John Rutland recently spent time at Alcatraz Island, the home to the infamous prison in the San Francisco Bay. (Spent time, not did time; it’s been closed since 1963.)
The LA-based cinematographer and ROKA STNDRD Racing team member was filming a documentary series about 3 men who escaped from Alcatraz. Now he’s excited to do exactly that at the iconic Escape from Alcatraz triathlon this May, a week after the documentary’s tentative release date.
“The crazy thing is the dudes actually made wetsuits,” John says. “They took their clothes, then basically added layers of the equivalent of rubber cement on the inside. They were super crafty.” John, on the other hand, will be wearing a Maverick X.3.
To film documentaries, John travels all over the world, sometime with very little notice, and sometimes with four SUVs worth of equipment. To say he’s a master packer would be an understatement. While a lot of his film equipment travels in hard Pelican cases beneath the plane, there is one bag you won’t find him without: the T1X Transition Pack.
“It’s been my primary travel bag, even outside of triathlon because it’s so practical,” John says. “There’s a place for everything.”
Below, the globe-trotting DP shares advice for packing, staying organized, and crushing triathlon with a calendar constantly in flux.
ON THRIVING IN TRI WITH AN EVER-CHANGING SCHEDULE
Alcatraz included, it’s not easy to commit to a race calendar with a fluid work schedule. At the beginning of the year, John will mark down the races he wants to do, then if he’s not working when it gets close, he’ll sign up. When it’s available, he gets race insurance to have the option of cancelling without losing his entry fee.
“I try to peak for the races I really want to do,” he says, “but for the most part, I just always stay in pretty good shape so I’m 4 to 6 weeks away from race condition.”
John loves Olympic-distance events, and small local races. “By the time I’m sick of doing an activity, it’s over!” he jokes, though he’s been known to jump into IRONMAN 70.3s.
On his work calendar so far this year: Filming in Kauai, Hawaii, Italy, Bergen, Norway, and Kyoto.
“For Escape from Alcatraz, if I got a call for a job that day, I’d probably turn it down. But if I got a call for a week of work, or a project where I was out of town for a month, unfortunately I’d have to cancel the race.”
ON START LINE NERVES
“Most races in California are in open water. In the beginning, I hadn’t gotten over the fear of sharks. I was nervous about the swim and not sure what to expect.”
He did some training with Tower 26 so he wouldn’t be racing in the ocean without practice.
“I’m not fearful anymore. The thing that’s interesting is it’s so much build up and work. For an age-grouper not racing as much as a pro—I might do 3 to 5 races a year, sometimes just one—there’s all this build up and anticipation, then when you’re standing on the start line, it happens so fast! All the sudden you’re swimming as hard as you can.”
HOW JOHN ORGANIZES HIS T1X TRANSITION PACK FOR TRIATHLON
Or traveling with exercise gear:
First, John puts in both interior dividers to create three compartments.
In the top interior compartment: “I’ll have a towel, swim goggles, and all the race stuff—belt, timing chip, cap.”
In the middle compartment: Run stuff. Shoes and socks. He likes to put his run and bike shoes in small Lululemon bags, then tie off the handles to keep his shoes from stinking everything up.
In the bottom compartment: Bike shoes.
On the outside:
4 water bottles, 2 on each side.
In the front zipper pockets: nutrition, Body Glide, sunscreen, chamois cream, tools, batteries, and anything else small he might need.
In the top zipper pocket: Swim caps. He keeps 4 of them there.
HOT TIP TO KEEP GOGGLES IN PRISTINE CONDITION
John likes to store his goggles on top of the plastic mold they come on, to preserve the shape of the gaskets, then slip that entire goggle-plastic sandwich inside the microfiber bag the goggles come with.
HOW A CINEMATOGRAPHER PICKS CASES AND BAGS
First, John looks at weight. “It can’t be super heavy because the gear itself is heavy. If you start off with a 25-pound case, once you put the gear in it’ll be 75 pounds, you’ll have to pay overweight fees on a flight.”
Then, he’s thinking about durability. “Any film case is not cheap. If you’re going to spend money on it, you want it to last. And is it going to protect the equipment you’re putting inside of it? Film equipment is very expensive.” And baggage handlers aren’t delicate.
Then, organization. “It’s gotta fit everything. A lot of cases I have are hard plastic on the outside, but inside they have dividers so everything has its place.”
He uses the T1X to carry lenses on flights. “In the main compartments, it’s the perfect size for my big zoom lens,” he says. “You don’t want to check lenses or the camera itself because of how rough baggage handlers are.”
ON TURTLES AND PRs AT HIS MOST MEMORABLE RACES
IRONMAN 70.3 Hawaii, 2021: “The water on the swim was so clear. It was beautiful. You could see the coral and I saw a sea turtle. On the bike, there was one section that was so fast and sketchy because you’re going in and out of hills protected from the wind, then you’d hit a patch and get a cross wind. I think it’s the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike. I had to do breathing exercises to keep my sh*t together.”
CalTri LA in Playa del Rey, 2024: “In the same area and course that I did for my very first triathlon. On that one, I finally hit my goal time for an Olympic-distance race: sub 2:15. I felt like I finally put together a solid race and to do it in the same place as my first race—that was super memorable.”
We are so proud to support John, the RSR team, and all the athletes and teams setting big goals and going after them.
