Bay Breeze Pics

I wanted to start off this post by saying that Brazen Racing, the company that put on this race seriously does the most awesome races. They are fun and well-organized. Their volunteers are great and friendly. I swear, every single volunteer at the aid stations yesterday had on smiles, and this was in the freakin cold and rain! They've got a ton of grub at the end of every race - fruit, bagels, pastries, nutella, etc. Believe me, I know. 4 of my 5 races were Brazen Racing races. Yesterday I walked back to my car munching on my customary It's It ice cream bar. Their races are also great if you're a beginner intimated by races with huge turnouts. Brazen Racing races usually just have a few hundred runners instead of thousands. Oh, and another positive - their pictures are free! How kick-ass is that! If you live in the Bay Area, I seriously recommend their races.

Now, on to the pics (all courtesy of Brazen Racing and their great volunteer photogs).

About a mile or two into the race I saw a guy decked out in all black leaning on a bench. I thought he was a homeless guy just hanging out. I also thought how that would have been a great place for a photographer to be. Of course when my blind ass passed him, that's when I realized that it was a photographer.

 

At Mile 3, I spotted another photographer at the end of the bridge and got excited, so I did what any other excited dork would do - I waved.

Getting ready to wave. I think I look fast in this one because of my hand! Of course no one else needs to know that I had it up because I was getting ready to wave.

Air born and waving (read dork).

And just air born.

If you read my recap, you might recall a certain senior citizen passing me as I stopped at the 10 mile aid station. Here I am, all bad-ass chasing down a 62 year old.

Yeah, you keep waving, Grandma. That you should slow you down!

 

Wait, a camera? Better smile and pose! (Huge thanks to chicrunner and her awesome post on how to take great race pictures. To sum up - smile and over-exaggerate your stride so it doesn't look like "you are either in pain, constipated, or dying" and so you don't look like a "glorified power-walker." For great examples of this, see the first two pictures I posted when I didn't know the camera was on me.) 

 Finishing up Mile 13. I didn't see the photographer until it was too late, so I am rewarded with yet another power-walking picture.

At the finish. And you bet I knew there was a photographer some where here, so I cheesed big and ran! 

And you can see Grandma right behind me. But I held on. I beat her! Hehe. Martin looked closely at this picture and said that she didn't even look very fast.

All joking aside, how inspiring is she! Really! I think it's pretty freakin amazing! But not just her, look at the following three runner's results behind me:

All three in their 60's! How awesome is that! Look at their pace! Practically identical to mine! They ran 13.1 freakin miles! It's inspiring, I tell ya. I hope I'm still running when I'm that old.