Running and the Bay to Breakers
While I was living in Eugene there were plenty of physical activities I engaged in and I was doing something every day. It pretty much negated the need for me to set up any sort of exercise routine/program. I was playing 90 minutes of full court basketball two mornings a week. In addition, I was participating in rat ball (pickup basketball games at the university gym or under the freeway) multiple times a week. I was playing racquetball 2 or 3 times a week. I was swimming every once in a while at the university pool. I was doing Yoga. When the weather was nice I was going swimming in the river and playing softball once a week. All this plus I used my bicycle as my main source of transportation which meant I was riding it all over town everyday.
I did many of these with my friend Frank. Frank was a runner. He'd run in high school and had kept up the practice since. He had many times tried to talk me into running with him. As I was nearing my end in Eugene, I began to realize that when I move to a new city and get a “real” full-time job with my brand spanking new fancy Computer Science degree, which was going to be in the not so distant future, most, if not all, of these daily physical activities would end. I started to come around to considering running as a viable activity for regular exercise. It would be something I could do almost anywhere. I didn't need to find a friend to do it with, it would be something I could do all by myself. I brought this up with Frank one afternoon after we got back from playing some pick-up basketball under the freeway. We were drinking a beer and listening to some Fleetwood Mac (probably the Rumours album) in Frank's apartment. Well, most likely we were also doing that other thing where you pass something back and forth. Anyway, Frank insisted that I needed to buy running shoes. He had said this to me before. I usually just ignored that comment but this time I responded saying “Frank, I have sneakers and I run all the time in them. I don't need no specialized pair of shoes just to run.” I expected Frank to give me some line on how running shoes would improve my running or were better for me or some other like-kind pitch. No, Frank simply said “Dave, it's not the shoes, it's the commitment. Buying the shoes is making a commitment to start running and that's what you need. You need to do that if you are going to be serious about running regularly.”
I thought about that conversation for a few days and realized that Frank probably had a good point. Shortly before I left Eugene for San Francisco I bought a pair of running shoes (Brooks) and did a few little runs with Frank. At the end of that summer I moved to San Francisco to find a job. I initially moved in with my friend Larry in Haight District but once I secured a job I rented a house in the Sunset with my friends Mark and Louanne. It was while I was living there that I started to run on a fairly regular basis. Our house was half way between Golden Gate Park (GGP) and Lake Merced (LM). I would alternate running to GGP and around the polo field and back and running to and around LM.
I soon realized that it was getting easy to skip running when I got home late, which I did relatively often. Seemed like I needed additional motivation. Frank invited me to come up and run in the annual Butte to Butte, a 10K run in Eugene, with him. His sales pitch was signing up for a race would help motivate me to keep a more consistent running schedule. So I did. When I got there I expressed concern about running 6.2 miles. I was running regularly but my runs were only 2 to 3 miles long. I had never run more than that. Frank said that would not be a problem but to ease my concerns he took me on a long run. Starting at his place, we heading to the Steve Prefontaine trail. We ran that and continued to run over to and up and around Hendrick's Park. I was doing OK but started wondering if this run was ever going to end. Finally we headed back to Frank's. It was a “hecka” long run and when we finished my legs felt like rubber. Frank then told me we had run about 12 miles.
The next day was the Butte to Butte race. It started near the base of Spencer's Butte. The first ½ mile or so was up hill, then back down the hill and the rest was a long flat run ending near Skinner's Butte. I started out strong and was passing many runners. Being my first race I didn't account for the beginning nervous energy I was having. When I got to that last mile I was beat and struggled to the finish line. I had nothing left for a strong run at the end and sort of lumbered across the finish line. I don't remember my exact time but it was in the 47 minute range which was a decent time for me. I would end up with very similar times in all my subsequent 10K runs where I did a better job of pacing myself.
Upon my return to SF I continued to run regularly and I got to really enjoy running. It was peaceful. The activity would calm/clear my mind. I would let my mind just drift, a little like I do when I sit and listen to music. The Sony Walkman was about to come out around this time but I didn't know anyone who had one much less anyone who ran with one. I used to put on a song on my stereo that had a good pace that I could run to before I headed out. I would let that song run through my head as I ran. One song I remember using was Bonnie Raitt's version of “Runaway”. To help ensure that I kept my running schedule I would sign up for “fun” runs around the San Francisco area such as the Bridge to Bridge run, the Golden Gate Bridge run, and the SF Zoo run (one of my favorites – a chance for the animals to watch the humans rather then the other way around). I did other runs as well, but in May was the belle of the ball, the infamous Bay to Breakers run.
I must have run the Bay to Breakers about 8 times before I got together with Kris. The Bay to Breakers run is a 7 ½ mile, well actually a 12K, fun run. When I was doing the race (1979 – 1987) it started on Howard Street near the Ferry Building and ended at the west end of Golden Gate Park on the Great Highway by Ocean Beach. Estimates for participation in the 80's were in general 70 to 80 thousand with it peaking in 1986 at 110 thousand. That supposedly was a Guinness World record for foot races. As you might suspect the starting line/area was crazy, filled with a multitude of wall to wall bodies. Some chose to start over one street (Mission) in an attempt to find a little more space. Once the race starts it takes probably 10 minutes or more before you can actually start moving depending where you are and once you do you can only walk. It takes a couple of miles to have enough space to even try to run and in reality it doesn't really clear up until you hit the Hayes Street hill. After that you can actually begin to run rather than walk without having to constantly be dodging people as well as starting and stopping.
In 1987 I was living in an apartment in the Richmond District near Golden Gate Park and having a few years of experience, I had developed my own method of participating in the run. Instead of going down town to the start line and walking to Hayes Street Hill before running, I would walk from my apartment on 28th Ave near Golden Gate Park to the foot of the Hayes Street hill where I would watch all the leaders come by and then join in the race running to the end. That would probably end up being more of a 3 mile run but that was all I'd be running anyway if I had started with everyone else. The best part of this was I'd be ahead of most of the participants so there would be a small line to pick up the t-shirt at the end of the race (you got them at the end, not prior, like many races did). Then I could watch the rest of the race from the sidelines. See part of Bay to Breakers is coming up with your own costume or in some cases no costume, as in no clothes at all. Of course there were many people like me who just wore the normal jogging clothes. I then would find a place in the park to watch most the rest of the race and view all the craziness that took place. I got to see all the various costumes, those without clothes, the floats, themed groups, and of course the various centipede teams, teams of at least 13 participants. There were many spectators in the park along the route. It was just one big party.
There was a liquor store a block up from my apartment, which was a block off the park, “Fog Bank Liquors”. I would sometimes buy beer there. The owner hated the Bay to Breakers he would complain to me that his store would get swamped and everyone would buy up all his beer and liquor. I never understood his complaint. Wasn't that the whole idea behind his store, to sell as much of that as he could? When I gently asked about that, he told me the problem was he then didn't have anything left for his regular customers. Kinda sounded like poor planning on his part to me since this run had been happening for many many years, but being one of his customers I commiserated with him. I was still going to be buying beer from him and I wanted to stay in his good graces.
So what about Kris? Kris and I did the Bay to Breakers together for the first time in 1987. Of course, with all my years of experience, we did it my way. Kris had done the race before so she did at least once get the full experience and as I tried to indicate earlier, when it comes to starting the Bay to Breakers at the beginning once is plenty. I'd say it's a “less is more” type of experience.
I would continue to run regularly for exercise until somewhere in my mid to late 40's when I started to have more frequent back problems. Running on the pavement was a problem so I had to stop running to save my back. I eventually ended up trading running for swimming which I still do today.
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