The Very First Race I Entered...

...didn't happen. Not for me.

my high school besties are identical twins... and they are still friends of mine :)

When I was a senior in high school, my best friends and I used to convince each other that not-so-fun things were actually really fun... like going out for the soccer team when none of us had ever played before...

SOCCER

I'm in the back row, next to the goalie who is in all black. My two besties are also in the back row, one next to me and the other is third from the left.

or going out for the field hockey team when none of us had ever played before...

FIELD HOCKEY

JV, baby :) My buddies made varsity. We sucked so badly. I am back row on the far left... goober-girl.

What you don't know is that our school colors were red and gold... those poly/nylon blend sleeveless shirts were a hideous shade of yellow and our lovely kilts were scratchy red.

or running in the 7.5-mile San Francisco Bay to Breakers when none of us had EVER run before... aside from the running we were forced to do for the above-mentioned teams.

GYMNASTICS

Front row, left... with all the hair... and taller than everyone else :P

My buddies are: second from right, front row and the one with the braces holding up her head.

I think we were using it as an excuse to delay heading off to gymnastics practice (another of our bonding sports... but they were actually good at it, and I was not :P ).  The three of us were not crazy about the new coach, and "training" for the B2B was a legit 'out' of going to practice... for a couple of weeks anyway until the race.  Our "training" consisted of going out to the school track and starting to jog, making it about a quarter of the way around while telling jokes or complaining about various teenager-y things, bursting into laughter that made us literally fall down and roll around in the grass of the football field until we nearly (or did) pee in our pants.  Laughing so hard that no sound comes out. I love laughing that hard. But it is not conducive to training for a long running race.

We signed up to do a Jog-a-thon somewhere in the middle of the training... as many laps as you could do in an hour... money pledged for each lap... money to go to a charity, I forget which one. I think we all ran 5 miles in that hour. We felt pretty freakin' awesome for just doing it... and pretty freakin' wiped and sore because we were totally NOT ready for that.

All the stress from the not training must have compromised my immune system because I got bronchitis within a week of the race. I planned on giving it a shot anyway... 'cuz that's how I am ;-)  But my mom flipped her lid. And since I was still a kid and needed to listen to my folks, I didn't run :(  But my friends did! They said it was awful and that they wished they'd had bronchitis, too. They said I was lucky to have bronchitis. Whew. After that race report, I was soooooo glad I had been sick :P

Ironically, the next time the Bay to Breakers entered into my life was when I had just moved back to the San Francisco area after being away for most of my young adulthood. I entered the race and did not run a step prior to the race. I did all my training on the StairMaster!  lol  I finished in 70 minutes and then raced off to work, where my legs seized up and I was pretty much useless for that whole day and several after it!  (= boss not happy )

Third time's a charm, right?

Here I am... poised on the edge of another trip to San Francisco to run up and over the Hayes Street Hill and then fly through Golden Gate Park (I'd say 'streak', but there will actually be streakers and I won't be running naked). This time I have trained. This time I will be ready. I might not be superfast, but I know I can finish it without losing my job... or, most likely, my breakfast!

I had set a time fantasy goal for myself of one hour flat. That would mean I'd run 8:02 miles the whole way. I am not that fast. I accept that. And someone reminded me that this is the 100th Anniversary running of the race ... there are 50,000 competitors and countless bandits and infinity meddling interested bystanders to contend with so speed is going to be very, very relative :)

Two weeks more weeks of prep... the focus will be on staying healthy and having fun! I want a new experience for this race :)