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Race Reports: Moonlight 5K & Glide Floss Bridge to Bridge 10K & 8K

02 Dec 2012 10:39 AM | Anonymous

[Thanks to Roy Carlisle for contributing this article!]

PALO ALTO MOONLIGHT 5K RUN Friday, September 28, 2012

GLIDE FLOSS BRIDGE TO BRIDGE 10K & 8K RUN Sunday, September 30, 2012

On Wednesday, my older brother, Dick, came riding in to Oakland on the morning train. He was in town early so he could prepare for two of his favorite races in one weekend. Our Palo Alto Moonlight 5K race started at 8:45 pm on Friday night and our SF Bridge to Bridge 8K started at 9 am on Sunday morning. We had faced this before and we both knew that we would be spent after it was all over. We also knew that it was a twisted sort of fun to challenge our 65 year old and 70 year old bodies to ride the adrenaline rush of these two completely unique races within 36.25 hours. There was a part of me that dreaded trying to do this. One race on a weekend was enough to put me into a long nap afterwards but running two meant that I was going to be crashing for a whole day after, not just for a nap. I now knew, after a few years of entering races together, that this was physically taxing for Dick also. It wasn’t just the race itself for him but he put a lot more effort into prep for a race, rising hours before each race to stretch and sort out various aches and pains.

Another part of me was excited about having Dick here to do these two fun races. Dick and I had been too far apart in age to be close when we were growing up but a few years ago we started to bond, first because he had contracted cancer and I was genuinely scared for him, two, because he started to join me in running again (he had been a star runner in his early days) and three, by sharing and reading the same books that we swapped back and forth.

It was also fun for me to include him in my extended circle of friends and family here in California because Dick is one of those genuinely easy going and friendly good men that show up on the planet every once in a while.  So every trip he made down here from his home in Vancouver, WA was a cause for joy for me and my social network.  And what he didn’t know about this specific trip was that I had been scheming with his daughter, Chandra, a lawyer in Seattle, to fly down on Saturday to join us for the Bridge to Bridge run. Chandra had recently started running herself and she was going to enter the 10K on Sunday morning. It would be a wonderful surprise for him and make the weekend even more joyous.

On Friday night I cajoled my friend and running buddy Jack to join us for the Moonlight run, and Jack’s nonstop wisecracking humor always helps us keep our spirits high for a race. Being around a mind as quick and witty as Jack’s makes both Dick and me want to run a quicker race. Of course that makes no rational sense but it is true. And Kim, my friend came along to encourage us, and just help us out. At a race we men need someone to keep track of us, watch our stuff, as we get very focused on the competition and the race itself. As if we were truly competitive. Well, I am not but Dick actually is. He often wins his age division in a race and he is always trying to pull off a PB, a personal best [time].

The Palo Alto race on Friday night has a treacherous start for the 5K because it begins in a parking lot but within a few yards it narrows down to small path that winds out along the bay. So hundreds of runners are bumping into each other, jostling for position, and trying to keep from getting knocked on their kiesters. And this is done in the moonlight, with neon glow tubes as the only guides, so it is hard even to see the runners around you. Every year the danger inherent in this frantic jostling start to the race surprises me. Why do this? But I am not the race director so who knows why they keep doing this. Having hundreds of runners bumping into each other in the dark seems crazy to me (although there did seem to be more runners with headlamps and glow tubes this year). It also seems odd to me since the 10K goes the opposite direction on a wide regular street so there is none of this jostling and scrambling. I can complain loudly about this but there I was running towards that small path just like everyone else. My body loves to run at night so there is no way I was going to miss this race even if I don’t like that odd starting line setup. Plus, it was one of the only races of the year that gives out a long sleeve tee shirt. And that dear readers, is highly motivating in the world of running and races.(Ask me sometime to show you a picture of 60 race tee shirts that my dear friend, Soozung, made into a quilt for my 60th birthday and you will see why these are prizes to be coveted.)


Roy, Dick, and Jack after the Moonlight Run (Jack has on a long sleeve tee shirt from running this race in a previous year).

So I can also complain about the miles of running on gravel along the edge of the bay but it was a beautiful event with the moon shining bright and hundreds of runners enjoying the crisp fall air. A race in the moonlight did have one other advantage; I lost track of time and distance and that feeling was heightened when I couldn’t check my GPS watch in the dark for my usual race markers, pace and distance.  I knew I was running slowly and carefully but that was acceptable; I didn’t’ need any bone bruises from the gravel and I did have another race to consider in a very short time. Every runner knows that there is always something to complain about with every race, it is a part of the gestalt of doing races. But the thrill of entering into these semi-competitive events always outweighs the stream of complaints that I voice at every race.

After a couple of miles treading carefully on the gravel path the course files onto a residential street and then we know that we are about ¾ of a mile from the finish. We emerge out of the darkness into the glow of street lights which illuminates not only all of the other runners but for me it highlights the decision about whether to increase my pace or continue to lope along.

Running slowly in the dark meant that I was always on alert for being bumped off the path, or even of being knocked to the ground by faster runners. Fortunately that had not happened and now we were in the home stretch. Coming into the light juices up my competitive streak and I start my inner dialogue about how I want to finish the race. Usually I am thinking about sprinting and how much energy did I have left? I know I am going to sprint with maybe 30 yards left to the finish line, well, unless something unusual happens to prevent it, but I found myself experiencing a laissez faire attitude about it that night. My pace had been very slow so a sprint would not carry me under the 30 minute goal that I usually want to accomplish for a 5K, and so sprinting seemed superfluous. Who cared? Really. I decided I didn’t. But then I turned the last corner toward the finish and heard all of the fanfare that goes on at the end of a race. People yelling, runners speeding up, friends loudly encouraging their running buddies. I didn’t speed up; I didn’t prepare to sprint. As I got closer to the finish line Jack came out of nowhere on my left side and started yelling Go, Go, Go! Oh Damn, now I had to respond to his intense goading or live with unrestrained runner’s ridicule on the ride home! So I did, I took off like a shot and then did my own pushing and moving up through the few unsuspecting runners ahead of me. I admit that it does feel like I have run a better race when I sprint at the end, no matter what my pace or the distance. And I do like that feeling.

On that night Dick handily won his 5K age division with a speedy 25:25 time / 8:12 pace and even with my slow pace I placed second in my age division with a 34:23 time / 11:05 pace. Clearly Dick was burning up the gravel while I was loping along. Jack ran as an outlaw so we don’t have an official time for him but he is in Dick’s league, not a plodder like me. It is surprisingly fun to see Dick run like the wind, and I can celebrate his wins heartily although I have moments of nostalgic sadness because I remember when I could run at that pace. But those days are behind me, so now I can let him carry the winner’s desire to keep improving on a personal best time.

The drive back to the East bay was filled with the bonhomie of a shared experience and I hoped that I could recuperate with two nights of rest before the Bridge to Bridge on Sunday morning.

*******

I picked up Chandra at the Oakland airport on Saturday morning, after a fitful night of so-called rest on Friday night. Dick was not aware that Chandra would be in the car when I went to pick him up for a lunch with family and friends at my daughter Erica’s beautiful house in the Oakland hills. He also didn’t know that we wanted to welcome Chandra into the California contingent of the extended family since we had not had a chance to visit for many years. You can imagine Dick’s surprise when I showed up at the LaQuinta Inn with his beloved daughter in tow. My normally taciturn older brother was very expressive about this act of love and kindness on Chandra’s part. That she had registered to run the 10K on Sunday morning made him even happier as Chandra was new to the running game and he enjoyed race outings more when Chandra was able to join him.

Dick and I have run this Bridge to Bridge race in San Francisco now for several years. In fact, it is one of the scenic races that he most looks forward to each year so he plans a trip down from his home in Vancouver each fall in order to join me for this annual event. Usually the two races are only a week apart but every few years they end up on the same weekend which is a bit grueling but it does make for a less expensive and more “efficient” trip for Dick.


Kim, Roy, Dick, and Chandra before the 2012 Bridge to Bridge 8K/12K

Sunday morning was sunny with a crisp edge and that is usually a good day for running. Kim was going to walk the 7K course (but she said she actually did do some running) and Chandra was ready to run the 10K, while Dick and I were signed up to do the 7K (?) Except when we finished we checked our GPS devices and this course was definitely closer to an 8K. Odd, but it did make a certain kind of sense because they had changed the actual course radically for the first time in many years. Instead of a 12K and 7K they now had a 10K and so called 7K that was an 8K and it didn’t finish in the Presidio but on the flatland at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. But I am surprised that there weren’t more outcries because obviously it takes longer to run an 8K than a 7K. But these distances are not very standard in the race circuit so most people probably didn’t even think about it. You couldn’t compare your time to the much more standard 5K, and the 10K was probably more accurate since that is an Olympic distance. But my brother Dick is a very consistent runner and knows his pace well. And I don’t think that both of our GPS watches would both be “off” in the same way. One GPS watch maybe but not two, so they could say 7K all day, but we knew different. But you are wondering, who cares? Well, for runners the comparison to previous times and distances is keenly watched and comparing is, in fact, a small industry. There is a website that keeps track of every official race and all of the runners’ times automatically. You can got to www.athlinks.comand see some 70+ of the 150 races I have run in the last thirteen years listed. Now it is not always accurate and they do seem to miss a lot of races for some reason but they wouldn’t do it at all if every runner wasn’t keenly interested in these stats.

The BtoB course starts on the Embarcadero next to Justin Herman Plaza and right in front of the Ferry Building. It is a big enough race and accompanying crowd that they close down the whole street and we all run unencumbered right into and through Fisherman’s Wharf. It is never too crowded to find your own pace and there is an energy that wafts out of the stream of runners at these big races. I always feel enlivened by a race like this one. Although I will admit that both Dick and Chandra were long gone within seconds of the start. Dick cannot help himself. His legs are like pistons and many times he has told me that it hurts to run slowly, so he switches on the machine and off he goes, like some small locomotive.

I kept trying to find someone to “pace” myself with but that didn’t seem to work this year. Usually I can find a group of runners that are going at the pace I want to maintain and it helps me to keep a steady pace. So I had to bounce around from one side of the street to the other but it was such a beautiful morning that it was a joy just to be out in the crisp fall air, running along one of the most delightful waterfronts in the country.

For many years I have complained about how wonderful this course is until you get close to the finish. In the past it was a third of a mile uphill, and not some tiny incline but up a serious hill into the Presidio. That just pissed me off, and it made it hard to sprint at the end, although every year I valiantly gave it a go.


But this year we had a whole new finish on the flatland at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Although I had never noticed it before there was a wide path that made it easy to gauge how far you were from the finish line and with no “bunching” up that would obstruct a sprint to the end. When I realized, and I didn’t know this until I had almost arrived at the end of the course, that a new finish line was not at the end of a steep uphill into the Presidio but was at the end of a track-like path straight ahead toward the Bridge, I was elated! Now I could seriously think about when I was going to sprint, calculate it, anticipate it, feel it rising in my blood. And sprint I did, until I felt like I was going to fly. No one really noticed but me, (Well, except for the race photographer whose pic below shows both of my feet off the ground as if I am running in the air) but that was okay; it is a satisfaction that will always make me glad I am alive.


Roy sprinting to the finish in the 2012 Bridge to Bridge 8K!

It was not an eventful race, no big storms, or unbearable heat, or runners tumbling and getting injured, but an enjoyable one. And I was glad, once again, that I was running in a race with others who enjoyed this solitary/social sport. Running is a requirement for me for health issues. Fortunately I enjoy the sport so much that I work to stay healthy and want to run, like my brother, well into my 70s, which would be a wonderful gift.


Dick, Chandra, Roy after the 10K/7K (8K) with Kim, our resident photographer behind the lens.

Eventually, after we were convinced that the course was closer to an 8K, we came up with the following stats. Roy did the 8K in 50:57 for a 10:15 pace and Dick ran the 8K in 40:31 for an 8:09 pace. Chandra ran the 10K in 62:32 for a 10:04 pace. Kim did walk/run the 8K in 66:17 for a walk/slight run pace of 13:20 which is a very brisk walking pace.

There is a sad note in all of this for me. When I started doing this particular race back in the early 2000s there were many more participants. For the old 12K, in 2000 there were 5,525 finishers, and in 2003 there were 4,660 finishers, and in 2012 there were only 1,655 in the new 10K. For both distances this year had only 2,554 finishers, so it would not surprise me if the sponsors finally decide that this race is too expensive to stage anymore. The precipitous decline in participants may indicate a growing loss of interest in formal races. But this might also indicate that registration fees--the registration fee for a typical 5K is often $30 to $40 and a marathon can cost as much as $100-- are a luxury that many people can’t afford today. This might also contribute to the growth of the number of “outlaws” in the bigger races. (Outlaws are runners who don’t register and pay the entry fee). I am not casting stones, as I have done that outlaw thing myself when a registration fee just wasn’t in my budget for the month.

Races are so much fun for me that I am constantly encouraging friends to enter races with me, to increase the social experience. For my own budget I have had to be more selective but I want these races to survive. Running invigorates me mentally and physically and it is important to me to do something I love. Even though doing two races in one weekend is a challenge that I hope only comes around once every few years!

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