Sunday, May 15, 2011

Race Recap: My First -- and Last -- Bay to Breakers 12k

Today was the 100th running of Bay to Breakers. To call it a freak show would be an understatement.

I have nothing more to say about this race than that.

(Who am I fooling, I always have lots to write about.)

The expo was pretty lame, EXCEPT WHEN I GOT TO MEET THIS GUY.

The Ultramarathon Man himself, fresh from running across the United States
in 75 straight days, Mr. Dean Karnazes

I went to the expo on Friday to pick up my bib and shirt, and even made a special trip back on Saturday JUST to get this guy's John Hancock. Nothing else. Done. Boom. Out of there.

Riding on the tails of meeting Dean, Katie came over early, early, early on Sunday morning where we ran from my house to our starting corral downtown (5 miles with the California Street hill as a warm-up!). Transportation to the race was a logistical NIGHTMARE, and we figured this was the safest and best way to get to our corral on time.

And in one piece.

(Plus, who can't stand to use the extra mileage when you've got another marathon coming up in 11 weeks?)

Then we stood around in the morning chill, where Katie got hit in the jugular with a tortilla. There were lots of naked people, the port-o-potties made me want to vomit, and we were ready to get this over with before it even began.

Katie reenacting the accident (incidentally by the Alcatraz swim team)
A really disgusting naked man walked by as Katie tried to take this picture
Looking ahead at Corral A & the sub-seeded runners
Looking behind to the rest of the corrals
Katie and me before the madness
Crossing the starting line
Smurf cheer squad
Just a handful of the many, many nakeds. The arm warmers confuse me.
This was supposed to be looking up at the Hayes Street hill. Of course, pictures of hills never turn out.
50,000 people were officially registered for this race, but it was estimated that more than 100,000+ showed up. I had one goal in mind: Make it to the finish in time to get that once-in-a-lifetime piece of centennial bling.

That we did.
Bling bling!
5-mile warm-up (43:27): 8:12, 8:24, 8:33, 9:08 (California Street Hill), 9:07 -- 8:41 average pace
Bay to Breakers 12k (1:02:04): 8:19, 8:22, 8:35 (Hayes Street Hill), 8:20, 8:15, 8:12, 8:07, 3:55 -- 8:14 average pace
1.03-mile cool-down back home/to Starbucks: 9:32 (would not recommend running with a biodegradable swag bag)

Total mileage: 13.56 miles
Total time: 1:55:03
Average pace: 8:29 min/mile

Bay to Breakers stats:
Official Time: 1:02:04
Average Pace: 8:20 min/mile (7.3 mph)
Overall Place: 2,199 out of 43,403
Gender Place: 380 out of 23,855
Age/Gender Place: 107 out of 4,713
Air Temp: 51F

20 comments:

  1. Wow what a trip. Is that a naked dude but with a tee on??
    Glad you scored the coveted bling! Congrats!

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  2. Awesome photos! And awesome bling! Congrats!

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  3. wow! That's intense!
    I cannot imagine running a race naked!

    Congrats on a fun race and the bling! :)

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  4. :O NAKED??? REALLY???? THAT'S LEGAL?! LOL

    And they just let their peckers flop all over the place????

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  5. Holy naked towN, Ive heard but never seen the actual pics! Congrats on the Karno Koolaid Love! OMG so freaking awesome. and also congrats on making it out of the BB ALIVE! THANK GOD! :)

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  6. i wasn't a huge fan of all the nekkid folks either...just something about it creeped me out! overall i thought it was a fun experience, though. and we sure lucked out with a GORGEOUS day!!

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  7. Nice report - glad you survived the circus! Cool photo op with Karno!!!

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  8. Haha, here in South Africa they'll all be in jail before the race starts. Don't know what will make me want to vomit first...naked men or bad looking port-o-potties!

    Anyway, that's a good time between all the madness and great bling for sure!

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  9. How on earth did you manage to get up Hayes Street hill without slowing down? It’s obvious that all that hilly running in San Francisco will be a huge help at the SFM.

    My *new* plan is to try to keep up with you (at least until Aquatic Park) and to finish before you’ve eaten your vegan donuts.

    All the best,

    Ron

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  10. Ah, your medal looks great. My friends and I were too tired to go back and grab ours, but now I wish we did. I'm going to email the race organizers and see if I can drive to their office or have the medals mailed to me.

    And holy smokes your splits are great. I'm surprised you were able to go 1:02. A friend of mine was stuck in corral E and finished in about 1:30. B2B was a tough course -- I don't know how the winners managed sub-5:00 miles!

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  11. Congrats on the race. I like the finisher medal alot. I can not imagine running naked or even seeing naked runner, thats all I will say on that. What a crazy race.

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  12. Well done on getting the medal!

    Apart from that I don't really know what else to say. I'm still dwelling on the fact that there were naked people running!

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  13. Love all the pictures you were able to snap. You covered everything I feel about B2B! Looks like you had a blast all just the same!

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  14. Ahhh isn't bay to breakers the experience ;) glad you guys had such a great time and killer long run too!

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  15. That's a lot of nakedness! I would not be a fan during a race - I take things too seriously. ;-)

    Loved the comment on my blog - you're hilarious. Being a personal shopper is my dream job!

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  16. Must be the naked people is something this race is known for?? There is a naked run in my state but it is at a nudist colony and seems more "natural" there. Not for me that's for sure.

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  17. Ahhh, Bay to Breakers looks NUTS, and I can't even imagine running naked.....an unsupportive sports bra (probably from being worn for twelve years...I need to go shopping!) is annoying enough, and let's just say there's not all THAT much there! Congrats on the bling. :)

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  18. Still so sad we couldn't coordinate a meet-up at the finish but there is no way we'd keep up with you speedy ladies. That mega hill barely made you skip a beat. Gah! I'm looking forward to some elite spectating next year.

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  19. That's some pretty awesome bling - but not so awesome nakedness ;)

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  20. Page is soooo wrong. All nakedness is good nakedness! Horray west coast!

    I would so love to run this next year. I'll bring my tube sock.

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