Run DMZ

How can you not like a race in which you begin on level ground, knock off a hill or two and finish with vendors from 450 booths cheering you on as you move toward a finish that includes a giant medal and equally large, fresh strawberries? Sunday was actually my second time doing this annual Memorial Day weekend running event in North County. A couple of years ago I did the 10k race with a friend and finished strong. I forgot my time or place among my age group, but the race results for that year were down last time I checked. This time I was introducing my nephew, whom I’m now raising, to San Diego running. He’d shown an affinity for it during his school’s recent jogathon. He just turned 11, is quite small for his age and intellectually disabled. No way would I foist a 10k on him, so we signed up for the 5k, which actually is the bigger draw most years. The 10k runners go first, at 6:45 a.m. which means by the time we pulled into Vista Village around 6:30, parking wa

Bay 2 Breakers 2013 from Run DMZ on Vimeo . Of all the races I did during my five-year blogging hiatus, none left as big of an impression as Bay to Breakers . This storied run from the bay to ocean through San Francisco is distinct, and not just because of the high nudity quotient or people passing the time throwing tortillas at the start . It’s more than 100 years old (ancient by West Coast standards) and in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding 110,000 participants in 1986. It remains one of the largest fields in the world, ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 on average. Bay to Breakers, to me, embodies San Francisco. There are crazy-ass costumes and plenty of people wearing nothing but their birthday suits. There are spectators drunk at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, hosting raves on the toughest part of the course, and cheering on the teams of salmon “swimming” against the endless current of runners and walkers going the other way. On a good year, there are upwards of 100