178!!

Ready for the race

After months of training, the day was finally here. The 94th annual Bay to Breakers - a 7.56 mile (12km) run through San Francisco which has run every year since 1912 - was taking place today.

Wee Steve and I were there, at the front of the pack (as pledge runners raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) at 6.30am, warming up, digesting our Starbuck's breakfasts and watching the flying tortillas! It was really nice being at the front of the pack (especially thinking of poor Declan behind about 70,000 people) - we got to see the mayor warming up and join in the count down to the start (accompanied by some great motivational music). Once we were off, there were no delays - straight into running.

Soon into the race, we were surrounded by naked people. Apparently illegal and "frowned upon" but nobody ever really gets arrested, although they do have to get dressed for the finish line. Steve and I started up a competition to high five as many people as possibly, with bonus points for cops and naked people. And they loved it!! Young, old, naked, clothed - we must have high fived about 150 spectators between us, including some daring jumps and diversions off the main track.

We high-fived one naked guy who gave us some beads to wear, which we will now cherish forever! And bring back to B2B 100 in 2012, which we have made a pact to come back to.

There were some great costumes - human centipedes, cat women, the titanic, a star wars family, a picasso guitarist, people on the loo, tiki-bars - it all added to the fun of the event.

The spectators were also great - cheering us on, playing music and high-fiving us (some reluctantly but willing and some loving it, especially when we had to jump for them). Thanks to them, and me and Steve pushing each other to run the whole way without slowing down we set an excellent pace and made it in 1:05:59 - a time we were very pleased with indeed! (I was aiming for less than an hour and a half).

And, out of about 70,000 people we finished in positions 177 and 178!!! Awesome! SO HAPPY!!!!