Mermaids that run across the Golden Gate Bridge

Another great run in the books. This time my running family grew by few members which made my running heart extremely happy. Instead of just three of us (Lenka, Vladi and I) we ended up recruiting 3 more moms and even one teenager!

The race info just popped up on my Facebook feed one evening and when I checked the calendar (September 17th) it would only give me about 3 weeks to get ready for this 10 mile run. I’m usually in a decent shape throughout the year but this race came right after I returned from my 6-weeks vacation from back home (Czech Republic). Haha so for that reason I didn’t feel prepared to conquer 10 mile run across the Golden Gate Bridge but when I saw the race t-shirts I knew I’m singing up. The mermaid series is geared toward women and the apparel definitely reflects that. Their designs are just very cool and feminine which makes you feel like you really want to incorporate it in your everyday workout wardrobe.

So 10 mile commitment was hanging over my head and I had to put in the work and train. Luckily that distance is manageable with some training even if I had 3 weeks till the race. I returned back to my usual running which consist of weekday run (usually Thursday) and one weekend trail run which is anywhere between 5-8 miles long depending on the trail. 

The race day came around faster than usual and we were heading early (it was still dark!) on Sunday morning to the city for our race. The instruction we received were directing us to park in the Presidio area which is a beautiful part of San Francisco with some character and even some history behind it. That morning felt unusually warm and humid. Conditions that are not typical for the Bay. San Francisco is so known for the fog and cold winds from the Pacific Ocean but not on this Sunday. 

We collected our group and took some mandatory pics to keep this memory documented because as we nurses say if it’s not charted/documented it didn’t happen. The three of us who decided for the 10mile run had to get ready for the start line by 7:00 sharp. We took of as a group of three but broke off eventually as everyone has a different pace during race. I learnt long time ago (the hard way) that starting off fast never pays off as you end up burn out way before the race is over. So I started with nice slower pace to warm up and get into a good rhythm and ended up passing good amount of people which feels good in the moment but I also get this haunting thought…am I going to regret my pace later? 🙂

I ran this race to have fun but also wanted to push myself and have a good result and I accomplished all of it! My overall time was 1:26:53, 28th out of 401 participants, my pace was 8:41, placed as 15th out of all women and even placed 4th in my age category (F40-44). 

The rest of the group had great time as well and we loved our well earned medals and bragging rights. Running rocks!