Race 11-15 Golden Gate Bridge Vista 10k

February 13th, 2010
10k - 40:32 - 5th/132
Garmin Tracking here.

By now I’ve run most of the DSE courses with the only ones I haven’t done being the ones created in the last 2 years. I’ve tried to attend different races to mix it up, but one of the DSE courses I’ll never get tired of is the Golden Gate Bridge Vista 10k. Since I like this course and there was nothing else I’ve been dying to do, I ran this race. Also, it’s only a $3 race cost which is better for my wallet than most any other race.

The course starts at Land’s End which is the northwestern most point of San Francisco – just north of the Cliff House. It heads south and does a quick hairpin turn to a trail that we follow for a little more than a mile before hitting the paved road just below the Legion of Honor. We follow the road from there almost all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge then turn around and come back. On the way back we follow the road to the western end of the Legion of Honor parking lot and take a short trail directly to the Land’s End parking lot, instead of following the windy trail by the water. There is a little concern for traffic, especially near the turnaround but the views for the first 2 miles are excellent if it’s a nice day. For today’s race the weather was perfect.

Winning a DSE race is sometimes a possibility for me although not as much recently because three crowds have gotten bigger and more competitive runners have been coming than several years ago. I immediately ruled this out when I saw Chikara Omine there, and shortly after Sloane Cook. I also saw Joe Weirheim before the race and mentally moved myself down to 4th. I finish in front of Joe at every Thursday night series and recently ran faster at the California International Marathon and Jed Smith 50k, but I generally have no hope of keeping up with him at the weekend DSE races.

I started the race a little fast, actually too fast, right next to Chikara for about as long as I could. Sloan was in front of us and I fell off of Chikara’s pace before the mile mark. Eventually Joe and DSE President Ky Faubion passed me before we hit the road. Ky has been running faster than me at DSE races as well. A younger guy I don’t know passed me as we hit the road. He didn’t know which way to go as we got to an island in the middle of the road. I shouted ahead that they both go to the same place so he took the lower road while I took the upper. The 2 choices meet up at what is rumored to be Robin Williams’ house, something I’ve been unable to verify. I was disappointed to see the vine shaped like a dinosaur in the front lawn that was overlooking the 8 foot wall at that house had been taken down.

The younger guy pulled away in the road section and I was solidly in 6th. I kept him in sight however hoping I could catch them on the hills we still had to run. It looked like I made some ground going up the winding hill to the turnaround and I was happy to see Vince French at the turnaround. Going down the winding road I made up more ground and I caught the young guy near the former dinosaur possible Robin Williams house. I tried to get by him before the climb to the Legion of Honor but he was able to stay with me. I surged a few times going up that hill and finally by the time we hit the top I opened some space. I was also well spent and aware he could catch me in the short trail section so I kept moving as fast as I could. It turned out he wasn’t going to close the gap and I had that figured out as I got to the parking lot. I ran as hard as I could at the end but was a little disappointing with my time.

After the race I had some snacks and got re-acquainted with Steve Stephens’ cat. Steve brings his cat to races and lets it roam around like a dog. A bunch of us all furthered our plans to hike up Mt. Whitney this summer – a trip of hopefully 15 DSE members mainly being organized by President Ky.