The previous day, had to go pick up my race bib and timing tag. This was at the Greater Body Expo downtown. The expo was free, but was pretty lame. So didn’t stay there long.

The t-shirt they gave for registered runners is pretty dull this year, I think. Since ING isn’t sponsoring the race anymore, zazzle picked up the race and became the official sponsor. This resulted in zazzle branding on everything. Oh well, got my bib and timing tag and ready to rock it!

I wanted to get some better running gear so went to shop around for some items. The weather forecast for the race was thunderstorms and cold, so I was kind of worried about what I should wear.

I know that having a pair of running gloves would definitely help, so after trying on a few pairs, I finalized on these Asics running gloves. These are the Asics Thermopolis running gloves. Light and comfortable, and doesn’t hug too tight against your hands so that you have good circulation. They worked beautifully and kept my hands warm through the whole race! This was a great buy!

Then I wanted to get a running hat to provide shade as well as cover for when it rains! I went with the Nike Dri-Fit hat. This hat is light, breathable, and adjustable. It did its job pretty well during the race, holding in place and didn’t create any discomfort.

I was thinking about how people were all talking about the rain and cold that would ensue on race day and figured since I didn’t have a costume, that heck… why not run naked?! Well, at least half naked. Embrace the weather!

We got there later than we wanted to. There was so much traffic that even on the express Bay to Breakers MUNI bus, it was a drag to get down to the starting line. We decided to just hop off the bus and run to the starting line. What a way to warm up for the race! When we started, it seems like all the corrals already emptied out and we were literally at the back of the pack. They emptied out earlier than we thought! Oh well, let’s get going!

Either there was just a lot more people this year or we were way at the back of the pack, but man, it was impossible to break from the dense crowd! Here at the base of the Hayes Street hill at Webster, you can see it is pretty dense. It was packed the whole race route for me.

My sweat is starting to smear the writing. It gets worst later on…

Finally reaching the finish line and picked up the 100th Bay to Breakers commemorative medal!

The race was pretty good. My pace was slow, since half the time I was dodging people. I didn’t get a side stitch at all, which was a big relief. And also, best of all, the weather was great!!! It only sprinkled a bit at the beginning, but wow, it turned out to be a sunny and warm day! Gotta love San Francisco weather!

My finish time was 1:17:56, which is a 10:28 pace. Considering this includes me stopping to take photos and jogging behind a sea of walkers, it wasn’t too bad I suppose. My ankle was a bit swollen, which I noticed after the race. I must have rolled it more than I thought running on the un-even grass in Golden Gate park.

Overall, a fun run in one of the the most beautiful cities in the world, San Francisco!

A small group for the morning run club at lululemon Cow Hollow today. Since tomorrow is Bay to Breakers, I was hoping to do a lighter 4mi option, but nope… Lyon Street steps… dum dum dum!!

Ashley led the group, just six of us on an interesting and fun route (4.6mi) filled with hills, stairs, and parks. I remembered the last time I did the Lyon St. steps and I overexerted myself on the first flight of stairs and completely died by the time I got to the top. So this time, I took it slower, just stepping two steps at a time instead of running up. This allowed me to keep going after reaching the top.

At the top of the first flight of steps (at Vallejo St), there was several exercise groups working out up there. It’s interesting that this is a mini hub for exercise groups and trainers. Definitely a fun place to get your sweat on. From there we went towards the Alta Plaza park and then towards Lafayette park before heading downhill back to the store. Sprinted the last few blocks towards the store, which was nice after dealing with all the hills.

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4508482

Got to the lululemon Grant Ave run club late today due to the bad traffic. Everyone already took off, so I was on my own for the 10k run. The route was a revisit of the Lombard Street stairs again, which we did last month as part of the 10k of DOOM!

Thankfully the weather was beautiful. The run was not bad. I felt the side stitch creeping up on me so I slowed my pace and focused on my breathing, which managed to keep it from manifesting. I’ve been running these longer distances more often now and I think that my running form has changed. I think my stride is shorter because I am trying to ration my energy and am constantly trying to not over exert myself for fear of the dreaded side stitches. I don’t think this is good. :/

In other news, the 100th Bay to Breakers is this Sunday!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4499482

It was cold and windy out this morning, a stark contrast to the warm and sunny earlier in the week. Not as many people showed up for the lululemon Cow Hollow run club, but it was still a good turn out. Only three of us chose to do the 6mi option out to Hopper’s Hands and the rest of the group went for the 4mi run.

The 6mi route was a good, mostly flat run with a slight hill in the beginning out to Lyon St. We went out along Mason, along Crissy Field, and to Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge where Hopper’s Hands awaited us! This was my first time out there in that area. I’ve seen pictures of Hopper’s Hands before, but never got to give it a double high-five until today!

I was curious about the significance of it and found out that it was named after Ken Hopper, who was a Golden Gate Bridge iron worker. He helped many in suicide rescue efforts on the bridge during his time. The plate with two hand prints is a local landmark for runners in San Francisco. It is typically the turn around point for runners who run along the routes in the Marina and Presidio. As a sense of accomplishment for making it to the “summit” of their routes, runners slap the Hopper’s Hands plate before heading back.

At the base of chain linked fence where Hopper’s Hands is attached to is another smaller plate of dog paws bolted into the cement. I guess this is for dogs to give low fives.

I think we missed a turn on the original directions, and ended up running a bit longer. This must be the longest run I’ve taken in a very long time. After mapping it, it looks like a 6.7mi run.

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4488202

ROGA with Caroline Almon starts again at lululemon Grant Ave! I chose the 4.5mi run option. Afterward, since the weather seemed nice, they moved the yoga session outdoors to St. Mary’s Square.

The 4.5mi run was not too bad. I felt tired today, but good thing there were no crazy hills with this run. The pack held together pretty well for the most part. We were running at a pretty fast pace, probably 9min/mi? I tried to hold off the cramping, but it hit me towards the home stretch. After a quick pause and some stretching and I was back to finish strong.

Then off to St. Mary’s Square for yoga! Today’s session was focused on the core. It was not as bad as I thought it would be really. Gotta love that dolphin plank! The hard part was trying to keep warm! Brrrrrrrrrr… it was cold out!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4480945

Wow, what a beautiful, sunny, warm day in one of the most wonderful cities in the world! Good morning, San Francisco!

This morning’s lululemon Cow Hollow run club was a special one. It was Yoga on the Run! A nice 2.5 mile run out to Crissy Field, where we had an energizing, runner focused, hour long yoga session with Kerri Kelly! What a fabulous view of the Golden Gate bridge in the sun and warmth. There was a walk/run event going on for the March of Dimes, I believe. So lots of people and activity going on around the Marina.

The yoga session was great! It’s totally different doing yoga out on the grass (we had mats). To be able to hear the birds, feel the wind, smell the fresh air, and bathe in the warmth of the sun! Kerri led us in finding awareness in ourselves, balance in our feet, and feeling alive.

Kerri teaches classes at Yoga Tree and comes from a running background, so her approaches are spot on. Thanks Kerri!

After the session, another 2.5 mile run back to the store! An amazing way to kick off a Saturday!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4470594

Another Thursday, and another good 10k run club with lululemon Grant Ave. Tonight was a bit windy, especially out by the Marina, but thank goodness for the sunny days we’ve been having!

The 10k option had its tough moments, but overall not too bad compared to the 10k of DOOM a couple weeks ago. There was just one major hill up Fillmore. Good thing there were steps on the hill! While going up the hill, I was thinking about those wise analogy sayings about life and hills. I think I came up with a good one, but I’m pretty sure it’s been said before somewhere… It’s not how fast you get to the top of the hill, but what you do once you get there. Yea? Cheezy?

I was trying to stay with the secondary pack on the 10k run, and after the Fillmore hill, I was pretty tired and my left Achilles felt stiff, but onward I went trailing the pack. No major side stitches, so that in itself is a blessing.

Then as we were going down Hyde to Sacramento, the route was to turn left on Sacramento (which was another hill). I heard the someone calling it an “unnecessary hill”, since they were going to turn back down to California anyway, so they kept going straight towards California. That’s when I thought… Life is full of unnecessary hills, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t climb them. Yea? So I broke from the pack and turned on Sacramento and tackled the three blocks of hills! This put my conscience at ease.

How about… Life is one big hill, take one step at a time.

Do you have a wise saying about hills? Do share!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4463253

For the fun of Easter, the lululemon Cow Hollow run club had a fun Easter egg hunt run! This was a totally fun run followed by fresh pancakes made by Erin!

I did the 6 mile option, which went into the Presidio, through the Palace of Fine Arts, across the Marina Green, through Fort Mason, out to the Aquatic Park pier and back, through Aquatic Park, back across Beach Street, back through Fort Mason, up Gough, and back to the store! What a nice run filled with great views!

There were eggs placed in two locations, in which we had fun trying to find. The eggs were filled with yummies and yoga passes at the Yoga Tree!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4453141

Today’s lululemon Cow Hollow run club was an intense interval sprinting and plyometic workout! It was led by Kristi Dowler, a bootcamp instructor at VyAyr Fitness.

We went down to the little Marina green and started off doing a few intervals of 50m sprints with a jog back recovery after each. I haven’t sprinted at full speed like this in over a year! Then we a set of box jumps up onto a ledge to start some of the plyo work. Next came a couple intervals of 100m sprints! And if that wasn’t enough, 200m after that!

And more plyo work!!! We did some offset level squats (where one foot is up on a ledge, and the other one down on the ground). Talk about feeling the burn! We finish those babies off a set of mountain climbers! But wait, there’s more! Kristi wouldn’t let us off that easy! After 200m comes 400m of course!

Last round of the workout… push ups, mountain climbers, box jumps, and offset squats. Ahhhh! Then we ran back to the store and were all happy and relieved! What an intense and awesome workout! It really kicked my butt!

Tonight was the second time I’ve done the 10K distance at run club. And boy was it a tough one! This must have been the toughest, but best 10K I have ever ran in my life!

This route was new to me and quite brutal. Packed with two sets of difficult stairs. The first set was on Vallejo St. and the second set was up the Lombard St. steps (where the world’s most crooked road is). We went all the way up to tip of the pier at Aquatic park before turning back.

Injury aside: My left Achilles has been super sore and tight for the past couple weeks, and it got so bad after the last Saturday run. I think I added insult to injury by doing a wushu performance at the Cherry Blossom festival Sunday afternoon. I could barely walk Sunday night. All week, I’ve been sort of nursing my Achilles. I went to the gym Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and tried to work on some light stability and balance training so that the supporting muscles of the ankles, feet, and calves would get stronger to help. It was pretty depressing to be in pain just walking around, but I felt it getting better every day after waking up. I was hesitant to go to run club today because I didn’t want to re-injure it. But on Thursday morning, I felt a lot better and could actually go up stairs without being in pain. So I decided I would do the run club.

Now back to the 10K: I started feeling the side stitch coming on after the first set of stairs, but kept on pushing through it. Thank goodness it didn’t get too bad and subsided significantly after awhile. There was a pretty big group running the 10K, so I tried to keep up with a few people who were running around my pace. When I see them running faster or powering through the hills, I inherently feel the need to do the same. It was great, I couldn’t have done this challenging run at such a pace by myself.

I didn’t really time myself, but I’m sure we were going at a pretty fast pace. Probably about 9 min pace. I was so relieved to not be in pain and was able to finish this tough 10K strong!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4428176