This past Saturday, I ran 20 miles with the SFM runners from Team Asha. This is the second time I've ran with them and again, it was really great to have the support other runners around me. I'm used to running alone or with my fiancé usually. But what's great about these guys is that they run about my pace and they are really encouraging. And they run for a great cause - to provide education to under-privileged children in India. This is what I found on their website, "Asha for Education is a non-profit organization on a mission to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of under-privileged children." I found them through Augustus, who is a member of Team Asha. I randomly Googled for running teams in the South Bay and inadvertently came across Augustus' blog. I contacted him to see if I could join his running group a few weeks ago. My fiancé and i drove out to Sawyer Camp in San Mateo for our 16 miler. I've met a few more runners from Team Asha and I look forward to my runs with them. Most of them are Indian decent but they didn't mind me tagging along.I tried to map my 20 miles on mapmyrun.com but because it was my first time running the trail, I had difficulty locating certain area of the run. So, here's the best version of my run: Bay Trail Maps
We started out at the Oracle campus in Redwood Shores, up the Bay Trail through Foster City, passing the San Mateo Bridge to Bay Side Park in Burlingame. Actually, we ran out to the 2 mile point and turned back, running another half a mile past our starting to point to get additional 5 miles. Then started again to get the rest of the 15 miles. I broke the cardinal rule of getting good rest the night before a long run. For whatever reason, I didn't go to bed until 1:30am and got up at 5:30am to drive down to Redwood Shores from El Cerrito. Yikes!! I was tired but once we got started running, it wasn't too bad. Sure, the usual aches and pains surfaced after mile 12 but having other runners encourage you and push you along, really helped. The bad thing about this trail is that there is hardly any water stops or restrooms. There was one at the starting point and where we turned around 7.5 mile mark at the Bay Side Park. I think I ran the 20 miles a little under 3 hours and 15 minutes. The trail was marked for the runners who were doing 11 miles that day so we had gauge by time and how fast we were running. overall, my guess is that I ran about 9:30 min/mile. Which really isn't bad at all.
Most of the trail is paved but there are some dirt trails along the way. But the view is great once the trail goes out to the edge of the Bay. Running under the San Mateo bridge was pretty cool, I have to say. Overall, it was a really good run. I did limp a little after from sheer exhaustion but other than that, recovery was quick.
My bachelorette party was the same night and as much as I was wiped out from the run, I gave it 100% on partying to the fullest.
