It's Friday afternoon (just about quttin' time here on the East Coast). Let's all stop pretending that we're doing work and watch Dan Rubenstein and Matt Ufford laugh at some of the worst track and field bloopers on YouTube.

It's okay to laugh -- everyone was okay. Well, I guess we don't know that for sure, but we're going to assume that. So we can laugh.

If there's one time in which distraction is easy to come by in running, it's when running on vacation. Sometimes, that distraction prevents the running; when you're spending six to 12 hours walking around theme parks, museums, national parks or shopping districts, it's easy to sleep through a scheduled run and stay in the hotel bed or cabin cot. But if you can yank yourself out of the bed, you win that holiest of training trophies: new scenery.

We visited Mendocino on the northern California coast earlier this month for a few days. I brought my trail shoes and expected to get in two runs -- a 3-5 mile tempo and a 10-mile easy run. The longer distance would have been better on the first day because I was fresher coming into it. The first morning, however, followed a long night with heavy beer and light sleep. There would be no running that morning.

But the second night was better, and the second morning worked.

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It's a star-studded field at Sunday's Zazzle Bay to Breakers, a 12k footrace celebrating its 101st running, featuring an Olympic silver medalist, the B2B course record holder and a Boston Marathon champ.

Meb Keflezighi, one of greatest American distance runners, is perhaps the most famous name that will toe the start line at Howard and Beale Streets at 7 a.m. local time come Sunday. HIs competition for the win -- and the $25,000 bonus if the winner can beat the top female -- will be Kenya's Sammy Kitwara, the course record holder (33 minutes, 31 seconds) and Ethiopian Deriba Merga, the 2009 Boston Marathon.

In addition to those names, the Bay to Breakers run will have another unique wrinkle -- sobriety checkpoints.

This year, 360 police officers will line the 7.46-mile racecourse to enforce open-container laws and screen the less-serious competitors at a handful of sobriety checkpoints.

But, like last year, police say they will have a soft touch. After all, runners can still jog in their birthday suits.

"We will enforce fun and enforce the stuff that detracts from the fun," said Deputy Police Chief Denise Schmitt, who is coordinating the police response.

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Skechers Shape-ups, "ideal for walking and low or high impact fitness activities," are pretty goofy-looking sneakers. See what I mean?

But what they lacked in aesthetic value, they made-up for with health and fitness benefits. Skechers said the shoes can, among other claims, "increase lower leg muscle activation" and "calorie burn." Problem was, Skechers was being sketchy. And now they have to pay.

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Track stars will be looking like this at the 2012 Summer Olympics:

via i.dailymail.co.uk

That's the new "TurboSpeed" suit from Nike, which they say can shave off 0.23 seconds in the 100 meter. How? Dimples:

via rwdaily.runnersworld.com

Basically, the suit turns sprinters into giant golf balls, cutting down on wind resistance. And if Nike's claims are true, then in theory, someone could beat Usain Bolt -- a Puma-sponsored athlete -- simply by putting on the suit (USA's Walter Dix finished 0.22 seconds behind Bolt in Beijing).

Runner's World's "Ask Dr. Daily" has some fun with the "TurboSpeed" suits.

Onto the other running links!

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I'm running my first-ever half marathon on Saturday morning, and it's a big one: the Brooklyn Half-Marathon, organized by the New York Road Runners.

Training for this has been a long process but without ever doing this before, I have been a bit lost at times. It's difficult to tell your friends you can't hang out because you need to run in the morning, and it's also hard to account for rapid changes in weather and the crucial need to bring water on lengthy jogs in the heat.

With only four nights of sleep between me and destiny, I come to the Stride Nation community for their final pieces of advice.

This week, I have been doing the following:

• Cut out alcoholic beverages
• Increased water intake (drinking as much as possible)
• Trying to sleep more
• Doing some light running today and tomorrow, but taking two consecutive days off before Saturday
• Ready to buy some Gu and eat it before/during the half