San Francisco 1st Half Marathon Recap

San Francisco is, by far, my favorite California city. I had so much fun during this trip, I had to write a separate post to recap the rest of the week. But running the 1st part of the marathon was why I was there, so here's my story.

Back in '09, unbeknownst to me, I ran part of this course while training for the LA marathon on a random visit to the city. That day I only made it to the foot of the bridge. So on Thursday, my friends and I drove part of the course to refresh my memory. My main goal was to run the whole thing without stopping. I was determined to attack the hills with all I got and never slow down my pace.

Sunday morning I woke up at 3:30am, that's the earliest I have ever been up for a race. As I approached the starting line I started feeling the electricity of the other runners. Everyone's excitement was palpable and its simply amazing to be in the middle of that.



I looked for other runners whom I have met over twitter and DailyMile but the separate waves and the throngs of people made it impossible to find anyone. Oh wells. Better luck next race.

At about 6:30am our wave got the go ahead and we were running. The first couple of miles of the race were fairly easy. We followed The Embarcadero along the piers and are treated to the colorful touristy part of the city. A bit after passing Pier 39 you can smell the bread being made at Boudin. It smelled delicious. But the fun ended at mile 2.5 where we encounter our first hill. This is exactly what you expect, almost a hundred feet of elevation in less than a quarter mile. I had a fairly good idea of how long that climb was so maintained my pace and got to the top rather quickly. After that, a slow downhill got us back to sea level to do a few easy miles along the Marina. Here the route curves towards the beach for a minute to give us a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really exciting to know that in a few minutes (maybe "few" is not the right word) we would be running across it! However, the closer I got to the bridge the more I noticed how high I was going to be climbing up to it.

The second hill comes when we reach the foot of the bridge. this one is steeper and longer than the previous hill but thankfully there were a lot of supporters at this point. Something I found interesting: there were lots of Harley Davidson riders volunteering along the course. It was rather amusing seeing them wearing their leather pants and jackets, while standing near their bikes, and also donning orange SFM volunteer hats. HAHA

And then there was the bridge. This structure is truly a marvel of engineering. Its hard to really get a feel of how big it is when you drive across it, so you can imagine the feel of actually standing under the pillars. It truly is humbling. I couldn't stop looking up to really get a sense of how tall they are. A few times while crossing, the fog would creep in and cover the top of the pillars. That was really an amazing sight. As soon as we reached the north end of the bridge we turned around and did it all over again. It is at this point where the curvature of the road is more visible and you can really gauge how much climbing the bridge actually makes you do. I had underestimated how convex its shape is, but I never once really noticed it. I think I was looking up way too much to notice it. Also, during this part of the run a girl and I kept passing each other. She mentioned that it was going to be her and I to the finish. We talked a bit while on the bridge and it was very nice to connect with someone while running. So Sarah, wherever you are, thanks for being awesome!

Crossing the bridge was great but its definitely not the hardest part of the course. That title is rightfully earned by the uphill into the Presidio which is immediately after we got back to the south side of the bridge. Two words: steep and long. That's really all I remember. I was truly set on not stopping or slowing down so I focused on anything else I could to not let my mind get tired.

Just as fast as we started climbing, the course turned into an insane downhill. Next thing I know, people were sprinting pass me. I thought this was funny because not much later I was passing all of them again haha.

By mile 11 I knew I was going to finish and accomplish my goal. I tried to push a bit harder pass the 8 blocks between us and the Golden Gate Park but these were at a slight uphill as well. I don't think the course let up after that. I continuously felt I was climbing. But the energy always comes back when I start seeing more spectators and other runners already wearing their medals and walking about.

I knew PRing in this course was out of the question for me. It was never a goal. So finishing at 2:13:25 didn't bother me. This was actually the slower half I've ran. Since I felt I could have done about 5 more miles after finishing I know I didn't give my all physically, but I'm truly content with just running this course and not worrying about the time. Maybe next year.