Tonight I signed up to run in this year’s Susan G. Kormen Race for the Cure. Not familiar with Race for the Cure? The mission of The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is to eradicate breast cancer as a life threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening and treatment. I am asking that everyone reach into their pockets and make a donation to help support this great charity.

You can make a donation here on the green “Support Regan” button. Or you can email me to get my address to mail a check. Either way I need to get the donations in soon, as the race is September 24th. Not much time to get me to my fundraising goal of $350, but I know we can do it.

Googlers, you are very lucky because for every donation over $50, Google will make a matching donation. Basically you get to feel twice as good about your donation. And come on, if you work for Google you can afford to spend $50 to save boobs. You’ll need to turn in a form to Google requesting they match your donation, but rest easy, this can be done online and I can help.

No donation is too small, as every penny helps fund research that will affect the lives of millions of woman around the world. It takes only a minute to make a donation but that minute could extend a woman’s life for many years.

Who would have thought that a free concert in a huge city would be really crowded and getting there a mere 2 hours before the show started was not early enough?!?

This was the view of the stage from where we camped out:

While it was really cool to sit and listen to music outside, surrounded by tress, it might have been nice to have a clear view of the stage as well. Ah well, maybe next time.

Here’s a picture of the crowd in front of the stage:

Can you see why this is such a neat venue for a show? I can’t wait for the Shakespeare festival in the fall.

Tomorrow night I have my first class at the rock climbing gym. It’s just a beginner belay class to see if I like scaling fake rock cliffs to reach the top and experience the joy of ringing a bell. The thing I don’t understand is why Jason signed me up for this when two of his friends have recently broken limbs doing almost this exact same thing. It’s like he somehow got the idea that I’m coordinated and strong enough to cling to a wall and propel myself upwards at the same time. If I end up with a broken arm, I’m going to be the first person to tell him “I told you so”

Here’s what I have on my calendar for the next few weeks, just in case you are concerned with my social life:

Saturday, the 17th Crawdad Festival

Sunday, the 18th Aimee Mann, for free, at Stern Grove

Friday, the 23rd Radiohead concert at Berkeley

Tuesday, the 27th Counting Crows concert

Sunday, the 2nd of July the Violent Femmes and Dresden Dolls concert (It seems I’m going to this one by myself, but I have an extra ticket if anyone is interested)

hmmm, feels like I’m forgetting something.

Today was Bay to Breakers. Jason and I completed the 12K (7.64 miles) in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Not bad, but not great either. I wanted to run the last four miles of the race but by then Jason was having some issues and couldn’t run. Maybe next year I’ll leave him behind and end up with a better finishing time.

We learned that there are lots of odd traditions associated with Bay to Breakers including a giant tortilla fight at the starting line. People bring bags of them and just start tossing them over the crowds. My plan is to next year bring cheese and refried beans to throw as accessories for the tortillas.
If you look closely at that picture you’ll see a few tortillas flying overhead.

Another tradition: Salmon! Okay, people dressed like salmon, running from the finish line to the start (you know, upstream) all the while yelling “SPAWN!” and handing out high fives.

And let’s not forget the oddest of all traditions: Bare to Breakers! This tradition is not for the faint of heart. It involves some people you would happily pay to stay dressed taking off all their clothes and running the whole race naked. Nude. Au natural. My favorite naked guy was the one that had his race numbers pinned to his chest using his nipple rings. Sweet!

After we got home from the race, Jason declared he was exhausted and collapsed on the couch with Lily for a while. I wonder how sore he’s going to be tomorrow

There are more pictures from the race including costumes, floats, and naked men posted here

When registering for a race make sure you know how long it is.

Jason and I registered for Bay to Breakers thinking it was a 7K race when in reality it’s a 12K race. We are so not prepared for this. And let’s not forget that the race is in San Francisco, the hilly-est city in the whole wide world. Great.

At least we’ll be able to see the Katamari that some people are building to push through the race. And Better Than Ezra is playing at the end of the race. It’ll be fun to see BTE, assuming Jason and I are still alive at that point.