"A heaping helping of crazy since 1912"
Sunday was race day. Here are the details.
5:30am: I woke up, contemplated sleep, stretched, slipped into my running gear and repeated the usual morning race ritual several times due to yesterday's mexican lunch.
6:00am: Ken was awake upstairs getting ready and then came downstairs. We laced up our shoes, negotiated who would carry what, and drove to BART for the 6:18am train.
6:21am: BART finally departs. There were a few people in costume on the train including, the statue of liberty, wonder woman, spiderman, jazzercisers, and some donuts. I couldn't figure out what the thin boards were for until I saw this picture in the Chronicle. 
7:10am: As soon as we arrived at Embarcadero, everyone got off the train. It just so happened that another train had just arrived from the opposite direction as well so it was a challenge to get on an escalator and get out of the station. Although registration numbers were down this year, plenty of people were still going to join the party.
7:15am: We made our way through the Zone 1 gates and now faced a porta-potty line that stretched a city block. After waiting 40 minutes, we were finally going to get some relief when some 40 year old jackass shows up next to me and acts oblivious... ?
Me: "Excuse me, but you need to get in the back of the line"
Jack: "No, I've been waiting here"
Me: "No, you haven't.. Hey Ken"
Ken: "Yeah?"
Me: "Was there anyone between you and this guy(big asian guy)?"
Ken: "No"
Jack: "I've been in line this whole time. I was behind a bunch of guys in orange."
(there were never any guys in orange)
Me: "Oh? And where are they now?"
Jack: "They're all in the porta-potties." (really whining now)
Me: "Yeah, I don't think so... (to the asian guy) Hey man..
Guy: "Yeah?"
Me: "Do you remember anyone else being behind you?"
Guy: "No, I've only seen you guys the whole time."
Jack: "What?! Are you going to fight me over this or something? I need to pee!"
Me: "Great and I need to shit. Now get out of my freakin' way and get behind us and if they (the guys behind us) let you stay here that's their business."
At this point a portable came available so I nudged the guy to the side as I went for it. I waited for Ken at the end of the portables and who should come out but the jackass. He quickly changed direction. I guess he might've thought I was waiting for him...
7:52am: Little time and even less room to move. We could'nt get any closer to the start line.
8:00am: The horn sounds the start of the race. We look ahead for any movement forward. People are getting delayed even more by these sign-weilding Jesus freaks.
8:06am: We finally wish each other "good luck" and cross the startline timing mats. I am now powering sharp turns with my ankles to avoid people and twisting sideways to weave between human barriers. There were centipedes stretched lengthwise across the street, there much more wrinked naked people than I'd wish upon my worst enemies, and in many respects, it seemed I was constantly stuck behind people like this... 
** BEGIN COURSE RANT **
As I wasted alot of energy speeding up and slowing down doing the ambulance-driver routine, I cursed the course and vowed to either get seeded next year or not return. I've sent flame-mails to B2B staff in the past but they've changed nothing. Even the simplest courses have people line up by expected pace. And although the website and cops say no alcohol or nudity, they do absolutely nothing to discourage it.
** END COURSE RANT **
I (not so) quickly made the Mile 1 marker in under 8 minutes and headed for Hayes Street. I was really feeling pissy and started to not care about my finish time. It would be pretty damn easy to let the frustration get the better of me and come up with an excuse to pull back and jog to the finish.
I turned the corner and looked up at the hill. Oh, F-it. It's now or never. I pushed hard for the next 3 city blocks. My iPod helped by shuffling to QotSA(1 | 2 | 3) before the climb. As usual, my heart wanted to explode but it recovered on the backside.I started to miss my splits, I knew Mile 2 was either at the top of Hayes Street or close by so I approximated with a 7:32. If I was going to put in the effort, I had to go faster.
It was at this point I broke free of the human traffic congestion. I started moving past people with ease. I recognized a few club runner shirts (Tamalpa, Forward Motion, & Asics Aggies) so I knew I was advancing.
As I ran by the "painted ladies" on Fell St. (featured on this year's timing chip), I got my Mile 3 split just over 7 minutes and passed the "Save the Boob" float for breast cancer awareness. I can't be sure because we're in San Francisco, but I doubt a similar float for prostate cancer awareness would be as popular...I ran faster now into Golden Gate Park with a 7 minute Mile 4 split. It got much cooler as the fog blocked the sun. There was a light wind which blew against my sweaty shirt but I was running too hard to pay it any mind.
Mile 5 (6:36) and Mile 6 (6:04) were uneventful as I focused on, then passed runner after runner. As I hit the Mile 6 marker I told myself 1 mile to go... Of course, my brain didn't really believe me but just enough to give my muscles something to think about so that after a half mile I could say "OK! Haha.. j/k. Now 1 mile to go."
As soon as I started on the last mile I got a little arrogant and excited and surged past a group of guys at a sub-6 pace. I pulled it off but took a while to adjust and gradually come back to a 6+ pace.
We came to the final turn and I saw the ocean. The invisible Mile marker told me we were at Mile 7. I passed a runner and moved in front of him just as another runner stepped into the same position. I felt a rush of adrenaline and stupidity and ran my top speed like the finish line was 100 meters in front of me... except it wasn't.
We turned onto Great Highway and now I really wanted to puke. Reality took over and gave me two choices: slow down or stop on the side of the road and hurl. I hated the thought of letting runners pass me so I didn't give up too much speed and kept that sick feeling just beyond the tipping point. I spotted the finishline clock and it read "56:00". For a minute I forgot about the difference in gun and chip time and figured I must've calculated my splits wrong. I felt like crap.
I tried to save face as I slowed back down to a 6+ pace. I knew that runner I blasted past would soon catch me. Within 20 seconds he did. I looked over and he wasn't passing me. He said... "Hey, come on! Don't slow down now. You just inspired me to run faster back there!" To which I replied "GREAT!
The finishline was close, my ego was challenged and it wouldn't let me stop so I picked up my pace and prayed that my stomach contents wouldn't get into my photo finish.
We passed 3 more runners within the remaining 400 meters of the race and I wanted to die but I put my hands above my head as I crossed the finish and then quickly stopped my watch. It read "50:59" and in an instant I remembered about the gun and chip time. I made my stretch goal of a 50 minute and something second run.
I took a few pictures and waited for Ken. He showed up so we took some more photos and then headed up to the Polo Fields. On the way we got goody bags. Volunteers also scanned our chips and gave us our official time: "50:50" Woohoo! 266th place overall and 56th in my age group (30-39). I managed to average my pace to a 6:49min/mile although that definitely was not the pace I held throughout the entire race.
In retrospect, I may have actually done better if I had gotten ahead of the madness before the starting gun. Without those slow 2 miles maybe I think a sub-50 minute 12K could've been possible.
...OFFICIAL PICS ...
We got a few things from the vendors but this year it was all pretty weak. We picked up our shirts and looked over at Footstock's selection of fine dining: the falafel, sausage, and curry stands..Hmmm. I don't think so. "OK, I guess we'll catch the bus now."
A 20-minute standing-room-only, stinky bus ride later, we arrived back in downtown and start looking for a nice sit-down restaurant or cafe. Three blocks later
we figure out every other shop is a Starbucks but there are no restaurants on Market St. We went into Starbucks and order only to find out they don't serve decaf anything. WFT?! "OK, I guess we'll catch BART now"We made it back in time for lunch at the always-healthy In-N-Out Burger. I was crazy-starving. I ran the race with my cellphone in my glove and got the kids' lunch order on the BART ride back. We skipped the drive-thru and went inside to order so I could steal a few soda sips while waiting for our food to come up.
Last but not least, here is a video showing the madness that followed my along the course.
Depending on how I recover, I may or may not race in the Marin Memorial Day 10K but I'll definitely race the Pleasanton Spirit Run 10K. I'm hoping my kids will join me for that one also since they had a blast at Devil Mountain.
Business: Bay to Breakers 12K 7.45 miles in 50:50 @ an average 6:49min/mile pace.
My splits were as follows:
Mile 1.00 - 0:07:42.53 (0:07:42.53)
Mile 2.00 - 0:07:32.66 (0:15:15.19)
Mile 3.00 - 0:07:08.20 (0:22:23.39)
Mile 4.00 - 0:07:00.96 (0:29:24.35)
Mile 5.00 - 0:06:36.51 (0:36:00.86)
Mile 6.00 - 0:06:04.11 (0:42:04.97)
Mile 7.00 - 0:06:02.02 (0:48:06.99)
Mile 7.45 - 0:02:43.06 (0:50:50.05)
End-of-Week Summary:
Cycle Summary:
Gut-check
Breakfast: Bread w/ honey, Gu, water.
Lunch: Lots of water, a small amount of cheese, chips, Coke, double-double protein-style, fries, chocolate shake, bowl of cherries.
Dinner: Lasagna, 1/2 chicken breast, pasta w/ cauliflower, 2% milk, ice cream.
Run. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
=RUMBLE
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