finished!

Several months ago, a friend convinced me to sign up for the 12k (7.46 mile) Bay to Breakers, even though I'd never run more than 5 miles before. Since then I've worked on longer distances, finally hitting the 7 mile mark last weekend.

On Saturday D and I stayed overnight at that friend's SoMa loft, as he lives walking distance from the starting line. We were up by 6am, met up with some other friends and got out the door around 7am, and were at the starting line dodging flying tortillas by 7:30am. This year there was a new "corral" system in place, and we were in Corral C (< 12-minute miles), the third of five corrals.

We spent some time zigzagging our way forward through the crowd in the beginning of the race, but were mostly clear of the slowest traffic by the time we hit the Hayes Street Hill. The hill was pretty tough, but on the bright side, we seemed to pass more people than passed us. There was a convenient water stop just over the top, where we grabbed a gulp or two of water before proceeding. At this point I'd lost everyone that I'd started with, except my running buddy who I'd been training with for the past couple of months; I guess we were more used to keeping track of each other.

During the fourth mile, we passed by another friend's house on the Panhandle, and were able to wave hello as she peeked through her second-story window in her pajamas. Soon afterwards, we entered Golden Gate Park. At first I thought it was a nice change, but by the fifth mile I was tired of the crappy asphalt, lack of shade, and increasingly warmer (maybe low 70s?) temperatures.

I perked up a bit after hitting the 6-mile marker; in my strange little mind there seems to be a large difference psychologically between being "only 1.x miles from done" as opposed to "over 2 miles from done". So, I was able to finish pretty strong, sprinting the last quarter mile down Ocean Beach.

Thanks to those expensive RFID tags, we were able to see our results almost immediately; I finished in 01:15:38.290, which made me 4182nd overall, 1044th among women, and 338th among women in my age division. It also calculates to 10:09 per mile, which means I almost hit my stretch goal of 10-minute miles.

Anyway, it feels good to be done, even if I am still dehydrated today, after having drunk at least eight bottles of water yesterday.

Next up, Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail. I think I'm just starting to realize that I'll be in Peru in less than two weeks! Time to hit the stairmaster and dig up all that camping gear...