Ran my 14th Bay to Breakers race in 1:57:12 this past Sunday.
Almost 2min behind last year, from needing a 5min+ pitstop at the Panhandle.

I skipped public transport (see previous years), and left at 7am to jog to the start. After ~3.5 miles I found my way to corral A and serendipitously my pal Henri, dressed in the purple grape costume he’s known for.

Beautiful day for a run, cool and sunny blue skies from the start. The South of Market (SoMa) area seemed cleaner than usual which was a nice change.

High-fived the Midnight Runners Raccoon Riot cheergang on Hayes street. Hayes hill was a jog / power hike slog like recent years with a pleasant downhill after. Except by the time I got to Fell street I felt uncomfortable enough to run out to the portapotties and took a while to deal with the discomfort. The prior evening’s dinner out at Thee Parkside was perhaps too much of a change for my system. Novel eats the night before a race a minor rookie mistake.

The parties on Fell Street seemed particularly loud and crowded this year.

Golden Gate Park was beautiful as usual, and I spotted a few November Project San Francisco (NPSF) folks near Blue Heron Lake (formerly known as Stow Lake). We gathered a few more and took photos in front of the Naga Sea Serpent sculpture.

The rest of the race felt like a comfortable downhill til we passed the bison paddock. Normally where the race turns left at the end it turned right to a new southbound finish on Great Highway. Picked up the pace there to finish in 1:57:13 by my watch, only one second off the recorded chip time.

This past week was a step up in running volume over the past few months, ironically a bit of a reverse taper. Including the warmup and race, I ran 29 miles total (Monday through Sunday). That was a big jump from the previous week so I hiked back through Golden Gate park rather than jogging it out.

Last year: https://tantek.com/2025/138/t1/ran-bay-to-breakers

#SanFrancisco #run #runner #race #roadRace #B2B #Bay2Breakers #BayToBreakers #MidnightRunners #NovemberProject #NPSF