'Gazelle of San Quentin' Markelle Taylor to run Bay to Breakers for first time
MARIN COUNTY -- This weekend, Bay to Breakers returns to San Francisco after a two-year pandemic break. The race will also bring the next chapter for a Bay Area runner who has drawn a lot of attention for several years.
Markelle Taylor spent 18 years in San Quentin for second-degree murder. While serving that sentence he took up running, repeatedly won the prison marathon, and became known as the "Gazelle of San Quentin." He was released in 2019 and his running career has continued at a remarkable pace.
"In prison, or running marathons, you don't give up -- or in life -- until your body completely shuts down," Taylor said while doing some light training on Thursday. "You just keep on moving, taking one day at a time."
That is the philosophy Taylor adopted while running laps around the yard at San Quentin. Three years after his release and off parole, the running continues. The attention has followed as well, his sub three-hour Boston Marathon getting covered by the likes of the New York Times.
"I've got to switch back over to middle-distance running," said of Sunday's race. "See if I can turn it on at the right time."
The next race, at about seven and a half miles, will be a change of pace after Boston. But the Bay to Breakers will also be a homecoming.
"I used to be a kid in San Francisco, on Divisadero and Hayes, looking out the window at all the people going by. But this will actually be my first time running it," Taylor said of his Bay to Breakers memories growing up in the city.
After Sunday, it's the Dipsea, a handful of track races, and still more events around the country. His running calendar is relentless, and all of it done between his job, some part-time coaching, two different group meetings, and his support network for the formerly incarcerated.
"You know, just checking in, and seeing how each other is doing, feeling," Taylor said of the effort to stay connected. "All those who are still incarcerated, and behind bars, we represent them. And we're doing our best to get examples so that they can one day share the same experience that we have today."
Taylor says the philosophy he found in San Quentin has not changed.
"I equate every life circumstance as my own personal marathon," he said of his running mentality. "Just life's challenges in general, if you stay focused and never give up."
He has no plans of stopping. Bay to Breakers is just the next race on the way to the next challenge.
"It'll be like coming home, coming home to San Francisco," Taylor said, looking ahead to Sunday. "And I'll just have a mark to go after the next time I run it."
