Across the Bay 10k

You guys know how I like to do runs with basically no preparation? {If you haven’t read this one, click over. It still makes me giggle!} Yeah, well over the weekend I ran the Across the Bay 10k. That’s 6.4 miles of running goodness across the Bay Bridge…

I intended to be prepared. I mean, I had my goal of running 100 miles this year, so running a 6.4 mile race should be easy-peasy. You know, if I hadn’t basically stopped running in August. I did a 5k in October though, so I counted that as ‘training’…

I spend the night at my friend Lindsey’s house, since she lives much closer to where the race starts. We had an AMAZING dinner and then watched Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel before snuggling up for some sleep. #girlfriendgoals Oh and Lindsey’s dog is internet famous and you can totally follow her on Instagram here. So basically I slept with a celebrity. Boom.

Anyways, we got up and I chugged a half cup of coffee before we Ubered to the race start area. But it wasn’t actually the start, because you had to line up and take a bus to the actual start and then stand in a corral before getting to the start line. It was QUITE a process, but they actually did a great job getting 20,000 runners over the bridge and back.

Neither Lindsey or I had prepared at all, so we figured we’d just do a mix of running and walking the whole way, with some stopping for picturesque selfies, of course. Bring on the selfies!

Here’s one that Lindsey took where you can see the bridge really well:

There were also photographers posted throughout the run, so I can’t wait to see any ridiculous photos they captured of us. Basically every time we saw one, we’d start leaping around and flailing our arms around for the picture…

The race was a bit crowded in areas, but we mostly were able to find little pockets where we weren’t too squished. The beginning of the bridge is all on an incline until you reach half-way and it starts going back down. It was a surprisingly easy race. I usually run straight though, so by running with short periods of walking I was able to take some pressure off my knees (which usually start aching on hills). Also, instead of jamming out to music with crazy jazz hands, Lindsey and I talked on and off the whole time… so it went by really quickly.

The medals were pretty darn awesome too. They are actually puzzle pieces and each year the medal will fit into the last year’s design.

At the end of the race they had $10 wristbands for all-you-can-drink beer and a bunch of food options. You would be surprised how refreshing a couple Shock Tops are after running 6 ½ miles! After the race was over, I felt like I could totally keep running another 6 miles. My body felt mostly great and I still had a bunch of energy. Lindsey and I even talked about possibly doing the Disney Princess Half Marathon… mostly so we can wear costumes.

After we left and I drove an hour to get home, it was a different story. I made it through dinner but afterwards I stretched out on my bed and accidently fell asleep until I realized I needed to put Jack to bed at 8:30. Today my body is definitely feeling it, so I’m going to rescind that I could have run 6 more miles. That might of killed me.

All in all, it was an awesome race and we are already planning to run it again next year!