Can anyone give a quick description of the Bay to Breakers course? I have never run it before but I would like to run well. Significant hills? Anything else besides avoiding contact with naked people?
I have only run one 12k before, 2001 Bloomsday. I would like to beat my time from that year, are the courses similar? Bloomsday definitely isn't easy.
from memory something like:
pretty flat 2 miles through the city, tough hill through 3.5 miles, gradual downhills the rest.
i wish i had money to run it this year.
If you don't qualify for sub-seeded, forget running a good time in that zoo!
There'll be about a dozen nudes out of 60,000. But it does sound like you better bring your mother to keep them away from you, you poor little scared chump.
I won the National champs on there before. Flat two miles and then a climb, like you see in all the chase scenes in San Fransico, with the up, then flat, up then flat about 6-8 of those steep quick hills and at the top it is a gradual down to the ocean finish. Survive the first 3.5 and you are good to go. I ran much faster on the Bay to Breakers than the Lilac.
Good Luck
Course descriptions are pretty accurate. Mile 1 is slightly uphill, nothing significant. Mile 2 has a right and left turn and then you stare Hayes Street in the face. Hayes Street is 5 blocks long. Each block gets shorter, but each block also gets steeper - I believe the final block is a 11.5% grade. Crest it and immediately you fly 3 blocks downhill (fairly steep) and hang a left. two blocks of more downhill (which is not really noticeable). A right onto Fell and then you are in a moderate uphill - you notice it not so much as a climb as s steady grade which does not allow you to really recover much from Hayes. Enter Golden Gate Park and there are a few rollers until 19th Avenue and the 5th mile. From there it is all downhill until the final 400 on the Great Highway.
Bay to Breakers is a faster course than Bloomsday - having run both for the last 17 years I always run faster in SFO.
$44 to enter it this year is steep just likes Hayes Street. Yippee! I get a commerative chip which doesn't look like it can be used at other Championchip timed events. I'd rather do without the chip timing and pay $15 less, but if you want to run B2B you gotta pay the $44. Anyone else have any thoughts on the entry fee?
All the descriptions do sound pretty accurate...I only ran it once but had a great race...mile 5 to 6 in the park is very fast...I think I ran it in 4:24 the year I ran...a race I would love to go back too...
Watch out for the centipede(s). They can be vicious.
the chips don't cost that much at all, you are paying for them to close some of the busiest streets in the country for a long time. (them naked people are slow!)
Really? Than explain the 50% increase in the entry fee in one year. Last year chips were used but returned and it cost $29, this year keep the chips and cost is $44. Same streets as every year are closed. It's about the chip not the road closures.
bumpzilla, baby
midwaste wrote:
Watch out for the centipede(s). They can be vicious.
Bump Megazord!
I finally ran it last year. One steep portion and the rest was like The Cascade Runoff Course. You'll like it when you've finished. Tons of food available after the race. (burp)