Bridge to Bridge Run - October 4th 2009

By the time race day for Bridge to Bridge Run 2009 arrived, I'd been on competition-hiatus for nearly 3 months. I skipped Escape from the Rock due to first-rain-provoked water quality concerns. My previous event, Alcatraz Challenge 2009, was fun, but I didn't expect to do as well in this pure footrace. Brunch at Zazie and some time at Lovevolution on Saturday didn't qualify as recommended preparation either! (The unexpected tween-fest at the music-fest may be worth a whole other post at some point...)

Weather was forecast to be cool (about 52 F) and breezy (gusting to about 14 mph), blowing against runners for most of the exposed course. In practice, the wind was hardly noticeable and sunshine temperatures were comfortable. Speaking of sun, I was grateful for my hat and sunglasses!

After walking to the Ferry Building (local races are so awesome), I found a spot a few yards from the start line. The Garmin 405 (sans heart rate monitor) proved useful in a concerted effort to control my initial speed and avoid a repeat of my pace collapse in 2008. Thanks to Pink-Shirt-Girl, Blue-Shirt-Guy and Grey-Shirt-Guy for their help! (The latter two dropped me on Marina Boulevard and Crissy Field respectively).

In spite of this, my pace still flagged a little around mile 6 (as others hit the throttle for the home leg). On the long, uphill, final stretch, the clock read around 49 minutes. In my relief, I eased off too much and was passed by two sprinters in the final yards.

My official finish time was 49:18, my fastest 12 km to date. (My 2008 time was 50:28).

Results. Photos. My bib number was 262.


PS While writing this I found a useful resource.

Bridge to Bridge Run - October 5th 2008

I raced Bridge to Bridge Run 12km distance once before, in 2005. I think the sponsor changed since then and the results from that year seem to have disappeared. [I did stumble across Athlinks.com while I searched for the records. It seems to be a (community driven) Big Brother meets MySpace for athletes.] My goal for 2008 was to finish under 50 minutes - an average of about 6:40 minutes/mile. This was probably a little ambitious given my complete lack of training since Sentinel and my inexperience with pure run-races...

After some light rain on Friday and Saturday, race day dawned with beautiful blue skies. Some of our group found a comfortable spot near the start line among the 6-7 mins/mile runners and within sight of the Elites. A glance at my Garmin Forerunner 405 about a half mile in indicated our pace was below 6 mins/mile - rather ambitious with about 7 race miles remaining...I mentioned this to one of my buddies but headphones, focus, Roctane and the sight of the leaders not far ahead kept him charging so I tried to follow. :-)

The course separated 7km runners from the 12km field just before mile 4. My speedy friend decided (due a grueling prior race schedule and nagging injuries) that discretion was the better part of valor - he chose the 7km route and finished third in his age group! I gritted my teeth and stuck with the 12km. As the course meandered closer to the shoreline and the (admittedly light) headwind become more apparent, my pace declined steadily - from an average below 6:20 mins/mile to 6:46 mins/mile by the finish...i.e. way above 7 mins/mile for much of the latter half of the race...As we progressed along the bay and the sun continued its ascent so did temperatures - I was glad for my hat.

My official finish time was 50:28. Maybe I'll break 50 minutes in 2009 and I can dream of an 70%+ Age Graded finish. :P

Results. Photos. My bib number was 107.

Future thoughts: While the Garmin was useful for monitoring my pace, the heart rate monitor was not...this time...