Bay To Breaker 2009

Note : I typed this up yesterday but fell asleep before I had a chance to edit and upload it.

At this very moment, I am sitting in the blogging chair, watching Bones on TV and typing up this blog. My knees hurt, my back hurt, my head hurts, and it's about 100 degrees in my living room right now. About twelve hours ago, I was sweating it out on the pavements of San Francisco, running the 98th Bay to Breaker. For the non/new Bay Areans the Bay To Breakers is an annual 12k race through San Francisco. It starts at the bay and then ends at Ocean Beach.

This is my third time running the B2B. The first time was 2005, the second was 2007 and this year 2009. So purely by accident, I run it every other year. The first time I ran it, I ran it with a bunch of co-workers and it was a lot fun. I don't remember much about that 2005 run, but one thing I did remember thinking was that I wished some of my other friends were running with me cause it would have been such a blast. But alas, they were not there, and since my friends were not really runners I didn't think I would ever get the change to run it the guys.

But fast forward to 2009. I was not planning to run the race this year. No motivation to. But then Hal Light IMs me out of the blue just two weeks ago and ask me if I was gonna run the B2B. I said I wasn't planning on it. He tells me he wanted to run it. And not only that, he was planning on paying to run it. (There are two ways to run this race, you can officially register and pay the $40 to run it, or you can 'bandit' the race and run it for free).... Now let me tell you a little bit about Hal. Hal NEVER pays for anything if he doesn't have to. This it the guy who, in Vegas, once sold a full pizza (which we ordered but ended up not eating) to another family for full price. This is the same guy who 'borrowed' a volleyball for us at a resort on our cruise. He knows more about coupons, rebates, slickdeals and sales than anyone i know. He NEVER pays for anything. NEVER. When he told me he was planning to pay to run, I was amazed. I reread the IM eight times just to make sure I was not misreading it. I thought Hal was going through some kind of midlife crisis or something. I was so inspired by Hal, right then at my desk, I decided to sign up for it as well.

That was two weeks ago. And then this last Monday, SMC tells us that he wants to run it with us. That would make three. (Sam Chan would bandit it). And with Sam Chan running, we asked Paul to run it as well, because Sam and Paul are pretty much joined at the hip and what one does the other does as well. So we got Paul as well. And with that, all of a sudden, in less than two weeks, four of us were going to run the B2B. Rich Hooi would be the fifth spoke in our wheel. We thank him for picking up the racing bibs for us.

And that's how I ended up running the B2B with a bunch of my best friends today. Breaking with tradition a little bit, instead of doing a minute by minute breakdown of how it went down, I'm gonna do a mile-by-mile breakdown of this wondrous day.

Mile 0 - How to Steal A Race
Before we get to the festivities, let me tell you a foolproof way to bandit the B2B. They were patrolling for bandits pretty hard this year, the entry way into the corrals were really small. So instead of taking the chance of not being able to sneak Paul and SMC in, me and Hal just went in first with our bids. Then we took off our shirts and threw them over the fence to Paul and SMC. Those two then took our shirts (with our bid numbers on them) and used those to get him. Brilliant. Brilliant.

Mile 1 - It Begins
And by 'it begins', what I really mean is that we walk for five minutes waiting for the crowd to thin out. That's one of problems with B2B, it's almost impossible to get off to a good start. Since there's almost 50K people starting at the same time, waiting for that crowd to thin out takes about half a mile. When the crowd finally thins out, we all take off. Hal shoots off first really fast, he wants to beat at least one Kenyan today. Me and Paul try our best to keep pace with him. Samuel takes off as well, he takes off straight to the porta-potties to do his thing.

Which leads me to an observation... What is up with the bathroom lines at the beginning of the race? At the very beginning of the race, there are about twenty porta-potties... and about a line of 200 people long waiting to use them. They either need to get more porta-potties at the beginning of the race or legalize urination on the streets for one day, which is what Hal did.

Mile 2
Nothing really interesting happened this mile. So we will move on to mile 3.

Mile 3 - The Confrontation
One of the annoying thing about the B2B is all the walkers (the great marathoner Sherry Lee's complaint as well). It's really annoying when you are trying to run and have to dodge all the slow people. It's doubly annoying when there is a dedicated lane for walkers, but they insist on walking in the same lanes that the runner's use.... Arrrrgh. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the crowd, but this really bugged me today. It bothered me to the point where I decided to do something about it. So each walker I had to pass up, I made it a point to run by them as close as possible, and if I 'accidentally' happen to bump them a little (or a lot), then so be it. If I happen to bump them and they spilled their coffee onto the ground, then maybe that will teach them to walk with the rest of the walkers.

This was actually going great and I was enjoying it quite a bit. But I got a little carried away and started cutting off other runners as well. So I made a really close pass on an asian chick and grazed her a bit as I ran ahead of her, and the next thing I knew, about 10 seconds later, she ran ahead of me, and bumped me in the process. Hard. I almost fell. I was like 'what the heck?!!!' (I censored what I really said). I was plotting what to do next. I thought maybe I'll go and bump her again, but then I had an even better thought. Maybe I would just pass her up and then unload a huge spitwad into her face or at the upcoming water station, grab a cup, drink half of it, and then throw the rest at her. Either one would have been sweet revenge.

Alas, I was able to channel some inner peace and not do anything at all.

Mile 4 - The Greatness of Paul
Let me tell you about Paul Low. This man doesn't run, he doesn't workout, he doesn't use the restroom, he doesn't sleep, and he eats very little. We call him a sponge because he absorbs everything. He has never ran more than 2 miles before in his life, and today he just roles out of bed and runs 12K in 75 minutes. I'm convinced now that Paul is the greatest athlete I personally know. Plus he decided to run in all black in 100 degrees weather.

He passed me up for good around the four mile mark. I was really struggling at this point (from the heat and the hill) and was going pretty slow and Paul just cruises by me. What I should have thought was 'Good job Paul, you can finish the race ahead of me', what I really thought was 'What the heck?!?! How did this sucka pass me up!! And then I remembered that Paul is pretty much like a machine and is not human. In fact, he may be from the future. And I'm really excited about the new Terminator movie that opens next weekend. Because the battle for our tomorrow begins today.

Mile 5 - The Descent Into Hell
It was so ridiculously hot in the city today. We're talking at 8AM, it was already eighty degrees. Add that to the 100K people running the race, giving off their body heat, I'm guessing we ran in almost 90 degree temps most of the race. It sucked all the energy from me. If it was normal SF temps (around 70), I probably could have shaved a couple minutes off my time, but it was not to be. At mile three I was dehydrated and had to stop at a water station for two drinks of water. Through mile four and five, I tried to run in the shade as much as possible, but that didn't really help. This might have been the hardest mile I've ever run at the B2B. Harder than when I ran mile 6 and 7 with one leg two years ago. At this point I was running so slow that even a couple of ten year old kids were passing me up (I didn't care at this point). My goal changed from finishing in 80 minutes to just finishing this damn race without stopping, because part of me wanted to stop for a breather. But I pressed on.

Mile 6 and 7 - A Cool Breeze
Luckily, a break from the heat was just around the corner (literally.) As we made the turn and ran through the tunnel that lead to Ocean Beach, the temperature magically dropped at least 15 degrees. Thank God for the ocean and it's breeze. All of a sudden, I had more energy and my legs started feeling life again, at this point, was pretty sure I would finish without stopping. I love this final stretch of the race, love the cool breeze, love seeing that 7 Mile sign marker. And above all, I love making that final turn towards the finish line and seeing the ocean and the finish line

Mile 7.5 Done
The end comes pretty quickly. It took me about five minutes to cover that last half mile of the race. My final time was an unimpressive 1 hour 15 minutes. But I am happy with it. A tad above 10 minutes per mile. That's a time I can be proud of. This is actually better than two years ago when I came in 1 hour 17 minutes. I'm so proud of Hal's and Paul's times.. Hal comes in a minute over an hour (if no crowd at beginning he probably would have came in under an hour) and Paul two minutes ahead of me. Sam Chan came in a little later at 1 minute 25, that time is also really impressive considering he went to the restrooms five times during the race, punched out two treehuggers and beat up a runner dressed as Obama along the way.

After the race, my left knee was killing me and I had to limp like five miles to lunch and the shuttle home. That was not so much fun. But overall though, I had a blast. I wish I had a cheap camera so I could have taken some pictures to show you guys, but I didn't have one. (And I didn't want to run with my expensive camera). Next year, we'll try to get Sammy and Wade to run it with us.