I know. It’s been a long time between posts. Hey, I’ve been out and about, having
fun this racing season. Now that there’s a bit of a lull in my scheduled
events, I will take some time to review the 2012 San Francisco Half Marathon as well recap my mini vacation. (Sorry, it's my blog. :) )
This race was not originally on my schedule but at the last
minute I received an invite from relatives to join them. The hitch? I had to run under another
person’s name. :-" I know this is a no-no, and if I ran well enough to challenge
anyone for a spot in the top ten of her age division I probably would have
declined. But I am old and there was no chance I would be beating out any
youngster for a prized top ten age division finish. Heck, since the family had
entered their estimated finish times based on the slowest person of the team
(the person I was replacing), we would be starting in what I believe was the
second to the last corral. So no personal record (PR) would be run that day due to the thousands
of runners I would need to navigate throughout the race. So, yeah, I accepted
the invitation.
Dear husband and I drove down to San Francisco on Friday.
(Man, I love our Prius. Driving there was a LOT cheaper than flying. Wouldn’t
have been the case with our old Hyundai Tucson!) Weather was spectacular! We
took a 1.5 hour lunch break in
Ashland, OR where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is held (Feb.-October). I love
that area. Definitely will need to consider a mini-vacation there. Maybe find a
nearby run, some good golf courses and take in some shows and good eating. I
almost hated leaving the area, but San Francisco was calling.
We arrived late (about 10 p.m.) in S.F. just four or five
blocks from where the start line would be on Sunday. Fortunately, we found a
very good place to eat (Globe) and I was able to get a good night’s sleep. This
was key for me since I rarely sleep at all the night prior to a race.
After a late breakfast on Saturday, we took in a bit of
sightseeing before making our way over to the Expo to meet the relatives for
packet pick-up. I thought it a bit chilly for buck naked bicycle riding, but I
guess it did not bother these guys. :-o
And I bet Portlanders thought they were
radical with their naked bike ride.
How about doing it in broad daylight?! :P
(Okay, I did fuzz out the frontal exposure since I don't wish to offend anyone.)
Early afternoon I met up with relatives whom I’ve never met.
My cousin and his wife and father-in-law were there at the entrance of one of
the largest running expos I’ve ever seen. Maybe it just seemed large because it
had to accommodate the thousands of runners picking up packets for the full
marathon, both half marathons (first half and second half), and a 5K. (Altogether, over 19,000 registrants.) I do know that there was so much free food
(energy bars, ice cream, cookies, etc.) being passed out to runners that I
could’ve eaten it all and skipped dinner. I didn’t though. :)
Enjoying the expo.
The family and full team. I'm running for the beautiful lady in the middle.
Once the packets were picked up, met up with one more
cousin, and we had perused the entire expo floor to our satisfaction, we walked
near the waterfront where we caught a bus and headed toward a little restaurant called Firenze By Night in North Beach on the edge of Chinatown and Little Italy. We had dinner about 5:30. A bit
early but good for me. I hate having a large meal sitting in my gut late the
night before a run. The timing was perfect, the food excellent, and the company
was great.
My cousin’s wife is pregnant. She was training for her first
half marathon when the pregnancy caused her to withdraw from training. Her
father, Hans, has been running for many years and has run many marathons. He
was visiting from Germany and was going to run the S.F. Half with his daughter,
son-in-law and my other cousin. I’m sure he didn’t mind running it without his
daughter given the circumstances. This will be the first grandchild. What a joy
that child will bring in that family for many reasons. It was wonderful to hear
stories about Jenny’s life growing up in Europe and to finally get to meet the
cousins (brother and sister) I have never met.
After dinner we went different directions, agreeing to
attempt to meet up somewhere around the front of corral 6 early the next
morning. If we couldn’t find each other then, we would all meet at the finish.
They were coming in on BART from the Palo Alto area, I think. Whereas I just
had to walk a few blocks to the start. Logistically, it was easier to play it
by ear.
Summertime in San Francisco is usually very VERY mild, if
not sometimes cold. Early morning of the race it felt like a cold autumn day.
It looked overcast and it was cold enough for a jacket. Thankfully, I brought
my disposable jacket. (You know, the one you get at the local Goodwill or
Salvation Army just so you can deposit it on the side of the road during a
race?) I could not locate my family amongst the literally thousands of people
still arriving for the late starters. I also couldn’t locate the porta potties
but it appeared they were in a location that wouldn’t have given me time for
once last trip to the john anyway. (This was a small area of irritation for me
since I was running late due to my traveling companion, the dear hubby. When it
comes to races I am almost ALWAYS waiting on him to get his camera stuff or get
his jacket or finish his trip to the bathroom. Grrr…)
So I eased my way near the front of the corral and hoped for
the best. The race started and so
did I, sans family members. Two blocks into the race I knew I needed to shed
the jacket. While most of those around me all wore long sleeves and long pants,
I was out there in shorts and a singlet. I must be a Pacific Northwesterner.
The first four miles or so were very nice and very flat.
Being at the head of a corral with much slower times than you run means you’re
running ahead of the crowd. It was nice. The air was cool and moist. You could
almost feel the fog but not quite. About mile 5 I caught up with the tail end
of the previous corral. This would be a problem as we hit the hill going up to
the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The hill wasn’t that bad, the crowds were. Many groups of
people who appeared to be running together were walking and talking, sometimes
5-6 abreast. This really messed up my rhythm as I would be forced to stop
running myself or traverse across the road to find an opening in order to get
past the slower participants. Still, I couldn’t be too upset. I knew this
wouldn’t be a PR race and would likely be a PW race given the crowds. I just
tried to enjoy the run.
Once on the bridge, the crowds were more of a problem since
there was less room (one car lane width) on which to run. I would creep up on
someone hoping they would feel my presence on their shoulder and move over.
After awhile I would do the “Excuse me. On your left” shoutout as I squeezed
through the slightest of openings. Now I know that irritates a lot of people (I
overheard someone later that day complaining to another person about how people
where constantly shouting “excuse me” and muscling their way through the run)
but, seriously? If people in front of you get slower and slower, are the faster
runners supposed to be held hostage by those slow pokes because it would be
“rude” to express a desire to run through? Well, if you say yes, then I bet you
also don’t allow faster golfers to play through, do ya! b-)
Anyway, the run over and back on the Golden Gate Bridge was
still fun but not much to see. It was foggy below the bridge deck and the top
of the bridge uprights disappeared into fog. I bet it would’ve been spectacular
if it had been clear. The trip through the Presidio was another matter. There
was a spot where you could look down at the bay and see the clouds just
clearing the tops of the buildings along the opposing hill. It was serene and
beautiful!
Whereas the crowds began to appear in clumps (i.e. a short
stretch of clear road, then some more congested areas of slower runners) there
seemed to be a great deal of trying to run around that slow poke or that group
of friends that were running and talking and generally being a little
inattentive to where and what they were doing. Whenever I would find myself
being impatient, I would remind myself that this run was a social event for me,
too. I needed to relax and enjoy it.
Certain I was probably running behind my family members,
I would see people in the distance who I thought might be them. So I would
speed up, only to discover I was wrong. I would do this several times but I
never found them on the road. One cousin told me that when I dropped into the
Golden Gate Park I should leave nothing in the tank since I would be almost to
the finish. So that’s what I did.
When I closed in on the finish I felt GREAT! I don’t know if
it was the cool weather in combination with being forced to keep it slow in
those middle miles or thinking I might be the last family member on the course.
Whatever it was, it felt good to have a little sprint left in my legs.
 |
| See the mist still hanging in the tops of the trees? |
Turns out, I was the first family member to finish. The
others had started quite a ways in the back of the corral. They took several
minutes to get to the start line, whereas I took merely a few seconds. I missed
seeing them finish as I was trying to find my husband and still thought they
had already finished at that point.
There was quite a spread of food and beverages after the race.
The BEST part (and something I think every cold weather run should consider)
was the Irish coffee! Oh my word,
that hit the spot! I was cooling off way too fast and in spite of the space
blanket, I was chilled. The Irish coffee helped fight off the cold and the
damp.
Yep, that's Jameson Irish Whiskey and whipping cream. Yum! Perfect to fight back the chill.
The finishers! (Glad I brought my Portland Fit jacket as the space blanket wasn't enough.)
Overall, I think this was a great race, especially when you
realize that over 19,000 people ran the full marathon, two half marathons and a 5K. (You have a choice of doing the first half of the marathon
course or the second half. My family chose the hillier first half.) It was well
organized from start to finish. My only complaint was the placement of the
porta potties at the start.
However, that might not have been an issue if I hadn’t felt rushed for
time.
Although the San Francisco Marathon is not a flat course,
the majority of hills are supposedly in the first half. If true, then I would
say this would be a nice course to run the full as I didn’t feel the hills I
encountered were terribly hard. (Of course, after the Fueled By Fine Wine my
view of what is a hard hilly course may be skewed a bit. :-?)
As expected I did not run a personal record but neither did
I do a personal worst. I was surprised to find I broke two hours (1:54) and I
would’ve placed 6th in my age division if I had been running the
race under my name. My pregnant cousin-in-law did okay for her first half
marathon, finishing in the top 100 of her much younger age division. ;) It was a great weekend and a great
race. Definitely one I may wish do to again…legitimately. ;))
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