Bay to Breakers

Bay to Breakers. Mere words cannot explain the experience of Bay to Breakers.  It is a race that is also Mardi Gras, a race that in Brazil would be called Carnival.  It was the most fun race that I have ever done.  Of course I had good company.  You really have to have an open spirit and a zest for life.  Obviously many people would be offended by the experience that is B2B. 

My day started at 4 am when I woke up in Berkeley at my brother's apartment.  We had watched the local news the night before and the forecast was thunderstorms.  My brother was half heartily concerned about me being electrocuted.  In fact, the opposite happened.  We had beautiful running weather for the most part.  We got lightly rained on for maybe 10 minutes.  I ran with my friend Rubi Lawson who had never run in a race before.  I thought that it was really brave of her to tackle a 12k for her first race.  We probably ran about half of it, maybe a little more.  We had a blast.  We saw far too many naked people.  I understand that the race had less of that this year.  I'm glad of that.  After you saw one naked  person that shouldn't be naked you had seen one too many.  We ran with two ladies that were on Naked Patrol.  They were not giving tickets out to people who shouldn't be naked but were encouraging those that they felt should be naked to shed their clothing and run naked.  It was hysterical to hear their whistles tweeting and watching them run down good looking guys. 

San Francisco is obviously a world class city.  In my opinion it is the only real city in California.  The homes and the buildings are so beautiful and that is not even getting into the views the city provides.  Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park...all exquisite. 

The costumes were incredible.  We saw clean and bad Charlie Sheen, coke smudges and all.  We saw Oompa Loompas and a pod or a herd of Elvii.  What is the plural of Elvis anyway?  Below is a picture of the Elvii and right next to them is Princess Leia, followed by the Royal Newlyweds and finally Hayes Hill looking backwards. 

 What is it that drives a middle aged man to run around naked?  I don't get it myself.  Gross, gross, gross. 

Several times in the race, we smelled something illegal being burned.  I think we almost had a contact high from the many times we smelled people smoking marijuana.  I'm glad my workplace does not do drug testing.  Personally, I think that Bay to Breakers is a race to do every few years.  I think if you did it every year you might get bored with it, but every two or three years would keep it fresh.  I definitely think that B2B should be on every one's bucket list of races.

Catching Up

I hadn't realized it had been almost a month since I last posted here.  Time flies even when you are not having fun.  I was making some headway on the treadmill in early to mid April.  I was running much faster then I usually run at about 9:15 to 9:30 per mile.  It's been very hard to keep up the form.  You have to really use your mind to envision how your body looks while running.  For me it is trying to get the feeling of my body being in alignment and that all the parts are clicking like gears in a watch.

My biggest problem is my right arm.  The arms are supposed to be bent at 90 degrees and basically swing like a hinge back and forth; although more back than forward is best.  My right arm will fall out of that form and lower to my waist and look like I am punching at something.  I also have the added problem of being super tense in my right shoulder.  I guess that comes from my keyboard sitting on top of my desk and my mouse being 8 or so inches away from it.  I knew my keyboard should be lower but it means getting a drawer and having someone install it and I just was lazy about it.  Now I will have to take action because really it interferes not only with running but is the reason my right shoulder hurts so much of the time.



I was doing ok on the treadmill with Mike there to tell me when I was falling out of form.  When he released me to run on my own, things changed.  It was strange to run on the ground again.  It was hard to keep up the form and I began to feel tightness in the ITB again.  I had a terrible run about 2 weeks ago and came home very disheartened.  I decided to quit running until maybe May or June and give my leg a break.  I also decided to no do anything for awhile so I didn't run, I didn't do the elliptical, or yoga, or strength train.  After about 5 days, I felt better and decided to try and run again.  What the heck, right?  I had trouble on the first attempt but I think I was dehydrated and maybe that ice cream sandwich at work wasn't the best idea an hour before my run.  I went out on Easter Sunday and ran 3.71 miles and did ok.  I only stopped a couple of times to put myself back into my correct form.  I also ran at 9:55 pace which is faster then I have run in along time.

Tonight I have hills to run which may or may not be a good thing with the ITB. We are running at Miner's Ravine trails so I can always run on the trails instead of Picches Hill.  My ITB and calves are tight so I will do some dynamic stretching before I leave to warm up.

I now have a picture of my inspiration, my brother Brett, on this blog. The picture was taken Easter Sunday so it is very current.  I'm going to stay with him in a couple of weeks when I run the 100th Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco.  I'm running that with my friend Rubi.  It will be her very first race.