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Steve and Russell (in Joggeroo) teamed up with Willy Nevin and his two daughters to race through the streets of San Francisco in the 2002 Bay To Breakers run. This picture was taken by Willy's co-worker just as we turned from Howard to 9th Street. We got rained on big-time during the second half of the race, but finished strong (385 out of 50,000 or so). Click on image for a larger version. Read on for a detailed story. |
[ NOTE: The following is a story of our Bay To Breakers experience as told by Willy Nevin on the San Francisco Triathlon Club mailing list, 5/21/02. ]
Hey we are still unofficial defending Bay to Breakers champs in the BabyJogger division. Well Co-Champions.The weather man said it was not supposed to rain until Sunday evening so I ditched the Babyjogger rain cover for the girls. My wife droped us off near the start line and I went looking for Steve and his 16 month old boy Russell. Now Russell is only 16 months but according to Steve he is in the 95th percentile. My two girls, Jaci is almost 5 and Gabi is 2, are on the light side for their age and we put them on a high protein, low carbo diet for the week leading up to the B2B so they may drop a few ounces. Hey, anything to help me get up Hayes Street hill.
Jaci, Gabi and I met up with Steve Trutane and his son Russell at my office and then went to our usual start position at the Moscone Center. I don't feel safe trying to start in the masses with the BabyJogger. Once the elite runners go by we picked a spot to jump in where it looked like our pace. With very little warm up the pace may have been a little on the fast side but it didn't take long to get in the grove. If you run with a babyJogger you can expect to get a lot of support form the sidelines as you go by. Push a Double BabyJogger and they think your nuts.
We made the turn on 9th and were heading toward Hayes Street just as my buddies on the Chevy's pede went by. They were trying to keep up with the Mocrosoft womans pede but in doing so had already drop some of their teammates.
If you have never run B2B, Hayes Street hill is a real mother. Now imagine trying to push two kids up it. We really slow down going up the hill and I usually get a couple of offers to help me up the hill. Of course I alway turn them down in a sort of huffing and puffing morse code and fixed and dialated pupils. By the time I get to the top of the hill I am completely drenched and it hasn't even begun to rain yet.
Steve and Russell had gotten about 50 - 100 yard ahead of us by the top of the hill and I thought that was the last we would see them. I made a deal with Steve that we should run together the wohle way but if we see another BabyJogger we will do whatever it take to run them down. On occasion you will see a slow moving jogger ahead of us but they either started much earlier or jumped in somewhere in the middle of the race.
I can't remember when but somewhere around the half way mark the rain started to come down in a light drizzle. I didn't hear any complaints from the girls so we just kept moving at a fairly decent pace. By the time we hit the Arboretum I had Steve and Russell back in my sights and in no time we were back running together. In GG Park the route is generally slightly downhill and makes for a fast pace until about mile seven.
Around mile 6 they have a bridge they set up to take pictures of all the runners. So Steve and I bunch up together so we can get in the same picture. You see Steve registered for the race and I didn't so I needed to get close to him to have any chance of getting a copy of the picture with us in it. I have learned that when you approch the picture area you need to get clear of the other runners around you so you can get a clean picture. Just at this point there is some guy pushing his boy in a shopping cart. There is no way this guy started at the beginning and pushed the shopping cart to mile six. Especially up Hayes Street Hill. At least not at a sub 7 minute pace. Beside one of the wheels was spinning around and around.
By this point it was really coming down and I could not be any wetter if I had jumped in our Jacuzzi that I kept dreaming about.
Right at mile 7 you have to take a slight right to angle toward the Great Highway. Just before you turn left at the GH the trees that were blocking the wind go away and we are hit by a sudden cold rush of wind. It kind of felt like you just jumped into very cold water since my shirt was completely soaked. You then make the left onto the GH and we were running through about a half inch of water all the way to the finish chute. Just then I looked up and saw the time of just over 53 minutes as Steve, Russell, Jaci, Gabi and I all tied for first in the unofficial BabyJogger division. All in all a preatty good race for the girls and me. On the other side of the chutes they had tables lined with bottled water that they couldn't give away. They probably don't get to go home until they give it all out so the volunteers were stuffing bottles into the pocket of the babyJogger when I wasn't looking.
Until now I hadn't heard a peep from the girls and when I looked in on them they were soaked almost as completely as me. The rain must have soaked thru the sun visor and dripped on their heads because their hair was all wet. Luckily the blanket around them was not completely soaked and I covered them with my sweat pants and wind breaker that I had in the BabyJogger pocket.
We stopped by the gas station on the corner to dry off and called Mom to come pick us up.
We had a great time and in todays Examiner I found Steve's placing was 385 out of 50,000.
Willy, Jaci, and Gabi
Steve Trutane responds:
I'd like to add that Willy and I couldn't have made it through the race without the great cooperation we got from our kids in the baby joggers. Despite the driving, in-your-face rain and cold westerly winds (which we were running into), we got no complaints from the kids. I repeatedly heard peals of delight from Russell during the course. At one point around mile 5 or 6, he was so excited he kicked off one of his shoes, causing me to stop to run back and get it. It was a blast to run through the weather, but probably not too fun to sit through.
Hayes Street hill was truly heinous to push a baby jogger up. According to my HRM, I was pegged between 180-185 for a solid 5 minutes getting up the thing. It reminded me of a recent stress test I did, but in that my HR only went to 184. I can't imagine what Willy experienced pushing up the double jogger.
Also thanks to the wives for picking us up. On the way out, we helped out another wet Dad-with-baby who needed a lift to their car. Didn't catch his name, but he left a nice rain jacket in our car.