Mind of A Middle Aged Marathoner: Bay to Breakers Race Report-May 15, 2011

I woke up at the ungodly hour of 330 on Friday morning, got showered, dressed and took my cab at 415 to Bradley airport in Windsor, CT. Security was a breeze at that time of day and made it in plenty of time for my 6a flight. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get patted down but TSA saved that for the six year old and grandma behind me.

I had lived and worked in San Francisco from 1990-2002, spending most of my 20s and early 30s in the city by the Bay. It had been a good four years since I had been back to visit so I was truly looking forward to getting back to seeing the City, running the race, scouting the marathon course, and seeing old friends.

The flight was uneventful and after the adventure of shuttling to Payless’s rental lot a few miles south of the airport, I began my drive up 101 to the City on a cool and windy Bay Area day. I was glad that I was prepared with warm clothing!

A wave of nostalgia hit me when I saw the “South San Francisco” letters on the brown grass hills of South City. I remembered seeing this sign 21 years ago, flying in, first as a visitor, then as a new resident. There was a drought and recession then. Everything was exceedingly dry and the air smelled like sweet dried grass.

My first stop was the Expo to pick up my number. This could have been a better location. There was only street parking and limited expensive lot parking. I was out of practice with the whole looking for parking thing but I refused to pay $7-20 for a 15 minute errand. I found a spot, found a friendly expo volunteer with change, and fought my way through the hordes to the number pick-up. The number pickup was very easy, as was the extremely austere and un-san Francisco like black and white t-shirt.

The expo itself was fairly pedestrian so I didn’t spend a lot of time there. It amazes me that people will stand in line to spin a wheel or play a plinko game to win a cheesy mug, spatula, hat, etc…You’re in San Francisco people! Get out and explore! Even the scantily clad “Zazzle” girls couldn’t entice me to spend more time than I needed at the expo, if only to learn what the hell “Zazzle” IS. I got my number, t-shirt and headed over to AT&T ball park.

The Giants were out of town which meant I could explore the team store without too much trouble. I HAD to get me some official Giants gear, especially after their WORLD SERIES win and all. I spent about 45 minutes in the store, agonizing over choices in t-shirts in jerseys. I wanted to get something retro that indicated their championship, but nothing seemed to fit right. I ended up going with a hat. It wasn’t as cool as a nice retro jersey but it got the job done. After a quick photo of the Willie Mays statue, a late lunch near the park, I went then drove to Portola Valley to find the house where I was staying.

Our friends Sara and Dave were out of town travelling to see family but they let me stay at their place while I was away. It was awesome. Travelling alone and staying alone was awesome because I could do as I pleased WHEN I pleased. It pretty much summed up most of my years in San Francisco!

I dropped my bags,bib and rental car off at the house and made my way to the BART station to get to the Mission, a gentrified predominantly Hispanic section of San Francisco, to meet my old friends. I “grew up” with these people in my 20s when I worked out on the west coast. We met up at Zeitgeist on 1515 Mission. I had never been there before, but apparently it had been a very diverse neighborhood dive bar turned homogeneous hipster attitude bar. I can speak to the “dive” part of that history. It still was very much a “dive.” There was construction equipment in the outdoor patio where young city professionals were filling their gullets with suds and cigarette smoke. At one point in time, many years ago, I was one of them.

It was so great to see my friends. Zeitgeist was the first of a few stops on the friendship tour that night. We attempted to go eat at B3, a wine speakeasy in the Mission but we were informed by the waiter shortly after giving our drink order that the cook had walked out minutes before and food would not be served that night. This came with an admission that the waiter himself had been recently rehired after quitting but he needed the money. Drama!!! We ended up going to Rosamunde, a sausage joint down the street near 24th street Bart station. We hit one more bar before calling it quits for the night-at 11pm. We’re old now.

Saturday I spent driving most of the San Francisco Marathon course, after which I returned the rental car to Payless and returned to San Francisco. I’ll save that post for next week. Let’s fast forward to Saturday night before the race.

First of all-I went to bed with a slight headache. I awoke at 1:00a with a POUNDING headache. I had packed NO Advil or pain reliever, and there was zero to be had in the house. It was debilitating . I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t. I googled 24 hour pharmacies and found an open Walgreen's. It was two and half miles away. I had no choice but to get out there and walk it. After I got two Advils

The Bay to Breakers is unlike any race you done or seen. It’s 55,000 of you and your closest friends, running 7.46 miles from the San Francisco Bay side of the city to the westernmost part of the city at the Pacific Ocean. It’s nuts. Half the people wear costumes, 5-10 % run it naked or in some clothing challenged fashion. And in years past, about 75% ran in drunk. OK, that may be exaggeration but a TON of people ran it drunk. Last year, several arrests were made for public drunkenness, public urination (neighbors along the route complained of racers coming into their backyards and peeing) and the race itself was in jeopardy. The lead sponsor-ING, pulled out. This year, with a heavy police presence and education, they were able to contain the revelers to about 18 arrests. I’m sure some peeing still went on, but I guess it went unreported. And runner numbers were down this year-I know in '93 it was about 90,000. Whatever. Still a shitload of people.

The clear blue sky as I exited the subway for the start of the race

I got to Coral D at 6:45a in plenty of time for the 7:30 start. I purchased my number in March, which was good enough to get me into this corral which was reserved for the 16:00 minute milers-runners AND walkers. Ugh. The start was incredibly thick with people. It was fun however, as I got to see a lot of costumed creativity. I also had forgotten that this race has a pre-race tradition that’s kind of fun. As runners wait in the corral, they throw flat tortillas up in the air by the hundreds, they fly like crazy flat bread gulls, soaring high in the sky, and then diving bombing into the crowd like it’s diving for fish in the water. Often times the tortilla will slap a runner on the head or shoulders like an errant missile, scaring the bejeezus out of them and those around them. It is a hilarious sight. I’ve been hit with them and tossed them. Maybe it’s the “guy” in me, but I find the whole thing pretty damned fun.

The first few miles were slow. In fact, the whole race was slower than I would have liked except for the last half mile, where I averaged a 8:50 minute mile. I let it go once I saw that I couldn’t bob and weave and be effective and fast in this race. It just wasn’t worth it. I race relaxed, which I was supposed to anyway, and stopped a few times to take pictures.

The Hayes Street hill was killer. It goes on for about .69 miles and hits about 2 miles in. It ascends the course like a big staircase, slanting skyward about 11.5% in grade, flattening out for cross streets, then continuing up and up again. I stopped about ¾ of the way up to take pictures.

This is Hayes Street hill looking down

And looking up.

After cresting the top, however, the initial descent is a fun downhill where if you had no people in front of you, you could make up some SERIOUS time. Despite dodging others, I was still able to pick up some speed for a little bit. It was fun.

There isn't a whole heck of a lot to say about the race. If I didn't live or have a reason to fly to San Francisco, I certainly wouldn't plan a trip around it. I knew what I was getting ahead of time. It's an event-mostly non-serious runners out for a good time. I was fine with that. I wanted to have a chill time because July is gonna be pre-race jitter time.

I took pictures along the way. I finished in 1:22:40. No blazing speed. The fastest pace I ever hit was 8:50 the last half mile, and that was because the lane was clear.