Bay to Breakers 12k recap:
San Francisco doesn't usually get much rain in May. This year, however, we went from winter to summer and now back to spring, and we had rain come in this weekend. My daughter and I got rained on pretty heavily yesterday when we went up to the expo for packet pickup. They were predicting thunderstorms this morning when I got up at 5:30am.
Caltrain, the heavy-rail commute trains on the SF Peninsula, runs special trains for Bay to Breakers. My wife dropped my daughter and I off at the Sunnyvale station at about 5:55 for a 6:03 train. It was chilly and lightly raining, so we huddled with the other runners in the shelter.
The train was boisterous. Caltrain normally allows alcohol, but allegedly did not on these special morning runs. Allegedly. Some people near us brought a 12-pack of Stella Artois with them. I don't think they were saving it for when they got to the city.
By the time we got to the city, the rain had stopped, and the forecast was now saying clear for 2 hours. We got a few random drops but no serious rain for the entire race.
Another quick tram ride over to the corrals, and we found Corral E. E felt very empty compared to B, next to us - notably, since there is no POT required for any corral lower than the 'seeded' runners, it felt like a lot of people chose B as a starting corral regardless of their actual planned pace.
As we waited, tortillas got flung around. Because that's what you do at Bay to Breakers.
Corral A got off on time, but B took extra time, apparently just to get all the people through the starting line. We ended up launching about 10 minutes late, at 8:50am.
Daughter and I decided not to stick together. I started on 8m/2m, pushing too fast at first. After about 4 minutes, I told her I was dropping back to not push too early. (I was at about a 10 minute pace, well faster than the 12:00 I was planning to try for.) I ended up running about 9 minutes because I wasn't watching the time closely enough.
I was doing okay at 8m/2m until about 2.3 miles in, at Hayes St. Hill. I ended a run at 28m at the bottom of the hill, and decided to walk. And keep walking. About half a mile later, I had gone up 170 feet and was glad I'd walked. I was still not able to push much, so I shortened my run segments for the flat part, and then lengthened them a bit as we started back downhill.
Bay to Breakers isn't so much a race as an experience. There are a lot of costumes - the photos here aren't doing it justice. Some wouldn't have been out of place at RunDisney (albeit before they cracked down on costumes) - there was a couple running as Han and Leia. She had the slave bikini (over a flesh-colored tank top), and he had a grey pool float with a face opening and a carbonite-encased body painted on the front. Some...well, I saw about a dozen people running nude, mostly male. And everything in between. Lots of superheroes, lots of video game characters, lots of just...other. Lots of people advertising weed. (...welcome to San Francisco.)
The city comes out to celebrate as well. We ran past houses where the residents were blasting music for us. Some bars were open, offering drinks for runners. It was totally a blast.
After the hill, the run goes through Golden Gate Park. It's a gorgeous run, and fun. I enjoyed the downhill part quite a bit.
I opted not to go with the 3k extension, so I finished the 12k in 1:36:26, 392 of 717 in my age bracket. My official time on the Hayes St. Hill was 9:16.49, 446th among my age bracket.
My daughter twinged her ankle a bit going up the hill, and ended up walking the rest of it, coming in almost an hour behind me. (I apparently passed her on or just after the hill without noticing.)
Final splits from Strava:
Mile 1: 11:31/mi
Mile 2: 12:34/mi
Mile 3: 14:47/mi
Mile 4: 13:03/mi
Mile 5: 12:33/mi
Mile 6: 12:37/mi
Mile 7: 12:42/mi
Remaining 0.59 miles: 11:40/mi
Overall Strava pace: 12:42/mi
After that, we caught a tram back over to the Caltrain station, stopped at Starbucks to fortify for the ride home, and got to the train just as they were boarding. The ride home was a lot calmer, with a lot of people resting or even sleeping.
Overall - it was a really great race. I'll probably try it again next year.