Upon realizing that we’d registered for half of the required races for to complete the SF Originals Run Series, we decided to bite the bullet and register for the last two races in the series pegged as iconic San Francisco races. Jesse and I had both registered for June’s San Francisco Marathon shortly after registration opened last summer, and we had already lured two friends into town to run Bay to Breakers in late May with us.

The promise of hard-earned shiny bling for our medal rack sealed the deal: we registered for the remaining two races in the series:

the Giant Race (10K) and Bridge to Bridge (10K). The Giant Race occurred two months after the SF Marathon, so I figured I would be ready to race again. The Bridge to Bridge 10K this past weekend served as a good tune up for the Healdsburg Half Marathon in two weeks.

The SF Originals Series is a great marketing idea: run four classic San Francisco races with the promise of an extra medal at the finish line of the last event in the series. When I crossed the finish line on Sunday, I zeroed in on finding the booth for the SF Originals Series medals. This marketing campaign was extremely effective in ensuring Jesse and I registered for races we otherwise may not have wanted to run; the glory of being one of the few to finish the whole series, as well as viewing the city from the perspective of each of these races, fueled our desire to achieve this feat. The extra medal didn’t hurt either.