Oh, San Francisco!
After running my first half marathon a month before the Bay 2 Breakers, I guess you could say I was hooked on running. I went online and searched for a new race as soon as I got home, which led me here, again.
Driving through the city during the day has a sense of awh that makes anyone stop to take pictures. At night, that beauty is turned into bright lights that outline the SF skyline. There are so many spots throughout the city that still make me stop at the right moment when the curtain of mystery is pulled back and the natural beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge dressed in fog, giving people standing on Crissy Field an amazing backdrop for their photos.
Running through the city, on the other hand, is really two different experiences—running solo, with a group, or running during a race.
Solo runs and group runs at various parts of the city that are runner-friendly spots are nice with beautiful views. But running through the city as part of a race allows you to run in the middle of the street through neighborhoods that would normally be swarmed with cars.
I’ve been lucky enough to do both during my time. The only difference about running the Bay 2 Breakers race in 2019 is that I was sober and actually registered for the first time. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been one of those drunken people stumbling through the streets with a friends and other partiers having the time of our lives with very little regard for the neighborhoods we were passing through.
Each time I was obliterated before I even got to the starting line. Unfortunately, all except one of these times were during the pre-smartphone era, which meant no cameras phones on everybody around you, and the only record I had were my memories, stories from friends, and some hard copy photos that have all but one been lost over the years.
I still remember that day; that was one hell of a party! We dressed up in a “Running from Bulls” theme then taped a bull piñata to a beer cooler on wheels so it looked like it was chasing us through the crowd. We drank and yelled.
“Get outta the way! They’re coming! Look out! The bulls are coming!
What a party. You might say I was a completely different person in my 20s.
This time, I got to enjoy what I saw and actually remember the whole thing rather than bits and pieces from half-remembered stories.
In case you don’t know, Bay 2 Breakers is an annual 12k race in San Francisco that takes runners through the city from the docks on the bay to the Pacific Ocean breakers at Ocean Beach. This race gained a reputation for being a party race long before I was born. And when I was old enough to drink and party, I absolutely made sure I indulge in the festivities.
If you’re not from San Francisco or from out of California, you may have heard plenty about the city in general. Stuff about hippies and streakers, housing projects and ritzy neighborhoods, the Castro, the Haight, the Piers, the Golden Gate Bridge. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably true, or it was true at some point, and guess what? You get to see it all at that race; pun intended.
Race Day
On the day of the race, it was pouring. The rain was on and off when I drove up the 101 freeway to Millbrae where I caught the shuttle into the race. It was still raining hard when I arrived, so I decided to put on a light raincoat before I jumped on the shuttle.
The bus was nice and warm and I had the entire row to myself, so it gave me a chance to take in the sparkly skyline of the city. Even in the rain, it still has beauty. It rained the entire ride up to the city, and I was mentally preparing myself for wet socks and soggy toes. It was 5:30AM and the last thing I wanted to think about was soggy toes. If you couldn’t tell, I’m not really a fan of running in the rain, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, right?
We pulled up near Harrison St. and Folsom St.in the city and stepped right back into the rain. It was a short walk to the starting corral, but I had over an hour to spare and I wanted to get out of the rain.
My best bet to stay dry was to walk close to the buildings for a little cover, but it wasn’t much help since it was raining so hard. When I got to my corral, it was completely empty with only the volunteers hanging around in the rain. Then a beam of light came down and illuminated the only open store on the block— Starbucks.
The place was getting packed by the second. I didn’t want to drink too much coffee, but sitting alone in a packed coffee shop scrolling through the news feed on my phone made it really hard to babysit my tall coffee. At the time, I was fairly new to running, and I hadn’t discovered the pre-race nutrition that worked for me, and coffee certainly was not one of them. I’ve actually heard that coffee works for some people, but it gets me more dehydrated than normal. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time.
After about an hour, the rain had passed and people were starting to gather outside in larger numbers. I walked back to my assigned corral and met my buddy Omar. It only took a few minutes for the corral to get packed with a mixture of costumes, rain ponchos, and plain-clothes runners.
Then, in typical Bay 2 Breakers fashion, they do the weirdest shit ever with a customary “Tortilla Throw.” There were tortillas flying around like Frisbees, rocketing past me smacking people in the head. It looked like a massive food fight in the middle of the street. I even caught a few tortilla missiles in the back of the head. Suddenly, I saw a large super-burrito-sized tortilla flying across the sky like an elegant Manta Ray and then landing on someone’s face in slow motion. Absolutely hilarious!
We started between the buildings a few blocks away from the Bay Bridge at Main and Howard St. We followed Howard through to South Market then crossed into Hayes Valley where I faced the biggest challenge of the race, Hayes Hill.
It was challenging having to maneuver around the partiers like a slow running back excited to be in the game. But Hayes Hill only meant that I had to run a little more than a half mile uphill while trying to keep my jukes in rhythm. I started walking only a few blocks up the hill.
Looking back at this race, I can totally understand why a 5.5% incline was so much trouble for me. Most of my training had been on flat surfaces with only a few hills with low slopes and I was wearing a rain jacket for God sakes. My legs were in condition to take that challenge on, but I did it anyway.
I got to the top of the hill out of breath but relieved that I made it. Then I started going down the other side of the hill and that’s when I learned about quad strength. My legs were jello already and I wasn’t even halfway. I let my legs go for some of the way down just to feel some speed until it started hurting from my feet hitting the pavement. I even caught the race mascot—a giant, pink gorilla—on the way down.
The hill cleared the way a bit and now it was mostly runners, and I was finally able to get into a good pace. I cruised by San Francisco’s famous Painted Ladies houses and then followed the crowd into Golden Gate Park. Then my next obstacle confronted me: the beauty of the park and a long gradual incline.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to really appreciate the beauty of the park. Instead, I took a mental note of all the places I wanted to come back to see. There’s the Conservatory of Flowers, de Young Museum, Marx Meadow, a couple beautiful ponds, the Bison Paddock. Yeah, the park really has Bison. The route took me through the entire park, shooting me out of the western most part at Highway 1, where the park meets the beach.
At this point in the race, my out-of-shape body was starting to complain. The hour and half of standing before the race, all the jukes I put on the crowds of partiers, Hayes Hill, and let’s not forget the coffee as well. Yeah, I began burping up the Cliff Bar and coffee I consumed before the race. I had to start walking or I was going to spew on the course.
Then a group of costum-wearing runners passed me, screaming and having a blast. That was motivation enough to get me jogging again. Their good spirits and high energy was infectious. My stomach felt better and my legs felt strong again—my second wind.
With the finish line in sight, I picked up the pace to the best of my ability, pushing myself all the way through the line.
Time: 1:16:56
Then it was that same sense of accomplishment. The feeling that I had once again done something good for myself. My smile took over. Goosebumps. Butterflies. I felt high. I wanted more.
In the end, I had a great time. I ran through the city and saw some great costumes, and, most importantly, I learned a couple valuable lessons: choose my nutrition wisely, hydrate more, and run more hills.
Next up, the Trail Quake 10k at Sanborn Park in Saratoga, CA.
