SF Frontrunners

Weekly Recap (May 26th - June 1st, 2012)

Your summary of the past week’s events! 

The weekend is upon us! Here is your recap everything FrontRunners from the past week.

This last week we partied in the Castro area, continued interval training with the San Francisco Track & Field Club, enjoyed the Golden Gate Bridge festivities, had a Pride Run meeting, and concluded our month-long push to get everyone set up on the new sffr.org site… all in addition to our usual runs!

Registration-O-Rama Party and Bar Night: on Friday, over 30 members and friends joined up in the Castro for an evening party followed by a bar night at the Lookout.

We first enjoyed food, fun, and jell-o shots at Brian and Bryron’s place and then were treated to a private section and free entry at the Lookout. A special thanks to everyone who came and to the Lookout, for welcoming us!

SF Track and Field Club Interval Training: The SF Track & Field Club met for their usual workout on Sunday. Exercises included stretching, sprints, and other dynamic workouts. For information on the club and the meets, contact Bob at callori@sbcglobal.net.

Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary: The weather gods smiled on San Francisco on Sunday, allowing us all to celebrate the 75th birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge. Those of us who braved crowds, or just had a high enough vantage point, we treated to an amazing fireworks show, which you can view some of here (link).

Pride Meeting: On Thursday we met to discuss aspects and planning of the 2012 Pride Run, which is less than a month away now. The club will definitely need volunteers so head over to our Dibs section to help out (link).

May Registration-O-Rama: We concluded our month-long push to get members registered at the new site. This means no more reminders every week (yay!). If you missed out on the month’s worth of reminders and instructions and still have yet to register, have no fear. Contact us for any help: vp@sffr.org

June Movie Night Reminder: June movie night is tonight! For full info on the event, head here (link).

Women’s Outreach Event Reminder - June Women’s Run: As part of our Women’s Outreach efforts, we will be hosting a Women’s run on Saturday, June 2nd, during our regular runs. A run leader will be chosen the morning of and both women and men are welcome to participate. Full info here (link).

2012 Pride Run Member Sponsor Party Reminder: On Saturday, June 2nd, we will be throwing a party to raise money for the 2012 Pride Run beneficiary, Out in the Bay. Bob and Chris have graciously offered their home for the party, and you can expect good food, drinks, and company, as well as some other extra treats. Full info here (link).

Member Card Reminder: If you have renewed or signed up for FrontRunners for 2012, you can pick up your card at any Saturday after the runs. Allow for 2 weeks between registering and having your card printed. You can also email vp@sffr.org for a replacement.

As always, we welcome submissions for events, photos, news articles, and columns.

That covers it for this last week.

Enjoy your weekend and see you at the runs!

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN - JUNE 2012

Greetings, SF FrontRunners!

Books. Maybe you’ve read about them on the internet. They have pages, just like websites. They can be accessed 24/7 if you have them at hand and never need to be powered up or down. Some favorite books came to mind while I was visiting New York and jogging through Central Park this past week.

I like to run unencumbered by technology—no headphones, no cell phone, not even a watch. I get enough digitalia in my daily work life and enjoy time away from it. As I heard bells clanging the hour from a church on Fifth Avenue, I was reminded of Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (link).

Carr cites many of civilization’s inventions that have shaped how we think—from the alphabet to maps to clocks to computers. The clock is a particularly fine example. It used to be that one bell tower served an entire town. It alerted citizens to the hours, the start of rituals, and real breaking news, like invasions or a death. At some point, every household got its own clock, and eventually clocks went mobile. We’ve gone from one clock per town to one (or more) clocks per person, allowing us to be our own timekeepers and decide what news we want delivered to our own personal devices.

Rather than create my own soundtrack, I loved the serendipity of the sounds around me: a pair of street musicians playing Simon and Garfunkel tunes in the Great Meadow, hilarious snippets of cell phone conversations (“Hey, Carlos, I have some good news for you: I’m ready to be a bottom” [no joke!]), the muffled rumble of thunder from a brewing storm, the soft thudding of my shoes on dirt paths, and of course the church bells chiming the hour.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (link) by Mark Haddon is a terrific travel read.

The narrator, Christopher, is a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who has fascinating perspectives on everyday places. It contains many wonderful lines, among them: “People go on holidays to see new things… but I think that there are so many things just in one house that it would take years to think about all of them properly.” It reminds me that while the sights on my New York run were certainly noteworthy—a bevy of supermodels strutting off to work, unfamiliar foliage with exotic blossoms, the riotous Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building in the distance—I should pay more attention to the variety along familiar, well-beaten roads. Lord knows the San Francisco streetscape can offer up some very surprising visuals! 

I love the challenge of navigating through unfamiliar territory, like getting lost on a long run through nature. In Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (link), we learn that humans instinctively excel at visual and spatial memory but have a harder time with words, numbers, and names.

The book takes you to the US Memory Tournament and introduces you to an array of eccentric characters with way too much time on their hands. They commit to memory hundreds of names and faces, the order of multiple decks of shuffled cards, and insanely long digit numbers. The techniques can be applied to more useful tasks, like memorizing speeches, studying a foreign language, learning code numbers, and remembering whether or not you locked your front door when you left the house. Running is an excellent time to use these visualization techniques. In fact, you can use your running route as a “memory palace” to cement the facts you wish to internalize. Check it out.

If you prefer walking to running, you’ll be interested in this article about an experiment on cell phone distraction (link).

In this study, a college student donned a purple-and-yellow clown costume with polka dot sleeves, red shoes, and bulbous red nose. He then hopped on a unicycle and pedaled around the quad for an hour. After pedestrians crossed the square, the researchers stopped the walkers and asked, “Did you see anything unusual?”

Among pedestrians who were listening to music or walking alone, one in three mentioned that they had just seen a clown on a unicycle. Nearly 60 percent of people who were walking with a friend mentioned the clown. But among people who had been talking on the cellphone, only 8 percent spontaneously remembered the clown.

So stay alert and enjoy the scenery while you run or walk. You never know what sorts of things may cross your path, like a clown on a unicycle or a fellow runner who likes to dialogue about books.

Brent Sverdloff

President 2012

San Francisco FrontRunners

president@sffr.org

www.sffr.org

Event Reminder: Monthly Women’s Run Tomorrow (Saturday, June 2nd, 2012)

Tomorrow morning, we will be hosting our monthly Women’s Run during the Saturday runs.

All members and friends, male and female, are invited to run the course.

See you tomorrow!

Monthly Women’s Column - June, 2012

I am a runner.

Fundamentally running is an individual sport. It’s up to you to put one foot in front of the other and run. Despite this, I enjoy running with other people and so that’s how I ended up finding the San Francisco FrontRunners by the Stow Lake Boathouse one Saturday morning last year. 

We have different reasons for joining running clubs. For me, I came looking for a community, which I initially discovered back in Long Beach, CA. I am a former Shoreline FrontRunner. We would meet up along the bluffs overlooking the beach.  Our runs were along the concrete “boardwalk” that hugged the shoreline of the LBC. The membership at the time was mostly gay men and a handful of lesbians or bisexual women. 

What I love about the FrontRunners is that I always feel welcome, but the one thing that I always found interesting was that there weren’t that many women members. This was an issue that the Shoreline FrontRunners collectively tackled. Everyone would pitch in to find ways to bring more women runners to the club. It’s clear that this is also an issue here in San Francisco. The one thing that sets SFFR apart and made me feel so welcome was meeting Darlene Hall, the Women’s Outreach Contact. 

As we go into Pride month, I can’t help, but think how far we’ve come since the Stonewall Riots in June of 1969. We’ve achieved so much since then and we did this collectively as the LGBT community. We needed all hands on deck to make things happen then and we need to do that now as well. 

We are losing an incredible Women’s Outreach Contact in Darlene Hall and so it’s important that we work together to find ways to bring more Queer women to FrontRunners. Our community is stronger when we all pitch in. If your place of employment, school or business has a LGBT organization, invite some of the women to the next Monthly Women’s Run, which will be the first Saturday of every month. That’s what I’m going to do.  

I want to thank Darlene for all her hard work over the last four years in proactively working to bring more women to the SFFR. 

I’m going to miss the runs in June because everyone I know seems to want to get married then. So I’ll see you all again at the July run!

Semper Fi and keep running!

Jules Tohn

Event Reminder: Movie Night Tonight (6/1/2012)

Tonight is June Movie Night!

Topher will be hosting us with games, a movie, and delicious homemade pizzas.

Full info here (link).

Event Reminder: Pride Run Member Sponsor Party Tomorrow (June 2nd, 2012)

Here is a friendly reminder that the Pride Run Member Sponsor Party is tomorrow evening at 415 Hill Street.

There will be comedy and music performances in addition to food, drinks, and raffle prizes.

For full info, check here (link).

See you there!

Happy June Birthdays!

Happy Birthday this month to the following SF FrontRunners:

Nic Marais                June 6

Kenneth Kung           June 7

George Elvin              June 8

Andrew Chandler       June 8

Alan Vitolo                  June 13

Roy Hom                     June 16

David Morris              June 16

Dominic Paris             June 16

Milo Hanke                 June 18

Rob Scheid                 June 20

Gary Beuschel            June 28

Tony Clark                 June 28

Runner Bio - Brennan Brockbank

Our Runner Bio Column returns this week with a great interview with Brennan Brockbank.

Brennan Brockbank - SF FrontRunners Member

How long have you been running with FrontRunners and what attracted you to the club?

Brennan: Robert Chan, through a mutual friend, invited me to come to my first Saturday run in December of 2007. I grossly underestimated the park’s distance from where I was staying, so I ultimately sprinted to my first run and arrived completely out of breath and barely on time. I could easily see that the club had so many friendly people that were worth getting to know (I still remember it was the two Erik’s who were the first to run with me). SFFR seemed like a healthy way to make new friends and has consistently been an important part of my gay-networking. 

Where did you grow up and what brought you to the Bay Area?

Brennan: I was born here in San Francisco and I grew up in the North Bay.

North Bay? Must have been difficult making it to Saturday runs.

Brennan: Coming to FR on Saturday mornings takes dedication, but especially so when there’s a bridge to cross. I was in my first year as a high school science teacher when I joined SFFR and my colleagues wondered how I could get up early on a Saturday morning to make it to a run in the city. I was so exhausted from teaching that I was usually asleep early on Friday nights!

What do you do for work/during your day?

Brennan: During my time with SFFR I’ve worked as a science teacher while concurrently completing my teaching credential and Master’s in science education from Montana State University… Bozeman is gorgeous in the summer!

You are recently engaged. Congratulations! Can you tell us how it happened and how it feels?

Brennan: Almost two years ago I met Josh through okCupid and he mentioned he was a runner, too. Since I hadn’t seen him at SFFR I assumed he was a novice. Until he smoked me in our first run together! Apparently, Josh hadn’t been a “social runner” until I started bringing him to FR. He complained about the early get up time at first, but now he’s bummed out when we have to miss a run. Josh left his Duboce Triangle apartment and I left my rural Marin studio so we could move to the ultimate in suburbs – San Mateo. I continue teaching science and Josh has an easier commute to his San Jose engineering job. 

For this last New Year’s Eve, I took Josh up to one of my favorite (and affordable) vacation spots – the Mendocino coast. On New Year’s Eve, on a bluff overlooking the ocean, I got on one knee and I proposed to Josh. He, of course, said yes! I had bought the engagement ring last summer in Bozeman. I’ve always been an optimist so I presume it will be legal by the time we wed. However, to be safe, we’re not planning on a wedding until late 2013. Give the courts time to sort things out!

You certainly have a wonderful relationship with your fiancé. What are some of your methods for maintaining and healthy and happy relationship?

Brennan: It’s great having a partner to run with, even if it only happens on the weekends. We both agree that running through a new city is the best way to see it, so our vacations always include explorative runs. We’ve certainly seen that vacations are important to a healthy and loving relationship. Even if it’s a cheap getaway to the northern coasts, it’s important to get away from work (and ideally out of cell phone range) and just enjoy each other’s company – with no distractions!

What is one of your fondest memories, so far, with FrontRunners?

Brennan: My favorite FrontRunners memories always involve the holiday parties! What a fabulous opportunity to celebrate another year in such a classy way.

What are you hoping to see in SF FrontRunners this year?

Brennan: We hope to keep running with FR for many years, even if that means getting a baby stroller at some point (like the one Bevan sports with Sidney). New leadership with FrontRunners always brings creative new opportunities for our club. It’s great that we’ve moved to a more modern website and are finding new ways to get members involved.

Thanks, Brennan, for the wonderful interview! Best of luck with planning the wedding and, of course, making it up to the regular Saturday runs!

Event: Pride Run Member Sponsor Party (June 2nd, 2012)

With the 2012 Pride Run approaching in June, we have arranged for a fundraising party open to SFFR members and friends this Saturday (June 2nd).

You will be treated to food, drinks, and music, as well a raffle prizes and other fun.

Our evening entertainment will be Jason Brock.

Jason is a singer, emcee, actor, podcaster and comic book fanatic. Jason has shared the stage with many stars of theatre and music, including Diane Schuur, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Paula West, Deborah Gibson and Bruce Vilanch. He has performed at the Rrazz Room, the Magic Theatre, the Bubble Lounge and more. His stage presence and performance style are exciting, emotional and improvisational. He can be seen soon in the film, “Love is not Enough,” at the Frameline Film Festival, and in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at the Boxcar Theatre. He hosts piano bar every Tuesday night at Martuni’s and a monthly podcast about the X-Men called the “X-Gays.”

We have requested a donation of 20 dollars for entry to the event, and all raised money goes to our Pride Run beneficiary, Out in the Bay.

For full information on the event, as well as how to RSVP, head here (link).

See you there!

The Week Ahead (May 28th - June 3rd, 2012)

Here is your weekly source of all things FrontRunners that are coming in the days ahead! In an effort to make this weekly column easier for members, we are placing the special news and events at the beginning and moving the regular, reoccurring events to the lower half.

Special Events/News This Week:

-Special Announcement: May Membership Registration-a-thon continues! You may have noticed on our official site (link) that we have a huge, red arrow that says “Register” on it. This is part of our new goal to have all members for the 2012 year registered at the new site by the end of May. All previous email lists not related to the new site will be cut off after the 1st of June (just days away!), so try to register at the new site so you can stay updated on everything in the club. f you need help with the process, please email us at vp@sffr.org or you can register at the Pride Run Sponsor Party, mentioned below.

-Pride Run Meeting - Thursday, May 31st - 6:30 PM - 415 Hill Street: Join us to discuss and plan the agenda for the 2012 SFFR Pride Run. As always, you will get tasty food and you’ll have the chance to share your input and ideas!

-June Movie Night - Friday, June 1st - 6:00PM - 235 Hartford Street: Topher is going to once again entertain us with games, a movie, and amazing homemade pizza. For full info, check here (link).

-June Women’s Run - Saturday, June 3rd - 9:00AM - Stow Lake: As part of our efforts with Women’s Outreach, there will be another monthly Women’s Run during our regular Saturday runs. Both women and men are invited to join in. Head here for all the info (link).

-Pride Run Membership Sponsor Party - Saturday, June 2nd - 7:00PM - 415 Hill Street: Bob and Chris are hosting a party to raise money for our Pride Run beneficiary, Out in the Bay. You will also be able to register for the SFFR site and the 2012 Pride Run at the party. Head here for full info, including how to RSVP (link).

-SF Track and Field Club’s 5th Annual Pride Meet registration is open. You can go to their site (link) for full information on how to register and all of the details on the event.

-SFFR 2012 Pride Run registration is open. You can go to our site for all the information on the event and how to register and/or volunteer here (link).

Regular Events This Week:

-Tuesday Evening Run - 6:30PM: Meet at the Ferry Building for a 3 mile (5K), 5 mile (8K), or hill run along Embarcadero. We typically grab dinner after.

-Saturday Morning Run - 9:00AM: Meet at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park for a 1, 2, 3 (5K), 4 (6.5K), and 5 (8K) mile run/walk. We also now offer the Cross Training option that meets immediately after First Circle to go over the routine for that day. We have a second circle at 10:00AM and then go to brunch.

-Sunday Long Run - 10:00AM: Meet at Gold’s Gym in the Castro for a long run (70 to 90 minutes total, depending on the week). We usually have brunch following the run.

-Sunday Interval Training - 10:00AM: Meet at SFSU Cox Stadium for dynamic stretching and short, efficient workouts to improve speed and endurance. Go to the SF Track & Field workouts page (link) for more info. http://www.sftrackandfield.com/workouts

*Note on website and club feedback: The board encourages and welcomes feedback and ideas for corrections and improvements to the club and websites. In order to best receive and discuss all feedback and ideas, please send all input via email to board@sffr.

Enjoy your week and see you at the runs/walks and events!

Remember, you can check all scheduled events, important calendar dates, activity recaps, runner bios, and reoccurring columns at our official site: sffr.org and our blog: sffrontrunners.tumblr.com/

*Special Note on Online Information: Now that the new sffr.org site (link) is launched, we will be using that as the primary source of news and information from the club. We will still have our blog (link), twitter (link), and facebook (link) pages that will receive identical information from the official site. Because of this, you should be able to view accurate information on all online sites. If you are having trouble viewing anything at any of these options, please let us know (email vp@sffr.org). Some of you have been having trouble viewing news on our facebook page. Please note that there is an official SF FrontRunners Page (link). This is not the group page that many of you are members of, and is less an official page and more of a social and community page. For accurate information, simply “like” the official page and you will receive all news updates.