Heart "Breaker"? Not a chance!

Whew! The 2008 Bay To Breakers was once again quite the race!

I got up at 5 and was at the start line about 7. I thought it would be warm enough so I didn't bring a sweatshirt. BIG mistake. I ducked inside a coffee shop to stay warm and had a "second breakfast" of an oat and dried fruit cake/scone thingy (very dense) and a banana.

The race started promptly at 8 and I was across the finish line before 9:25! I finished in 1:19:54 - besting last year's time by about 4 1/2 minutes! :) My overall placement was 7039 (of 22,439). Last year's placement was 8564. Among all females I was 2234 (of 11,518), and among females 30-39 years old I was 689 (of 3017).

I ran the whole race! I only slowed down to a walk on the Hayes Street Hill. When I did the numbers my average speed was just under 5.6 mph.

The first two miles I was doing about a 10 minute mile. The hill slowed me way down the took the stuffing out of me. At mile 3 I remembered that I was supposed to have a carb gel pack back at the hill, so I had one. Didn't seem to help. I took another gel pack at mile 4. That seemed to help and I felt much better. I had my final gel pack at mile 6.

I was hoping to get an estimate of how well I was doing by checking my time at the mile 7 marker, but there wasn't one! I kept looking, but eventually I passed the old windmill and came into view of the ocean. A cheer went up from the runners - seeing the ocean means you are close to the finish line.

I turned the corner and began the final leg, finish line finally in sight. I didn't have energy for a final sprint, but I did manage to pick up my pace just a little. I was so thrilled when I realized I was going to beat last year's time. Just under 1:20 - I never in a million years thought I could run that far that fast.

No trouble this year with the timing chips this year - my name and time didn't get mixed up with someone else's. They seem to have ironed out some of the problems. That's to be expected since last year was the first year they used the chips.

The top male and female finishers were both from Kenya of course. The Kenyans did very well. The top male finisher was John Korir with a time of 34:24, and the top female finisher was Lineth Chepkurui with a time of 39:22. The men won this year, even though the women had a 4:40 head start.

The number of runners this year was 33,000 registered and an estimated 27,000 unregistered. There were 22,439 total finishers (registered, who crossed both the start and finish lines) - 10,921 males and 11,518 females, so slightly more females.

I'm detoxing from carbs today. The only solid food I'm allowing myself is meat, egg whites, and some pork rinds. I've put on about 10 pounds over the last two days and need to get it off.

I'm working on getting my race photos up. Here's my results from Active.com.

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