up! For instance? How about back-to-back days of brutal workouts this weekend.

Sunday featured a gi-normous bike ride up the backside of Mount Tamalpais. A tough climb up to the Alpine Dam, a run, and then biking out again. This ride does have its moments though: the summit is reached only by a slow, hard grind in your lowest gear. Every turn looks like it could be the last, yet rounding it you only find more steep climbs. Churning uphill, your concentration is broken by the panoramic expanse of the green Marin hills and the Bay in the distance. Rounding the turn at the top, you finally begin to descend. As your knees and quads come back to life your vision is arrested by more green rolling hills, a quiet winding road through redwood trees, and finally the Pacific. Picking up lots of speed, you feel like you're flying...all at once, the hard grind makes all kinds of sense.

And all of this was after a practice triathlon on Saturday. 

Each year during training we do a practice sprint-distance triathlon on Treasure Island. Ah, Treasure Island, such a romantic name for a not-so-romantic place. At least, it's not so romantic any more. It's more of a decrepit ghost town these days, although people do actually live out there (supposedly) but you never see them. The place does have the most spectacular views of San Francisco that anyone could ever ask for however, which is the whole point.

The Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure IslandTreasure Island was created for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939, dredged from the bottom of the Bay to create 4,000 acres of playland, streamline-moderne buildings, and architectural motifs that became known as the "Pacifica" style. San Francisco was celebrating the opening of its new bridges: The Bay Bridge which opened in 1936, and the Golden Gate Bridge which opened in 1937. With two such fantastic spans, it was only fitting that they build an island smack in the middle of the Bay to have a party. 

(I'm realizing that this post ties together some themes of late: bridges, and Treasure Island. What can I say, sometimes my life works this kind of kismet magic...Hmmm.)

These days, the only buildings intact from the original Exposition are the Administration Building, and two hangers - all of which appear to have seen better days. The rest of the island is filled with boarded up, industrial-looking buildings - the kind that serve as movie sets during the scenes where you don't want the hero to go inside. The atmosphere is run-down, weather-beaten, rusty, and more than a little spooky. Even the once-stately trees on the Avenue of the Palms seem to grow crooked. Very different from the days when the 400-foot Tower of the Sun dominated the landscape.

A Pan-Am Clipper over San Francisco Bay - Yerba Buena & Treasure Island are in the foreground. Circa 1939The island was intended to be turned into San Francisco International Airport, led by the fleet of Pan-American China Clippers that flew in and out of "Clipper Cove" - the calm lagoon between Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. A Clipper was actually a Boeing B14 - the most luxurious form of air travel during the 1930s. I always imagine women in beautiful suits, trim hats with veils, and mountains of Louis Vuitton trunks disembarking from a Pan-Am Clipper in Clipper Cove. That's what I imagine as I swim the murky depths of that little body of water in the pursuit of athleticism. Somehow the thought makes me slightly more comfortable than I would normally be while swimming in San Francisco Bay.

Me & my team start our swim in Clipper CoveThe rain was relentless on Saturday morning, and the wind was even worse once we got on our bikes. The city was lost in the low fog and rain, but as we kept circling the course, the outlines of the buildings began to emerge in a grey bas-relief. The whole thing was rather romantic, in a modern-gothic kind of way - something the Bronte sisters and Dashiell Hammett would appreciate. I appreciated it, although I was thoroughly soaked to the skin and could only think about a hot shower, but I was still appreciative.  Where else in the world could I possibly be doing what I was doing while seeing what I was seeing?

When the Exposition closed in 1940, the US Navy took over the island as the primary base for sailors to embark for World War II in the Pacific. The Navy held the island until 1997 when it was given over to private usage, as it stands today. There are supposedly plans to develop the island and bring it new life, although I kind of like it's current Grey Gardens-Miss Havisham time-warp echoes of former glory. The glamour, the history, the decrepit "if these walls could talk" atmosphere...it makes for a great training spot!

Help support my triathlon training with a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! Your donation is entirely tax-deductable and goes directly to patients and families enduring treatment for blood cancers - maybe even a family you know! You may donate by clicking here: http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/Annie2007