Raptors score AGAIN at Brazen 5 & 10K and then party down at Claire and Tarq's ultra-cool new house!

Post date: Nov 21, 2012 6:53:17 AM

July 2011

Today's Brazen "Bad Bass" race took us all to yet another great Bay Area spot that none of has seen before: Lake Chabot. We were laughing about how it's rather embarrassing that all of have lived in the Bay Area for an eternity yet have managed to never find all these great parks. But, one by one we are learning about them and today was no exception. Lake Chabot is beautiful.

Claire, Tarq and Ann before the race. They were still smiling but perhaps not quite so animatedly at the finish. The course was tough.

The road in to the lake was great too. I was following a silver Honda Accord and contemplated "going infantile" (as is my tendency on the motorcycle) and passing in a rush over the double yellow. But I decided not to since the driver of the Honda was doing a really good job of scooting along the narrow, curvy road. The pace was brisk and enjoyable so I decided to stay put. It wasn't until I got to the race and met up with them that I found out the occupants of the silver Honda were Laura and Annabel!

Annabel. I could tell she was tired cuz after the finish it took her at least three minutes to begin smiling and skipping around.

So, how did the kids (only Annabel and Claire this time, both running the 10K) do? Well, you could read virtually any race report on this page and the result would be the same. Yes, they both won their age groups yet again. They not only won their age groups, the absolutely laid waste to them! Annabel beat the next 9-12 group runner by a staggering nineteen minutes. Claire fell down on the job (not!) and only beat her closest competitor bythirteen minutes!

To the victors. . . Doesn't everyone leave Brazen races with two medals? Claire and Annabel always do!

Annabel and Claire stylin' in their new "Bad Bass" hoodies. Laura got these for both girls. How cool is that?

Laura just missed scoring in her age group, finishing fourth out of 27 runners in her age group. Tarq medaled again with a third in his age group and Tarq's friend Ann (who has been recruited for Raptors! By now we know talent when we see it) barely missed scoring a podium in her age group, first time out, finishing 4th out of 26 runners.

Laura finishes while race officials deal with a young fan overcome by emotion.

Yes, another typical Raptor's Saturday. But this time the post-race celebration went for while at Lake Chabot and then moved up Hwy. 680 to Claire and Tarq's awesome new house in Lafayette. We were joined there by Claire's mom Mary (who was at Lake Chabot but didn't race this time. Instead she ran her own 5-mile workout on the other side of the lake. No one in Raptors, other than me wastes any time standing around!) and MLK runners Rosa, Chaia and Mayou. Great food, lots of good coffee, really interesting people to talk to. . . another great day. I think I could learn to like hanging out with runners!