Here are some of the ‘thrill stoppers’ -- the challenges:  • We were 20 minutes into the 1985 Houlihan’s to Houlihan’s Race. I was busy plugging volunteers into finish line jobs in Sausalito, when, over the scratch and crackle of a bad walkie-talkie, I finally understand that someone had closed and relocked the north gate of the Golden Gate Bridge walkway. Lacking a cell phone (yet to be invented and with only a nodding acquaintance with Bridge management at that point, I grabbed a handful of change and the elbow of the Executive Director of the Edgewood Children’s Center, Morris Kilgore, and explained while we ran to the nearest pay phone. I made the call to the Bridge Security office. Morris used the voice of calm authority. The gate was reopened less than a minute before the lead runners hit it. (I've always wondered how many of them would have climbed over the gate.) The 1991 rain storm challenging runners on the Golden Gate Bridge.   • In 1991 a record setting rainstorm hit the Bay Area the weekend of the Houlihan's Race. It started at 4:00 AM and did not stop through the morning. The photo describes it best. Nothing we did kept anything dry.  • 1995 during Saturday set-up we learned that our shipment of water was short by an entire pallet of water. Exhausting all possibilities of reaching the water sponsor, we found a big box store South of Market with what we needed. In a rush and without any cargo trucks free, I had the store forklift the entire pallet of water onto my little Mitsubishi pick-up truck. Coming back across town I hit a pothole at Van Ness and Broadway. The shrink-wrap split and a thousand water bottles spilled into the intersection. Amazingly, half a dozen cars stopped, drivers jumping out to direct traffic and help pick-up water bottles. We ended up with plenty of water on Sunday.    • Wednesday afternoon, days before the 2003 Across the Bay 12K (the year before Emerald took title position), we were in the office doing a final review of equipment orders, crew instructions and delivery timelines for Sunday. A call came in from Golden Gate Bridge Security Captain, Michael Locati. The U.S. had begun the invasion of Iraq the day before (3/18/03) so we expected bad news. Indeed, President Bush had put the entire country on Orange Alert. Our Golden Gate Bridge race permit for Sunday was rescinded. We had three days to implement plans for an alternative course.  4,000 runners to notify. 400 volunteers to retrain. Police and security, equipment inventories, course certification, shuttle buses, and the list of changes went on and on. With little sleep and the support of lots of friends we got it done. Some runners said they liked the new course (from Ft. Scott in the Presidio to Fisherman's Wharf) even better.   • From 1987 until 2006 the Presidio Parade Grounds made a nice added scenic loop to help make our 12K course an exact 7.45 miles. In 2005, the day before the race, National Park Police informed us that Dick Cheney had just decided to fly into San Francisco the following morning. The big Chinook helicopter that the V.P. preferred had to land at the Parade Grounds. The whole center of the Presidio would be secured by the Secret Service. We stood strong, telling Presidio officials as well as Park Rangers, Bridge Security and S.F.P.D. that trying to implement a detour would be unsound course management and therefore not safe. Late that day, we were told that Cheney was willing to switch to a smaller helicopter; he would not be landing in the middle of our course. BACK TO HOME PAGE Jack Gilbert, Chairman of the Board/Diamond Foods, awarding 2005 winner Jill Boaz an Emerald Premium Snacks Gift Basket to go with her prize money & medal.

EMERALD ACROSS THE BAY 12K

26^th Annual ‘Celebration of Running’

Sunday March 15, 2009 

___________________________________________

The Race from a Personal Point-of-View

By

Dave Rhody, Founder

Photos by Gene Cohn Photography

For the first twenty years as ‘Houlihan’s to Houlihan’s 12K Race’ and proudly branded the last five with Emerald Premium Snacks, ‘Emerald Across the Bay 12K’ has survived more than its share of challenges. In many ways, the challenges have helped it (and us) thrive.

But, let me start from the beginning. And let me begin by introducing myself. I’m Dave Rhody. It’s easiest to report the history of this event first person. It’s really a story about my life, or at least the last 25 years of it, centered around the third Sunday of March. It’s about my business, but much more than that it’s about love and happiness, my wife, my friends, my family and you. That would be ‘you’ in the sense of ‘everyone who has ever participated in a RhodyCo event.’ We estimated that to be about 1.4 million at this point.

In 1983, taking a break from a nine-year stint as a social worker, crisis counselor and sex educator, I waited tables at Houlihan’s Restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf. It gave me a chance to enjoy San Francisco and to indulge in one of my biggest passions, running. I ran to work. I ran home from work. I ran to the airport to meet friends. I ran to Tiburon, just to enjoy the ferry ride back. I ran everywhere, logging 80 to 100 miles a week. And, then, with support from Houlihan’s I ran from Newport Beach (L.A.) to San Francisco. 630 miles, 19 days. I arrived at Houlihan’s on Fisherman’s Wharf on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1983. It was just something I needed to do. I had no long range intentions. It was just one heck of a running adventure.

Like all actions it generated a reaction. “You owe us.” Two people nudged me with this sentiment. Houlihan’s General Manager Linda Bullard, a dear friend who has been happily settled in Larkspur with her husband, Matt, for years, and Pete Sittnick, Assistant (and later G.M.) Manager, now a managing partner in Kuleto’s new Embarcadero venture, the WaterBar and Epic Roast House. (Pete married another friend, Joyce, who trained me as a Houlihan’s waiter.) They thought it was a good idea to promote Houlihan’s/Sausalito and Houlihan’s/San Francisco with a race between the two restaurants. Both managers were instrumental to the development of the first, and the next 10, Houlihan's to Houlihan's Races.

I said 'yes' to Linda and Pete out of a sense of loyalty, titillated as well by a new, next challenge, something to match the ‘L.A. to Bay’ run, but linking just two Houlihan’s rather than the seven, and involving thousands of runners, not just me. I had no idea what was involved producing a major running event. Fortunately, few people did in 1984. But there was one.

In the early 1980’s, Kees Tuinzing and his wife, Sandy, launched The Schedule, a magazine devoted entirely to listings and ads for Northern California road races. Simultaneously, they became one of the original finish line timing companies, Total Race Systems.

In my view Kees is still the guru of Bay Area running. Currently managing Arch Rival in San Anselmo and, for the last 30 years, coaching a revolving stream of Marin runners, he has impacted thousands and thousands of runners and hundreds of race organizers. When we hired Kees and Sandy to handle race registration and finish line timing for the inaugural ‘Houliahan’s to Houlihan’s 8 Mile Race’ we got way more than we bargained for, all good.

April 1, 1984, the first Houlihan’s Race was just plain lucky. Kathy Henning, the love of my life (as friend and lover for 30 years, 24 years as partner, and 18 years as my wife) and my treasured RhodyCo partner all these years, managed race day registration, along with Sandy Tuinzing. It was crazy. The word got out about ‘the race across the Golden Gate Bridge’ and a personal appearance by Joe Montana. While they were mobbed with race morning sign-up, I set up the course with my new friend, Ken Meyerhoffer, who had recently hired me at City Sports magazine. With an old Datsun pick-up, a meager amount of cones, a pail of powdered chalk and seven little two foot mile markers, we set-up the 8 mile course.

In 1984 and for the next three years, the race started in front of Houlihan’s San Francisco (at the Anchorage Shopping Center on Jefferson St.) across the Golden Gate Bridge, down through East Ft. Baker and down into Sausalito on Alexander Ave, finishing at the ferry terminal. Finishers were then ferried back to Fisherman’s Wharf for the post race party at Houlihan’s.

Over the last 25 years there is seldom a race where someone doesn’t ask me, “Are you running, too?” Sponsors, runners, media, even the cops. 1984 was it. The first Houlihan’s Race was the first and last race that I produced and ran. This was at the top of the list of conditions that Kathy Henning presented when she joined me as a partner in RhodyCo in 1986.

I cannot recall my own experience during that first race. I ran hard. I finished well. When we arrived back at Fisherman’s Wharf after picking up the course, Ken and I found the post race party well under way, spilling out of Houlihan’s and taking over the whole Anchorage courtyard. Joe Montana was there. We handed medals out to the winners. The band and the beer kept the party going all afternoon. And somewhere that day I started to shift from runner to race director. I’ve loved it and hated it every since.

There’s still a thrill at start time when all the planning comes together -- thousands of runners heading out on a great running course that we designed, fought for, planned and set-up. Emerald Across the Bay 12K, standing up on the cliffs along East Fort Baker, I can look out across the bay and see the finish line in San Francisco. After 350 (or so) starting lines, the thrill is not gone.  And, now that I’m no longer in the best shape of my life (like I was putting on the first race) and now that experience tells me there’s no such thing as an easy race production, I thank the running gods that I can still feel the thrill.

1. Nothing has been more rewarding to us than the strong friendships we've made in producing Emerald Across the Bay 12K (and the other 325 races). Half the faces I see at any starting line are familiar. I'd like to thank you all (including all the new faces). But, I would also be remiss in this story without this litany of thank you's to people who make the 'Co' in RhodyCo: Nancy Nobriga, RhodyCo Operations Director for more than a decade (and my sister-in-law) and her husband Mark, website & graphics designer, Diane Kotta, veteran registration and information manager, Dave Riddell and Wil Yee, course managers, Steve Perich ('Big Steve'), the most experienced event manager in America, venue managers, Linda Connelly, Josh Kaplan, Janice Ryan, Gregg Martinez and Lawrence McKendell, long term partners like Kevin Casci (t-shirts), Kevin Dennis (sound), Buzz Ayola (finish timing), Joan Clemmons (medical) and hundreds of long term Edgewood coordinators like Carol Yee and Mary Tam. Of course, Maryanne Hoburg, who has designed the event logo since 1988! And, please enjoy the photos, all of them, from year one, by my friends, Gene & Jill Cohn. 

And, then there are the veteran runners, including: Howard Drake from Arizona, Earl Boehm (my "Dead Head" friend), Bay Area buddies, Andy Wesolek and, Dennis Schindler (who have not missed a year) former Houlihan's Manager, Doug Harrison (17 yrs.), sisters Vivian Olorenshaw and Rolayne Mattson from Utah, who have run this race together since 1987, and the ever-endearing Bill Caylor from San Diego. I know there are hundreds more who should be on this list. Thank you all.

I know this is sounding like an overtime Academy Awards speech, but, I have to express my sincere gratitude to all the people of Diamond Foods, makers of Emerald Premium Snacks who have not just rebranded but reinvigorated this race -- all of them runners as well: President & CEO, Michael Mendes, Marketing V.P., Andrew Burke, Promotions Manager, Jeff Ngo and Marketing Services Manager, Rachelle Rudloff, as well as Diamond Board Chair, Jack Gilbert, who starts the race each year.

Thank you.

Linda Bullard, Houlihan's G.M., with 1985 winner, Derrick May.

Houlihan's Manager, Pete Sittnick (w/ hat, back to the camera, on the restaurant roof) at the 1986 start, the last year the race started in San Francisco.

BACK TO HOME PAGE