I Care Classic Century and Bay to Breakers

This weekend's training included a century ride on Saturday and Bay to Breakers plus some on Sunday.

Paul, Dian, Chris and I met up in Morgan Hill early Saturday morning for the I Care Classic Century ride. Dian recommended it last week, and as I am tiring of the local routes, a century I had never done before sounded lovely.

The ride had a peak elevation of 1,219 feet starting from an elevation of 360 feet. Total climbing elevation was 5,152 feet.

It was a beautiful ride.

The ride began in Morgan Hill, and sent us east via Madrone Parkway and then Cochrane Road. At the base of the hills the route turned south via Hill Road. The route jogged to Foothill Road and then to New Avenue reaching the first rest stop at about 11.5 mile, which we all bypassed.

It was fun to catch up with Paul and Dian, as with all this training, some of our socializing has fallen away. (I look forward to getting that back!) Continuing south, we headed into the foothills at Roop Road. The climb on Roop was the most difficult of the day, but coming down the backside was stunning, fast and fun. We then headed south to Hollister.

We met a very nice woman named Karen while riding to Hollister who is a 10-year veteran of triathlon who had all sorts of helpful pointers and tips about racing our first Ironman. We ended up having lunch with her following the ride and discovered that she is doing two Ironman events this year -- Lake Placid and Arizona. I will keep my eye out for her at future events, as we seem to do a lot of the same events.

I had a blow-out in Hollister when I rode over something that took a huge chunk out of my back tire. I learned all about the "boot" as a very nice gentlemen from the Kain Tri Club shared one with me that allowed me to finish the ride.

From Hollister we headed back via the west foothills, and by now it had gotten quite hot and windy. The route continued up Day Road and north on Uvas Road, where they were setting up for the Uvas Triathlon, to Oak Glen Road before exiting the foothills at Bailey Avenue. At about mile 85, Chris and I started to fade, due to the heat. We rallied after some particularly fabulous potato chips and made our way south on Santa Teresa Blvd. and back to the start.

It was 97 degrees in Morgan Hill when we finished the ride. Hot and dehydrated, we opted for a bit for food and drink before heading home. Thank goodness for the Ben and Jerry's ice cream they were passing out to those on the way out!

Oh my... I saw a lot of naked men today. Apparently men in San Francisco like to run naked. I was also pelted with flying tortillas.

I had only participated in Bay to Breakers once before, FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, with my uncle and one of his best friends.

Chris and I had a 2 hour run today, but wanted to participate in Bay to Breakers, so we decided to run to the race to add on some miles.

I set out about 7:15 from my house and ran to the start. It was fun to run from the back and try to make your way through the maze of people, as I was able to see a lot of the floats and costumes. However, my joy didn't last long as I grew frustrated with the masses and my inability to run as fast as I wanted to. It wasn't until about mile 4 that the crowds thinned out and I found myself with people who were running a speed similar to mine.

Many had made very creative floats, and the crowd favorite seemed to be one that featured scantily clad exotic dancers. My favorite costume was the "school of fish swimming upstream."

Overall, it was a good run and a good day. I was pleased that I wasn't overly sore from my ride the day before.