that’s me today after i ran the bay to breakers race, which is 12 kilometers (or around 7.5 miles). it’s the furthest i’ve ever run before, so i feel somewhat accomplished. it was really hot out (mid-80s or so), and i wasn’t as fast as i had originally been hoping, but i think i finished close to the time i was expecting. due to some unforeseen minor difficulties in getting to the starting line, i ended up starting the race toward the end of the pack (which, considering there are somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand people, is a considerable density of people), so i really didn’t get a chance to find a good running rhythm for the first few miles, as i was constantly getting jostled and having to dodge the slow-moving people. once we got near golden gate park though, i found some running room and found a good pace, and i finished fairly strong, almost sprinting the last half mile. i was hoping, best case, to finish in about an hour and fifteen minutes, but it ended up being about an hour thirty. that’s something to build on, i suppose. i started training for it a few months ago, but honestly, instead of increasing the intensity and frequency of my workouts, the last several weeks i’ve been slacking pretty badly. i guess that means i have a fair amount of room for improvement in the next race. all in all though, it was a good experience. i only saw about 6 or 8 naked people, and though there were some funny costumes, for the most part they weren’t very elaborate, and surprisingly, even the costumed people were actually running seriously enough to finish the race. there were several different bands playing on various street corners along the way, and festive onlookers throughout. i think i’d like to run it again next year, hopefully with somewhat better results.
