Me and two girlfriends went on a road trip last weekend. We drove 8 hours to the Bay Area to run Bay to Breakers on my 48th birthday! It was the best time. A Girls Road Trip! A birthday I'll never forget.
We left after school got out on a Thursday...our car all decked out with "Bay To Breakers, Baby!" written in white shoe polish on the back.
We drove, we laughed, we talked. We stopped at In 'n Out Burger! (Yumm! We don't have those in Oregon!) We filled up our tank in the pouring rain and we laughed as a car full of young boys honked and hollered at us (surely because of our FUN rear window, not because of our extreme HOTNESS!)
We pulled into our friends' house at almost midnight, tired and rummy expecting to go straight to bed. Instead, we stayed up till almost 3am chatting, laughing, making new memories and planning our wine tasting tour the next day.
We awoke the next day. It was a glorious, sunny day in the East Bay. We went for our last training run...3 miles thru the neighborhood streets of Danville. We came back, showered and took off on our next adventure! Wine tasting thru Napa Valley.
We had an incredible day. Wine tasting. Private tours. VIP service at our friends' restaurants. A drive along Napa's beautiful Silverado Trail. We ate until we couldn't take one more bite. We drank until our hearts content. We even mustered up the energy to hit a local bar and dance a little bit...before we retired for the evening.
Then, it was up and at 'em early the next day! We drove into the city and hopped a ferry from Larkspur to SF for a day of shopping, walking, eating, drinking and exploring! It was so fun! Each of us had a few things on our list of what we wanted to do or see or eat! We crossed most of them off our list, including a hike up to Coit Tower. Wow! What a view!
A cab ride to Chinatown...beers on the sidewalk in North Beach...and fresh crab on the bay!
It was truly the kind of day you dream about in the city.
Then, we headed back into Larkspur on the ferry.
We had decided that day (over several cold beers!) that we were not serious about running the Bay To Breakers. We were more concerned about having fun and exploring our newfound terrain, than we were about getting a PR! So, we asked our host to take us to a dive bar! Turns out, there are no dive bars in Larkspur but, we had a great time at the local watering hole, The Silver Peso! We had planned to have one beer and then, call it a night. Well...one beer turned to two and two turned to a round of kamikazes!! And, by that time, well, it was my birthday ... so, we continued to celebrate well into the wee hours of the night (er, morning!) We headed back to where we were staying...and crawled into bed around 2am. The alarm clock rudely jolted us out of bed a couple hours later and we were scrambling around in the dark to fix a cup of coffee, down a bagel and hop on the 530 ferry to SF for our race!
When we got off the ferry, we walked up Market Street to the Start Line. Feeling a bit queasy, I must say. Not quite sure how the next 7.4 miles would go. But, we sure looked cute in our homemade tutus!
And, then within moments, we were OFF! It was such a feeling of exhilaration to be running this race that we had talked about for so long, that we felt as if we were being propelled through the streets. Running was actually easier than walking. We passed several naked buns (my friend even slapped one while passing by!), the sun was beating down already and the road loomed ahead like a birthday gift waiting to be unwrapped! The lure of the ocean beach calling our names...We passed live bands, more nakedness, fun costumes, gorgeous waterfalls and folks who should not be wearing tutus! It was so much fun - the first time I have ever run with my camera in my hand - not wanting to miss a thing!
We ran. We walked. We stopped for water. We chatted with folks and we took a ton of pictures! I had a sign on my back that said "It's My Bday!" so, I had several people serenading me along the way and many, many more saying "Happy Birthday". It was so much fun. I was sweating so much...my shirt was soaking wet. I was certain that if I wrung it out, it would produce a very large and strong cocktail!!
Finally, we began to smell the ocean air, feel the salt air on our lips....and we saw the infamous windmills off to the right. We rounded a bend and came face to face with the glorious San Francisco Coastline....or Breakers as it is referred to. The three of us crossed the Finish Line, hand in hand. I think it was somewhere around an hour 43 minutes for the 7 mile run. We quickly grabbed water and found our way to the beach where we plopped ourselves down in the warm sand and took a nice, long nap!
It was the perfect end to a perfect race! And, one of my best birthdays yet!
"That's the thing about running - your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful your life is." -Kara Goucher
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