10/04/09: 12K Bridge to Bridge 2009

So the Glide Bridge to Bridge is my first official walk in race setting. There were two courses: 7K and 12K.  I decided to go all in and opt for the latter.  Registration was at 8:30am at Justin Herman Plaza.

I picked up my bib number (2900, btw) and headed into the crowd for the warm-up stretching led by a group from a local hospital.

This is one of the stretches.  Seriously.

All of the racers lined up in front of the Ferry Building for a 9am start.  The fastest runners up front, the slowest walkers in the back.  I was bold and stood in the middle.

At the start of the race, I ran into this woman.  I asked her if she had done the Avon Walk and she said she's done five.  I'm impressed.  She said I was ahead of the game by doing a 12K this many months in advance of the June walk.  She was very inspiring.

One mile in and we came across this place.  Yum!

I've heard of this place but didn't know exactly where it was.  It looks like a really fun collection of shops and restaurants.

Yay! Two down. These are miles, not kilometers, btw.  And also, btw, the bare chested man is not part of our race.

Ooh! What a fancy looking boat.

Aside from the fancy boat, the stretch between miles 2 and 3 was uneventful.

Uh, oh...we have competition.  This trail is only big enough for one charity race at a time.

Oh, for crying out loud!  The 3-day cancer girls are moving in!

This place is really cool.  Especially on July 4th.

This fork in the road separated the men from the boys.  I was one of the few that made the right turn.  Go me.

This was a fun stretch of the walk.  We got to mix with the locals.  There were alot of dogs running around on the beach. 

There were alot of kids playing on the beach too.

What a fun craft project!

I have to say that the weather was perfectly awesome for walking...or for sitting on a park bench.

 

You know where Hopper's Hands are?!  At the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.  This is the closest a pedestrian can get to the base of the bridge. 

It's tradition for the hard core athletes like myself to slap the hands before heading back to the race course.

Whoot!

My legs are getting soooooo tired...

The light is shining at the end of the tunnel.  12K equals a little over seven miles so I'm almost there!

Rounding the Bay School in the Presideo, I could hear a rock band playing.  The end is close!

I got so excited to see the oversized dental floss that I forgot to take a picture of the finish line as I crossed it.  Dang it.  Well, I really did cross and I was not last.  My time was 2:02 or roughly 17 minutes a mile.  I collected my tshirt and waited in line for a shuttle to take me back to my office.

A sad clown performed for us while we waited for our bus.

Body fluid, eh...I forgot how awesome school buses are.

The First Student delivered us all in one piece back at Justin Herman Plaza.  A fine ending to a wonderful walk for the Special Olympics.  Can't wait to do it next year!