I joined Chris for a birthday tradition this past Sunday – each year he runs his age! He turned 38 and I planned to do the whole thing with him. The furthest I’ve ever run is 50K, so I was a bit nervous, but excited at the same time. The course he laid out looked beautiful, hitting some of my favorite spots in San Francisco, heading over the Golden Gate Bridge, and doing some trails in Marin. I went out and bought my first Camelbak a couple days before, figured out how to use it, and wore it around the house on Saturday. Yup, I’m a real bad ass now!

We started at 5AM, which may be the earliest I’ve ever started a run. It was a beautiful morning and a great run with good friends and good conversation. The Camelbak rode pretty well on my back and didn’t cause me any discomfort. After we crossed the bridge I started to tire, but I really loved the section of trail in the Headlands and running through the fog. By the time we turned around, I had slowed down quite a bit and felt like I was holding the group back. I made it back across the bridge and called it at 28 miles. As I told Chris, you’ll always be 28 to me…

[But next year, I hope to do the whole thing with him]

I went home, took a quick shower, then joined the group for some victory coffee at Peets. Our cool finisher photo is below. Brian and Chris (on the left) did the whole 38. I started out with them and Casey finished the run. Even though I didn’t make it the whole way, it was a very cool way to spend my morning!