Marty's Bay to Breakers -- 1999!

This race had its ups and downs for me. My time was a PR of 47:13, a 37-second improvement from last year's time, but I had expected to run much faster. Part of the reason for my slower-than-expected time was an ugly incident involving a PowerBar athlete, which is described below. But still some more good news: my official finishing place was 205th place, 10 spots better than last year. There were 174 men listed in front of me, so I guess that makes me 175th man, or 22 spots better than last year. Also, 10 of the 13 women in the first women's centipede are listed in front of me, despite the fact that only 3 of them actually crossed the finish line ahead of me, so you could probably knock off a few more spots off of my 205th.

Pre-Race

This year, it was pretty cold waiting for the race to begin, so there were a lot of shivering sub-seeded starters. The B to B folks seemed a bit looser in the starting area, leaving the sub-seeded and seeded starting areas connected, which allowed more room to jog around.

Mile 1

In contrast to last year, the first mile was remarkably free from people jumping into the race. Last year, I slammed into a dozen or more idiots who thought it would be a good idea to start the race at Moscone Center and enter it when the 6:00 milers were coming by. This year, I saw very few people doing that, and I wasn't affected at all. I ran a very smart (i.e., slow) first mile, almost exactly the pace I had planned. My split was 6:18 (6:11 from the start line, or 1 second slower than my plan).

Mile 2

Nothing too exciting in this mile. The crowds really cleared out here, as expected, but I seemed to be feeling pretty tired. My split was 12:39, 6:21 for that mile.

Mile 3

One of my main goals was to run Mile 3 well, and to be aggressive on the hill. I succeeded. Nobody passed me up the hill, and I put quite a bit of distance on the first women's centipede. My split was 19:34, 6:55 for that mile, and almost 20 seconds faster for that mile than last year.

Mile 4

Another of my main goals was to run Mile 4 aggressively. It's a key part of the race because it includes Fell Street, which has a slight rise to it, but precedes the 3 miles of downhill. I didn't do particularly well here -- just felt too tired to run fast. I also had a slight side stitch, but that wasn't a big deal. My split was 26:10, 6:36 for Mile 4, and a few seconds faster than last year. I had hoped to run about 6:10 for this mile.

Mile 5

I was recovering somewhat, and starting to crank up on the downhills. Then, here's what happened with the PowerBar guy (who I originally identified as Kevin Searls, based on the Examiner results, but it was not Searls, according to an email I later got from the Aggies. Update: I saw the guy at the Houlihan's race on 3/26/00 with a number on, so I now know that his name is Ryan Sellschop from San Jose.):

I was running along between miles 4 and 5, when the PowerBar-sponsored women's centipede (mostly from the Reebok Aggie club) began to catch up to me. (Earlier, I was running about the same pace as the centipede, but pulled ahead up the Hayes Street Hill.) I heard Sellschop shouting at the few nearby runners to "move to the right [or left]!"

The next thing I knew, Sellschop deliberately pushed me from behind, apparently to try to get me out of the centipede's way.

I was so shocked that a fellow runner would do such a thing to me that I totally lost my concentration and slowed down, ruining my entire race. As those of you who read this site can attest, I had carefully focused the past 8 weeks of training on this race.

While I'm not the fastest runner around, I've been competing in races for over 21 years and I'm well aware of the rules of competition, as well as the standard of behavior expected of competitors. I recognize that there is a legitimate purpose of having a few men running along with the women's centipedes: to ensure their safety early in the race when the course is crowded.

However, it is entirely inappropriate for any runner to shout at another to "move over" when overtaking them, even if done politely. It is the responsibility of the runner who is overtaking another to find a way around. The race is not a private time trial course for centipedes -- it is a competitive event open to all runners who register for it and obey the rules.

Furthermore, the need for the men to "protect" the women's centipede was long gone by the time this incident happened. It occurred on Kennedy Drive, which is about a hundred feet wide, and there were only a handful of runners nearby.

Finally, deliberately pushing a runner for any reason is a gross violation of USAT&F rules for competition. Even subtle movements resulting in contact between runners are often construed as deliberate obstruction of another runner, resulting in disqualification. It's incomprehensible that Sellschop could imagine his action would be appropriate in any context. When I confronted him in the finish chute, he claimed he pushed me to "make sure no one got hurt." Push someone to make sure no one gets hurt?! Is this a race tactic that PowerBar or their friends promote and/or endorse? Have any of you ever used this approach? [Note: I can't help by chuckle when I imagine what my old Angell Field Ancient buddy, the late Norm Lloyd, would have done in this situation. Whatever it would have been, it would have immediately become an Ancients legend I'm sure. . . .]

Until yesterday, I had always felt that the running community is made up of the nicest, most sportsmanlike people in athletics. I've met very few unfriendly people, but even the rudest of those would never dream of deliberately pushing another runner out of the way. Sellschop is a horrible embarrassment to the sport and to PowerBar. If PowerBar were my company, I would do everything possible to make sure that he never again represented the company in any way. I would insist that he return any clothing with the PowerBar logo, and I would ask his club's leadership to remove him from the club. I would also contact USAT&F and the Bay to Breakers organizers and recommend he not be permitted to participate in their events.

I should mention that the Aggies told me Sellschop is not a member of their club, and that they definitely don't support what he did. They speculated that he may have stolen a singlet from them as they were outfitting their 'pedes before the race. He may be a boyfriend of one of the women in the centipede.

I did finally get a letter from PowerBar, acknowledging the emails from the Aggies saying that Sellschop wasn't officially invited along. Brian Maxwell wrote that he understands that the Aggies "are working to track down this individual and express our collective displeasure."

My split for Mile 5 was 32:26, 6:16 for that mile, and about 20 seconds slower than I had planned.

Miles 6 and 7

Once I had sort of recovered from the shock of the "PowerPush," I really made an effort to push my pace. One motivation was that I wanted to keep my eyes on the guy that pushed me so I could talk to him after the race. I ran my fastest splits here, a 6:05 and a 6:07, although even those were about 15 seconds over what I had planned.

The Final Kick

I gave it everything I had for the final 0.45 mile, which wasn't much, to be honest. I actually ran 1 second slower than last year for the final kick, covering the distance in 2:36, which is a pace of 5:46 per mile. My total time was 47:13, which is 6:20 per mile. It was a PR for 12k by 37 seconds for me.