Wooo boy. My feet are tired.
This weekend was one of the hottest in the history of hot weekend in San Francisco, I am sure. Running in eighty-degree heat is not something we Fogheads are used to. That said, with water and Gu at the ready we set off at 8am from Aquatic Park and made it back two hours and forty minutes later. It felt amazing to have accomplished that loop. Dique and I celebrated by running errands and staying up until nearly midnight prepping for the bbq we were hosting on Sunday afternoon for my birthday. We really know how to pack things into the weekends, don't we?
We got up bright and early on Sunday, my legs weren't too stiff as I did some warm ups and stretched. Dique helped me tie ribbons around my pigtails -- I was borrowing our friend D*Star's SuperGirl costume to run the race. It's Bay to Breakers -- and I might be running instead of walking, sipping on Cytomax instead of PBR. But dammit. I am wearing a costume.
Dique and his family were meeting for Sunday breakfast, his parents' home is near the three-mile-mark of the race and they wanted to come out and cheer me on. I had planned to hit their neck of the woods at 9am since I was going to be taking things pretty slow. So Dique kissed me goodbye and good luck and got off the bus to head over to his folks' place and I stayed on with the other goofballs in costumes and headed to the start line.
Except the bus dropped us 11 blocks away from the start line, and the race was scheduled to start in ten minutes. So? I ran. I ran down along a back street to get to the start. When I glanced over my shoulder at the intersections I could see runners running in the opposite direction, the race had started. Luckily, every runner is given a little chip to tie onto a shoe so that your personal start and finish times are only registered when you go through the start and finish area.
Soon enough I got there and turned around. There were hundreds, thousands of people still at the start, I was in the middle of "serious runners" and not-so serious runners, and we were all bombarded by flying tortillas, hoses from the firehouse, beaded necklaces, all of it. The energy was amazing - and it made me want to run more. I ran at a steady pace all the way to infamous Hayes Street Hill. When I got there I thought I might walk up some of it, but then I remembered Dique's family was coming out to see me and I didn't want them to see me walk.
The nice thing about Bay to Breakers is that the homes along the course come out to party as the race runs by. People are having barbecues in their front yards, garage bands are on the streets, people blast their speakers with invigorating music. Right as I started up Hayes Hill the theme from Rocky came on. There was no way I was going to slow to a walk with that music and all the energy in the street. So I ran.
A little girl on the sideline yelled "SUPERWOMAN!!!" -- I smiled and wave. And I kept running. I got to the top, paused for a cup of water and coasted down the hill looking for Dique's family. After searching for a few minutes I pulled out my phone to call him, and that's when I discovered I was actually 15 minutes ahead of myself. I was making great time, so I called, apologized and we agreed to meet at the finish line.
After the hill at Hayes, the rest of the race is essentially a walk in the park. Having run that loop a few times in marathon training, I know the route and knew it was mostly downhill. I walked for a few minutes, and then just jogged the rest, slowing only to make sure the photographers out there got my good side.
At the finish, over the heads of others I saw Dique standing there with his camera and grin. I sprinted in making my time a decent 1.5 hours. Dique had a hug ready and some Gatorade and I was more than happy to accept both.
Next year Dique's going to do it with me... now we just have to decide on the costume.
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