ALAN Bayliss and Dudley Kent were both racing away from home this weekend, with Alan taking on Challenge Venice, and Dudley the iconic Escape From Alcatraz.

Challenge Venice is a full iron distance event, with a 3.8km swim, 180 km bike and 40km run. The Venice event starts with a unique one-way swim through the lagoon.

Relentlessly pursuing his goals, Bayliss completed the 180km in a great time of 5:39, completed the marathon in 3:42, giving him a fantastic final result of 11:14, taking 17 minutes off his previous iron distance time. This is a remarkable feat considering the 25 minute T2.

Dudley Kent travelled to San Francisco to race in the world famous Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. Nearly 2,000 amateur and professional athletes endured high winds and a modified course due to the cancellation of the swim, to compete in the race. To ensure the safety of the athletes, city and race officials ended up cancelling the 1.5-mile swim portion of the triathlon because of unsafe conditions created by high winds.

The modified race course included an 18-mile bike ride and an eight-mile run through San Francisco. Undeterred by the weather and encouraged by the USA pros, Kent gave an excellent performance on this unforgiving course to finish in 2:32.