First Annual Centurions Warm Up 6hr Fun Run

I’m deep in the middle of peak training time for Javelina (end of October), so I’ve been doing a lot of longer weekend runs in preparation. The long weekend runs can be a bit psychologically exausting, and for whatever reason, I was really not looking forward to having to do ANOTHER one last weekend. So Susan – a friend from swimming various run events (WTC, LS50) and I concocted a plan to do some miles together.

In the style of Coastal Trail Runs’s New Years One Day (one of my favorite SF races), we met up for the “First Annual Centurions Warm Up 6hr Fun Run” on Saturday. “Centurions” is a Alcatraz-to-San Francisco swimming race that was happening on Sunday – I swam it, and Susan and her husband Patrick volunteered at it – so we named our “race” in honor of this event – as a warm up.

Our mini event took place at Crissy Field, and the goal was to run as many one-mile laps as you wanted to run around the lagoon that is there. Susan and I were running, along with Tracy – our only male competitor! We had support from Crew Captain Patrick (see below for our super legit aid station), and many friends from swimming stopped by, including Ana, Jean, and Mary, for crewing and pacing. We had self-decorated bibs, which was fun because a few people stopped to ask what race we were running. A couple of folks cheered for Tracy when they saw him on the Golden Gate Bridge (he took a detour, which is definitely allowed in this race)

The final results for all competitors were:

Women:

• First place: Me with 31 miles (5:29:45)
• Second place / first in age group: Susan with 24 miles (5:13:13)

Men:

• First place: Tracy Pool with 20 miles (4:58:14)

Also, there were only three competitors. So Tracy and I set course records, Susan set an age group course record, I won overall, and Tracy was DFL. Next year, I will bring trophies.

Anyway, this was a super fun and silly day. I’m so lucky to have friends who will do dumb running stuff like this with me.

Next day – Centurions

A quick blurb about Sunday – all these friends from the run event are from my swimming club, Water World Swim. The Sunday after our Centurions Warm Up 6hr Fun Run was the Centurions swim race – the actual star event for the weekend. The swim is from Alcatraz to San Francisco, and several of the swimmers have swam 100 or more Alcatraz crossings – insane. Levy, who swims with us, was completing his 100th crossing! You can see a video featuring Levy and Pedro, our fearless Water World leader, here.

This was arguably my first Alcatraz crossing (for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, they brought us a little closer to shore due to fog) – and it was really fun! You can see that our crew are mostly crazy people who swim without wetsuits, but the water was really warm so it was a good day to give that a try. I had been training without a wetsuit for several months, so I was ready and did not freeze during the crossing!

Swimming and being cold are things that are super hard for me, so this continues to be a sport that I do because I like it and it is hard – not because I will ever be good at it.

I’ve been swimming with these folks for a few years, and meeting up with them on Sunday mornings has become a highlight of my week. This group of people are fun, a little bit crazy, and incredibly welcoming. Unlike many other athletic groups, there’s no posturing, time comparing, gunning for speed, etc. It’s all about having a good time in the water, supporting each other, and hanging out / catching up before and afterwards. We all need a little bit of that in our lives.