We woke up at 6:15 this morning to get ready for the Bay to Breakers race. Caught a Cable Car down to the end of California Street, and then walked to our launch spot (the back of the pack). Inexplicably people were throwing hundreds of tortillas in the air above the crowd like frisbees.

At 8 o’clock the race started, though it took us about 10 minutes to actually cross the starting line. And so we began to run. I can’t remember the last time I ran for exercise. I think it was up in Santa Rosa. We took it nice and easy, 12 minute mile pace down Howard, left on 9th, then across Market and onto Hayes.

Between mile 2 and 3 there’s a 300ft hill on Hayes Street up to Alamo Park. Dad was psyching himself (and me) out about this hill (Mt Hayes) since before he arrived. Somehow running continued to happen up the hill. Then we swooped down the otherside, cut across Divisidero, and turned on to Fell. Our pace actually quickened. We were down to sub-11 minute miles.

At some point in Golden Gate Park I thought how nice this would have been on a bicycle. I was hurting and felt like I was moving really slowly (and would need to walk any moment), but our pace pretty much stayed the same. I focused on my breathing and discovered that if I took an especially deep breath, I got a momentary high and felt a pulsing (probably my pulse) in my head.

The course empties out on to Great Highway at the ocean and hangs left for a short while to the finish line 7.46 miles (12km) later. The combination of exhaustion, the sudden gust of cool ocean air, and the finish line in sight (but just out of reach) made me kind of nauseous. I started to cough, which gave way to deep burps, and then dry heaves. Luckily my stomach was empty. I just wanted to finish with my dad, running.

We crossed the finish line at the same time. Our official time was 1:24:02. Update: I came in 8408th place!