Just before the start... |
This year was different, for the first time I had a friend run with me the whole duration of my run. In the past I had friends join me for some parts of it, but this time my friend Jim was crazy enough to start and finish with me.
Somebody left a couch for me to take a rest... |
This wasn’t a race, it was simply a day to cover my age in miles and a day of having fun, it happen to be also Jim’s longest run ever, so not I wasn’t only celebrating my birthday, but Jim was about to complete something he had never done before.
Of course, our first stop was at SCCF where I had the chance to go to the bathroom and remove my hoodie, it was going to be a hot day. We continued our long run and decided to have breakfast in Burlingame, at Panera bread. We got coffee and a breakfast bagel, sat by the window and eat in earnest. Unlucky for Jim, he was sitting next a lady who had some gas problems, and lucky for me that I am hard of hearing so I did not hear her at all. The smell, I thought, was a product of our sweat. It turns out that it wasn’t… LOL.
Entering SF!! |
The weather had gotten a little colder, but as soon as we started moving again, I got warm and sweaty. Because it was the end of the year, we could notice a greater influx of tourists to one of the SF landmarks, The Fisherman’s wharf. We made out of there, unscratched, however there were lots of stares as you could imagine. Who are these people who are moving so slowly, pretending to be running and looking in as if they are in pain or something? They didn’t know that at this time we had run over a marathon already and Jim had the beginnings of a cramping episode. Thank God it didn’t happen totally…
Jim Stretching trying to avoid cramping!! |
We reached the Golden Gate Bridge just in time to take a few pictures still with the light of day. It was beautiful and I just loved the series of pictures I took of the Golden Gate Bridge as we were far, and then closer and then really close and finally on the Bridge. As we were running on the Bridge, we heard someone honking, we didn’t know it then, but turns out it was our ride. Jim’s dog was sleeping and as soon as he “smelled” him, he started to bark. Apparently Jim smells so bad that his dog can recognize his smell even if he is on car driving over the GG Bridge and Jim is running outside, Funny.
First Bridge |
First Look |
Closer |
Closer |
Closer |
Finally on it!! |
We made it to the other end of the bridge and made our way to Sausalito. This was the only part that was scary simply because it was already getting dark and there is no shoulder in some of the roads from the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. But, needless to say, we made it to the end. We finished my bday run, and Jim ran the farthest he has ever run… We had a good day. If you want to know how long was my run, here is a clue…. yes, it was over 40 miles +-2.