The running year started in right earnest with a first time run at the Bay to Breakers. The highlights of this race are many as I found out first hand, everything from the Land-Sharks, Elvis-look-alikes to the nude runners; personally the big reason to look forward to this run was a chance to run with Ganesh at an event.

It has been truly amazing to see the transformation from a workaholic to a dedicated runner. He has taken on mentoring TeamASHA runners this year which takes up the commitment 5 notches :) . Really happy to see him in this state.

Back to the race, there were MANY people there. According to the radio reports there were supposed to 100,000 runners at this event. There were a lot of people; to put it in perspective,

1. Ganesh and I got to the starting corral before 8am - crossed the start line 10 minutes ! later.
2. Walking room only until almost the 2 mile mark.

We had heard about the naked runners, to actually see a guy in nothing but a top hat standing right under the sign that declared "no nudity allowed was something else. Then when we are going past Moscone center there was a chase by 2 naked men running after a woman that was in the buff. And to top it all, at the end of the race - when we saw the breakers there was a gentleman running with just a hat on and enjoying a cell phone conversation at the same time.


It was a very lively experience, amongst other things that I passed along the way,

• the grapes men
• floats for various organizations and groups
• an innovative one for organ donors - showing a heart suspended in mid-air
• the Golden Gate Park
• and just when I was beginning to wonder, the Ocean Beach site came up
• that was truly energizing and I hit sprint speed to finish strong [1:19]

This was the 96th running of the race; we got to keep our timing chip on that account. Always on the 3rd Sunday of May. Looking forward to the 100th running now...