Amy participates in a 12k… and lives to tell about it!

Many of you may have been able to guess, due to my constant stories of falling down, that I’m not much of an athlete. Historically, the only organized sport I ever played was track and field, and then only because they couldn’t cut me. I think they had 75 spots to fill and 74 people tried out. I still have the all time slowest mile record at Oxford Middle School. It was a sweet 30-minute extravaganza- I wanted to make sure that I would beat my time when we had to re-run the mile at the end of the year. Showing tremendous improvement I got it down to 22 minutes. The Presidential Fitness Award was mine!

Lately, though, as part of the ongoing Effort to Improve Amy’s Overall Health and Wellness, also know as Wheat Grass Really Isn’t So Bad and Maybe Tofu Has Some Potential, I have begun to see the joy in activity. This began with my membership to a health club and has continued over the past year or so. In fact, when I was in Chicago a couple of weekends ago I (without a gun to my temple) got up in the morning and ran around Wrigley Field. Well, I jogged and walked and dodged the waking bums around Wrigley, but still, it was early morning physical activity.

So, when I heard about an annual San Francisco rite of spring they call “Bay to Breakers”- in which you run across the city, starting at the Bay and ending at the Breakers (the Pacific Ocean), I was intrigued and signed up. When I told this to my dear friend Anne, a veteran of three Chicago Marathons and a very early proponent of Effort to Improve Amy’s Overall Health and Wellness, she was excited and proud- giving me all kinds of running tips. Things like- “Amy, don’t worry about keeping up with your boyfriend, just run at your own pace.” And “You can run one mile and walk two- that’s just fine.”

I feel a little bad saying this, but seriously people, the only way you'd get me to run a 12k is if there was a tapped keg in front of me at all times.

"And you know this, Man!"

Bay to Breakers was basically a loosely organized freak show with flying tortillas and half and fully naked people all over. And, of course, it's not a proper race without dancing Elvises(Elvi?) on the rooftops on the Haight.

It was an absolute blast, but honestly, I didn’t run a lick of it. I hope Miss Anne forgives me.


All photos are from the webpage of a super cool organization called "One Brick." It's a little group that lets busy people volunteer for things like pushing a keg up Hayes Hill and decorating retirement centers. Oh, and by the way…I also have some pictures of The Naked, but don't look at them at work... it's just butts, BUT…don’t get fired.