Alameda Runners – Get After It!

The San Francisco Bay Area has running and other endurance events year round, and something I want to do is help introduce readers to events and organizations you may not be familiar with.  To help do this, Alameda Runners will today chat with Brazen Racing, a Bay Area company specializing in trail events normally held in the East Bay.

Started by Sam and Jasmin, Brazen Racing is a racing management company that specializes in trail running events in the San Francisco East Bay (Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, Alameda, etc.).

The East Bay has many trails that are popular but aren’t well known.

“Some people are interested in exploring new trails and the East Bay Regional Parks District has so many parks, that it is rare that someone has heard of or ran them all before.  A lot of runners will tell us “Oh, finally someone is putting on a race at this park, it’s my favorite park for running!” and others will say, ‘I can’t believe this park exists here, it’s 10 minutes from my house and I never even knew it existed!'”

Sam hasn’t heard the whining — but I’ve heard some runners complain about the lack of facilities at the start/finish of trail racing events.  The events are normally in secluded, remote areas — which in my opinion makes it even more fun — but Brazen hasn’t heard any complaints.

“One of the toughest things can be  finding a good start/finish location that can accommodate the parking necessary for a decent-sized turnout,” Sam told us during a recent chat.  “With the Diablo Trails Challenge, we had to get permission to use the High School lots a mile down the road and then hire buses to get people transported back and forth.”

Brazen tries its best to keep registration fees as low as possible, but the fee goes up when buses have to be used to ferry athletes from point-to-point.

Finding ideal locations for aid stations also is a major issue that must be handled, though sometimes it’s up to the participants to carry their own water.

“Much different from putting on races on streets, with trails we often have to hike in entire aid station set-ups.  And other times it is just impossible to get an aid station in where we’d like it, so runners simply must carry their own water for a longer distance between aid stations.”

Another difficulty of hosting events is the constant stream of feedback that must be handled to fix issues and improve future races.

“We continually receive feedback from our runners and volunteers and so come to understand what is important to our runners and what isn’t as important. Sometimes it is just an item at the aid stations or finish lines that is liked, or it can be how we mark a turn or what information we include in our pre-race briefings.”

Even though some of the events hosted by Brazen look intimidating, Sam said the events are for participants of all levels.  “I think there is a strong community feel at our races and whether you are a hotshot half marathoner or a walker attempting your first 5K, everyone is happy to see you and supportive of you taking your next step in achieving your fitness/running goals.  Our motto is “We’re your biggest fan!” and we mean it.”

Ted participated in a recent Brazen event, so he’ll hopefully share his thoughts after an escape to San Diego (which hopefully has stopped shaking).