so this morning i ran in the 91st annual bay to breakers race though san francisco. it went from–duh–the bay, to the breakers (pacific ocean). here’s the course map:
the day sucked–cold and rainy–but the race was a lot of fun, and i can now say that i’ve run 7.5 miles with 75,000 other people. yes, there were so many people. we got in line somewhere in the middle of the pack, and it took us 25 minutes just to get to the starting line; by the time we were passing mile 1, someone was winning the race with a time of 34 minutes. heh.
the first few miles were slow going, and we had to slow to a fast walk quite a few times just because we couldn’t get past the mobs of people ahead of us. but around the hayes street hill–a big, steep san francisco-style hill–the crowd thinned out enough so that there was room to move. we ran the rest of the way, finishing in an “official” time of about 2 hours. but since it took us so long to get to the start line, i timed myself and clocked in at 1:32:09. not bad at all, considering how slow we had to go for the first few miles.
and while running, we got to look at all the crazy people in costumes. let’s see, i saw batman and robin…a girl dressed as a toaster…the fallopian swim team (sarcastic laugh)…a few vikings…a guy with yoda on his back…and far too many old fat and completely naked men. the most common “costume” was just to run in something zany–ball gowns, funny hats, colorful tights, tiaras, wings, etc. and let’s see, the most entertaining thing we passed was the house on the hayes street hill, where 5 gay men were standing out front dressed as the village people and doing coordinated dances to “ymca” and “macho man.” they were awesome.
anyway, it was a lot of fun, while running. once i stopped i got cold and started to shiver, and being completely soaked didn’t help. it felt so good to get home and shower. 🙂 in any case, woohoo! i ran farther than i have ever run before!
finally, from friday night–a group shot of everyone who danced till 6 in the morning!
