Oakland Running Festival

March 27th was the 2nd annual Oakland Running Festival. This event was jammed packed with events the entire weekend for the endurance runner/walker and the not-so endurance runner/walker and this is truly a family event. It included a kids fun run, twilight run, and of course, the main event, full and half marathon.

My biggest concern for this day was the rain. It had poured days and weeks prior leading up to race day. I must say, I never paid more attention to the weatherman/woman than I had during the week. The previous Sunday, I was scheduled to participate in another walk, but didn't because of rain. I couldn't let another paid event go to waste. I mean...if I had a money tree, it would be one thing, but since I don't....

The morning of the race, the skies were very gray, but I remained hopeful as did my mom and best friend who were also participating in the event that it didn't rain. It was super cold, too!

And so, my 8th half marathon, begins.

Like most of my marathons, I take off alone as my mom and best friend are much faster walkers than me. I pick up on conversations along the way though thanks to the other walkers who walk at my pace. Typical conversations, 'where are you from', 'is this your first marathon', 'do you think you'll do another one', blah-blah-blah....

I'm cruising along parts of Oakland I've never been to or have only seen from the Bart train. I must say, Oakland is an interesting city and it's really a shame that most people will only hear about the 'bad' parts of Oakland. Like San Francisco, Oakland is an urban city! It has great neighborhoods with cool aesthetics and not so cool neighborhoods (i.e. cars parked on lawns or 'car garden's' as a former boss would say, project areas, and industrial parts of town with A LOT of potential). The city just needs to give some TLC to those parts of Oakland, too.

One cool moment was passing The Crucible. I've only known them to be an organization that creates awesome displays using fire. When in fact, they are a non-profit educational organization that fosters a collaboration of Arts, Industry, and Community. They created an arch out of iron/metal with fire coming out of it. Once runners/walkers went through the arch, we received stickers that read, ' I ran through fire today'. I thought it was pretty cool.

Some other moments for me along the way...

• The Oakland Raiders fans aka 66th St. mob were out with a DJ spinning hot tunes and some in full-on costume regalia, face paint, masks, etc. It was pretty comical and totally unexpected. I appreciated the cool beats spinning and the high five by the 'gorilla' as I walked on by.

• I now know where Brown Sugar Kitchen is located. I've read about this place and have yet to try it. I can't wait because I smelled biscuits and bacon as I walked by. I hope they have turkey bacon was my thought, but it smelled like pork.

• Using the men's restroom at the Amtrak station. A passenger used a credit cart to open the restroom and I asked a guy I had been walking with to wait for me. Why you may ask? Because there was someone in the other stall! I told the guy to use the urinal and I'll use the stall! I know..perhaps this is tmi, but it happened. I was grateful for that man! I felt safe in that stall. We kept on walking once we were done and never spoke of that moment!

I'm walking along at about mile 9 or 10 wishing this thing was over already and saw seagulls. Lots of seagulls flying low. To me, that's a sign the rain is coming. All I could think of was, 'Lord, please let me finish this before the rain begins'. My body is feeling broke down and I'm trying to pick up my pace. I couldn't pick up the pace. I was tired and over this marathon and couldn't wait to see the finish line!

Thank goodness for cheer squads/course supporters because by this point, I needed to hear them yelling words of encouragement. This car even yelled out, 'you're almost there'. I yelled back, too! 'Can I have a ride!' They kept going. I'm sure they didn't hear me.

By this point, I'm at mile 12 and the cheers are getting louder and louder and I'm feeling the energy as my pace picks up. Trust me...I seriously thought I was going to 'bonk'. I didn't think I could do it.

I made my way to 14th/Telegraph and I could see the Finish. I was feeling pretty good as crowds of people were cheering and applauding. They didn't know my name, so they yelled out, 'congratulations 5879'! All I could do was smile and nod.

I crossed the finish line with my mom and best friend waiting for me...as usual. I immediately let them know that I wanted a hamburger! That is what I craved along the way. And so, we went to Blvd. Burger and enjoyed our victory meals.

Special shout-outs to friends I saw along the way:
My college counselor, Mr. Robert Clark
My cardio-kickboxing instructor, Ofc. /Sifu Damon Gilbert
My mom's friend, Claudia Reyes
TNT coaches: Mama Lisa, and Al


www.oaklandmarathon.com
www.thecrucible.org
www.brownsugarkitchen.com