Bay to Breakers Race Recap 5/20/18

Another fun Bay to Breakers is in the books! This one was my 3rd year in a row and it's always a good time. You can check out my past two recaps here and here. I went with a bigger group this year and we went with a fun theme, the Unicorn Squad. :)

PACKET PICKUP: I was asked to be an ambassador for the race this time and received complimentary registration. Thanks to all that used my discount code. With so many using it, I managed to score a free room at the host hotel. Thank you Bay to Breakers!!! Staying at the Hyatt was so convenient. I got into San Francisco Saturday morning and it was the perfect spot to to meet up with my friend Lenora that came from Texas and also another friend Callie that would be running with us.

We made it to the expo around 3pm which is probably the earliest I've been unlike last year where we barely had any time to browse the booths as the expo closes at 5pm. Shirt and bib pick up went pretty smoothly. I had a bunch of friends packets to pick up so it was longer for me but easy. We did miss out on some cute bags we could have screen printed at the Alaska Airlines booth (they ran out of bags) but other than that we were able to look around. We even got a pic with Ape Hashbury.

RACE DAY: Sunday morning the plan was to meet up with the rest of the gang at 7:50 am in front of corral C. I got up around 6:45 and we were out the door by 7:30. However, some of them ended up getting into the city earlier. I think they were in corral C at 7:30 but moved up to B. We thought even better because our bibs were for corral b and it was the closest corral from our hotel. However when we arrived at the entrance it was a mess. So many people and it looked like they were closing the entrance already. It was very disappointing to get there and see them not let people through. We ended up having to go around onto Embarcadero Street down to the entrance to corral C&H. Here's a quick shot with the Bay Bridge in the background before getting to the corral.

Even when we got to it, it was a hassle to get into our corral. They were very strict on if you had the correct bibs. I understand if you are in a slower corral for them to be strict but if you are in a faster corral going into a slower one, they should let you in. The guy looking at bibs gave my friend a hard time even though she had a faster corral bib, it just wasn't right. Anyway, we finally all got in to the C corral. 

It was pretty tight in the corral and we tried to move up as much as we could but it was too crowded and hard to get up to where our friends were. Our friends ended up having to wait for us as corral b started. We enjoyed our start before meeting up with them. Here's a pre run shot in our corral.

The start line.

All was good when we met up with our friends. As you can see the Unicorn squad consisted of some of us wearing "Unicorn Squad" shirts while others were wearing unicorn onesies. 

It was fun having a bigger group but being in a bigger group with some wanting to go at different paces made it harder. I enjoyed going slower and taking it all in while some went ahead. 

It's always great to see the variety of costumes. I think a lot of other people were thinking unicorns because I noticed a lot of them this year. Then there were those not wearing anything. Saw a lot of them again this year. :p 

It was neat seeing the salmon running upstream again along with the Pope in Golden Gate park. I'm so proud of these unicorns because two of them have not run over a 10K. They did great!

 It's always a good time running with my friend Lenora. 

I also loved that we got free race pics again this year. There were a couple of good ones. This is of me and my friend Maria.

 Yay! We are almost done at this point. I think only another half mile to go.

 Here's a photo of us just about to cross the finish line!

I believe this is my slowest Bay to Breakers yet. This run is not about time but for me just to have fun and enjoy being in San Francisco with friends. :)

Here's the whole gang with our medals. 

And of course here's a closeup of the bling. Overall this run is always a good time. The only part that wasn't fun was getting into the corral but I think for next year, I think going earlier is the way to go. Will I see you next year? Better start thinking of a costume...

 Happy running!