2009 RRCA Convention

RUNNING IN SAN FRANCISCO

By John Devitt, RRCA Montana State Rep

Runners World list San Francisco as one of the ten best running cities in the USA. It would be hard to argue that. Most of the year the temperature variation is less than 20 degrees. For the most part, while I was there, it varied between 45-65. Needless to say, at a running convention you do a lot of running.

Day 1, Thursday:
We met in the lobby of the Hyatt on Fishermen’s Warf at 6:15 am. We had several group leaders, running at different paces so everyone would be accommodated. I picked the second group out figuring that if I couldn’t keep up, I would just fall in with the next group that came along. We ran along the bay and after a couple of miles, both groups came to a halt so the women could use the bathroom. It was cool and I didn’t want to cool down so I continued on. Shortly, two from the fast group caught me and I ran with them. It turned out that our group (of 3) leader grew up in Helena and after college moved to SF. We ran along the Embarcadero under the Bay Bridge to and around the new baseball stadium and back for a total of 7 miles. It was beautiful! We started in the dark and had a gorgeous sun rise with the Bay Bridge silhouetted against the sky. It was invigorating!

Day 2, Friday am:
We met at the same place and the same time. The group was larger since the first day was primarily State Reps, directors and board officers. This time there was a choice of 4, 6, or 8 – miles of hills! We had a bunch of group leaders for different paces, but that pretty much went to hell within the first mile. They did, however, make sure that nobody got lost. The reason we got bunched up is that almost everyone could sprint from stop light to stop light. The GPS watches were popular. It seemed that everyone was wearing one. The hills began to separate us out. The grades were way steeper than you would think. I think some were timing their pace so as to hit the red light. Anyway, what you go up you come down. We eventually came to the famous crooked street and ran down it. After 6 miles we were down to a group of three guys and four girls. Two girls were leaders and they found some more steep hills to run. We hit one down hill where the sidewalks were stairs. I found it easier to run in the street. When we finally got back, all the food for the continental breakfast was gone. Some things never change.


Day 2, Friday pm:
We had a choice of a 7 mile under the Golden Gate Bridge that ended at the Sports Basement (a mega sports store) in the Presidio – or we could do a five mile walk to the same place. Since I had already run my past two weeks mileage in two days, I chose the walk. We walked through some neighborhoods (more hills) to look at the townhouses and then walked around the Pan-American Exposition (I believe 1910), similar to the world’s fair. At the Sports Basement we were hosted for dinner with entertainment.

Day 3, Saturday am:
The group was decidedly smaller. Some had done some extra celebrating after dinner and some were resting for the Presidio 10 tomorrow. Another group that was limited to 40 runners was bused out to the course where the Dipsea Trail, made famous by a movie staring Bruce Dern, is. We did an easy 5 miles on Fishermen’s Warf working ourselves over towards where the race would start on Sunday morning. We ran up and down the piers, stopping for a few minutes to watch the sea lions lounging on some unused decks. After running along the water we worked our way back through some more interesting neighborhoods to the hotel.

Day 4, Sunday: The Presidio 10 25th Anniversary. The Presidio 10 consist of two events: a 10 mile and a 10K race. The 10K race is the RRCA 10K national championship. I chose the 10K. We had to board the bus at 6 am for the 10 minute ride to the start even though the race did not start until 8 am. It was 45 degrees, so I did a long warm-up to keep warm. The first half mile was flat, then, a three quarter mile10 percent climb to the bridge. The bridge is 1 ½ miles long, but while you are running it; the bridge creates an optical allusion that you are always running uphill. Once on the bridge, it is hard to keep your focus on running, since there is so much to see. Going out, you run on the west side of the bridge. At the end, there are a couple of flights of stairs that take you down and more stairs on the other side to get you back up to the east side of the bridge. The stairs is where is seams that everyone decided to rest because it was a slow walk down and back up and you could not pass at that point. Once off the bridge, things speeded up. The downhill was not quite as steep as the uphill because of an additional switch back. The last mile or so was flat and mostly on a packed sand road along the bay at water level. The finish was at the start with plenty of good food and entertainment waiting.