San Francisco 1/2 Marathon race report

Once again, more professional race pictures to be added once they are up - and I will make a separate blog post about my vacation and with all my other pictures in it!

Pre-race dinner - Lisa, me, Linn, and Jen!

Running across the Golden Gate bridge!

The view from up here was totally worth all the hills!

Happy campers post-race!

Elevation map... let me tell you, all of those hills look a lot bigger when you're running them!!

Background/training - Didn't really do much for this race (surprise surprise!) - took the week pretty much off after the Seafair triathlon because of vacation!


Pre-race - Spent a lovely few days exploring San Francisco and meeting lots of new people! Jen and her husband were nice enough to let me crash in their guest bedroom on Thursday and Friday night, which was awesome! And, we were lucky enough to go to a talk/book signing with Dean Karnazes and Bart Yasso! Jen, Linn and I stayed in a hotel near Union Square on Saturday night so we could be closer to the race start - I don't think any of us got much sleep, but that's not really surprising the night before a race! We went out to dinner at an Italian place and met up with Lisa, her sister, Christina's friend Jared, and a couple of other people - super fun! Sunday morning we were up at 4 AM for the walk to the race start. It was really pretty - the Bay Bridge was all light up, and there was an arch of white balloons with little blue Christmas lights underneath them floating over it. The porta pottie lines were so long that we missed our wave, but we hopped in the next one and soon enough we were off!

Mile 1-4 - The race started out along the waterfront, past Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Wharf. I had gone exploring there on Friday, but it was still fun to see, and the weather (though a bit foggy) was perfect for running. I started off slowly and just tried to get my legs to loosen up before we hit the tough parts of the course. The sourdough bread smelled so good as we ran by - so tempting! There was a steep little hill at mile 2, which I ran up and felt quite proud of myself. Hey, maybe the rest of the course wouldn't be as bad as I thought! I settled into a nice steady pace, and then...

Miles 5-9 - There was quite a big hill going up to the Golden Gate bridge - which I was expecting, but by the time I had run/walked/shuffled up to the start of the bridge, I was a little bit demoralized. If the entire course was like this I'd be lucky to finish in under 3 hours! Running across the bridge was nice (especially once we got to the midpoint and it was gradual downhill instead of gradual uphill!) - I maintained a steady pace, stayed focused, and felt good. It was fun to see Linn and Jen coming back, and I got plenty of GU at the turnaround on the other side. I stopped to take a few pictures coming back - I just couldn't resist! I was still feeling strong and steady when we came off the bridge, and I was getting ready to enjoy a nice downhill - after all, we came UP to the bridge, so we must get to go DOWN off of it, right?

Miles 9-11 - Nope. There was a bit of downhill, and then another big hill around mile 9.5. There were a lot of people walking by this point, but I managed a run/walk up the hill, and the view at the top was incredible (see the non-bridge picture at the top). We were also rewarded with the nice long downhill that I had been waiting for, and I was still feeling good!

Miles 11-13 - As you can see from the elevation map (maybe), the last two or so miles felt like running upstairs - a flat section, an uphill, a flat section, another uphill! I ran probably 3/4 of the way up every hill, took a short walk break before the top, and ran the flat sections. It was a gorgeous neighborhood, and even though I felt like I had been running uphill the entire race, I was able to stay strong and steady until we came into Golden Gate park and crossed the finish line!

Final time: 2:35

Reflections/post-race: I was very pleased with my time of 2:35. It's not fast, certainly not near my PR, but it is a minute faster than I ran on pancake-flat Eugene. I didn't train very well and I definitely didn't train for hills, but I was able to stay strong and steady and I never really faded or hit the wall. It was a really fun race, and I was so glad to have been able to meet some great people! Jen and Linn were nice enough to wait for me at the finish line, and we bussed back to the start line and then walked back to our hotel. I'm really glad we did so much walking after the race - I am probably less sore now than I have been after any other half! I had a nice post-race brunch with Christina's friend Jared at Cheesecake Factory, and then wandered around the mall at Union Square until it was time to catch the BART to the airport for our flights. Despite waiting around in SFO for 6-7 hours b/c of a delayed flight, it was a great trip and a fun race!

Next up: Danskin Sprint Tri, 8/15/10 - going for that sub 1:45!