A week ago, I ran the (1st) SF half marathon again. This race has become one of my favorite races (albeit an expensive one) because it combines a great race with a fun weekend in San Francisco. I was lucky that I signed up last year at the bargain price of $85 dollars. This was cheap. Prices went up to $125 for the half marathon, even more for the marathon, until shortly before race weekend.

Still, this race is (relatively) close to me (2 hours from Sacramento) and it’s just a great race all around.

Last year, I took the Amtrak into the City and since that had worked out so well, I decided to do it again this year. J dropped me off at the Amtrak station around 10:30 a.m. and I switched to BART in Richmond and was in Downtown SF with my backpack at 1 p.m.

I walked to my hotel near Union Square and was able to do an early check-in. I dropped off my backpack and then headed out to the Expo to pick up my bib and race shirt. I caught the free shuttle bus that departed from Embarcadero/Market St and it took me to Fort Mason in 30 minutes.

I picked up my bib + t-shirt, got my picture taken at the Biofreeze wall, the new sponsor of the SF Marathon, and grabbed more water and a sandwich at the local grocery store, before starting my walk back to the hotel. I walked through Great Meadow Park over to the piers. The weather wasn’t as clear as last year, and Karl the Fog was keeping the Golden Gate Bridge well under wraps. No pretty views of the bridge for me!

I ran into some Germans on the way over to Fisherman’s Wharf (when do you NOT run into other Germans in SF, I ask you?). It was a Dad and his two teenage kids and he was gesturing towards the SF Marathon swag bag on my shoulder and with (very) broken English asked me where the Expo was. You should have seen the relief on his face when I responded in German and told them the way. Haha.

I paid a quick visit to the sea lions at Pier 39 and then ran into the  Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream carnival a few piers down, so of course, I had to stop for a free small cup of caramel cookie fix ice-cream.

I had dinner at the food court of Westfield Mall (it was the closest to my hotel and I just wanted a quick bite, and didn’t feel like eating at a fancy restaurant by myself) and was back in my room 7:30 p.m.

I got my stuff ready for the morning, called J for a quick check-in and then turned the lights off by 9 p.m.

My alarm was set for 5 a.m., but of course I had already been awake a few times. I can never really sleep well before a race, no idea why! I got dressed, had a protein bar and some water and made my way over to the Embarcadero start line at 5:40 a.m.. Lots of people were out and about already, after all, over 27,000 runners were signed up for the event this year.

I dropped off my bag off at gear check, got in line for the port-a-potties, as I always do, then I warmed up a bit and made my way to my corral. And then I had to pee again. I chalked it up to “phantom bathroom urges” (don’t we all have them before a race?) and just hoped that it would go away.

I had a pretty good start and the crowd dispersed much faster this year, which was great. The first 5 miles were the ‘easy’ part of the course because they were mostly flat except for one relatively short hill in mile 3 and even though I was not quite hitting my goal pace, I was moving fairly well and tried to focus on that.

I was a little bit frustrated with the pacer though. I had planned to try and stay with a pacer as a new race strategy, but the 2:00-hour pacer was a joke (sorry). I had started in front of the pacer and even though I was about 10 seconds-per-mile slow, I never saw him during the first 5 miles. Then in mile 5, all of a sudden, he passed me, and FAST. I probably should mention that mile 5 was also where serious inclines began. I mean, WTactualF?

I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I appreciate the runners who sign up to be pacers and put their own goals and ambitions aside to support fellow runners during a race, but if you commit to being a pacer, then, for the love of all things sweaty, run that pace. Don’t run slow for 5+ miles and then speed up disproportionally. The people that are looking to you to PR will not be able to keep up with such fluctuating paces. Well, at least I couldn’t. Not on an incline.

So, I let the pacer go and focused on myself and tried focus on the hills in front of me. There was a fairly rapid decline for about a mile after we passed the Golden Gate Bridge between mile 7 and 8, which is where I hit my fastest pace, and then there were some rolling hills left until the finish line.

I remember feeling really good throughout the race, but was still happy to see the finish line. There were a lot of people out cheering on the runners and even though I had contemplated at every water station to use the bathroom (yes, I ran the whole race thinking I needed to pee), I am glad I didn’t (and once I crossed the finish line, the urge was gone. Go figure!).

Sadly, I didn’t reach my A goal (still no sub-2 for me – womp!), but I was really happy with my finish time, because one huge success this year was that I didn’t die on the hills. I ran all of them, something I wasn’t able to do last year! On top of that, I felt great. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was glad that I was done, but I physically felt really good and my legs weren’t shaking or hurting.

I also shaved almost 5 minutes off my previous course PR from last year and finished at 2:05:03. My Garmin watch was scarily accurate this time as well. I ran a nearly perfect race line and the time was off by only 8 seconds.

I was a bit bummed this year as the organizers had made some big, last-minute changes. The race start for the marathoners and 1st half marathoners was split up. The marathoners had started at 5:30 a.m. and the 1st half marathoners started at 6:30 a.m.
For me personally, it meant that the course was much less crowded right out of the corral and there was a lot less swerving around and passing of people involved this time. For friends that had planned to run together but were signed up for different distances, this might have been a huge bummer.

The other big change was that the 1st half marathon was re-routed and we didn’t run over the Golden Gate Bridge anymore. That was a big disappointment and they literally announced this change a couple of weeks before the race. There was the option to upgrade to the full marathon (which was still going over the bridge – but I mean, who can just sign up for the full marathon if they trained for a half?) or defer your race entry, but I still think that was a shitty move on such short notice. In the end, it wasn’t a deal-breaker for me (since I had the experience of running the bridge last year), but I wish they had announced this earlier.

Still, you really can’t beat the race course through this awesome city. The 1st half marathon took us from Embarcadero along the piers to Fisherman’s Wharf, through Fort Mason and the Marina, along Crissy Field, under the Golden Gate Bridge, and through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, and I would run this race again anytime.

I collected my medal, some snacks and – wrapped in my race blanket (it’s amazing how fast you cool down and start shivering after a race, or is it just me?) – made my way over to the bus shuttles that took us back to the Embarcadero marathon (and 2nd half marathon) finish line and to the race festival.

I walked around a little bit, got my finisher beer, and took some more pictures. I had time to go back to the hotel, take a shower, and get some brunch at Mo’z Cafe before catching BART back to Richmond and Amtrak back to Sacramento.

I really had a fantastic weekend and wouldn’t mind doing this again next year!

Have you been to San Francisco? Wanna join me next year?

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Last year, I ran my first half marathon in San Francisco. This year, I returned to the City to run another half marathon (warning, this will be a long recap!).

As I mentioned before, the SF marathon has full marathon (DARK BLUE) and two half marathons. The 1st half marathon (YELLOW) was the first half of the full marathon (from Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf, over the Golden Gate Bridge and back to Golden Gate Park) and the 2nd half marathon (LIGHT BLUE) from Golden Gate Park through Haight Ashbury, Mission District back to the Embarcadero) was the second half. We picked the 2nd half marathon, because a) it started a little later and b) the elevation profile looked a little less intimidating.

In order for marathoners and half marathoners to run together, marathoners and 1st half marathoners start together at the startline at the Embarcadero around 6 a.m. in the morning, 1st half marathoners end at Golden Gate Park where the  2nd half marathoners join on the course around 8 a.m. and then end back at the Embarcadero.

Last year, I chose the second half marathon, because a) it started a little later and b) the elevation profile looked a little less intimidating. Here’s a comparison of the two.

This year, I was ready to tackle the first half.

I took Amtrak to San Francisco on Saturday, because driving and parking in the City is insane and it’s usually hardly faster to drive than take the train. Also last year, traffic to the Bay Area was so crazy that it took me 3.5 hours to cover 75 miles (to the East Bay) and if Susi hadn’t picked up my race package for me, I wouldn’t have been able to get there in time to get it.

So this year, I wanted to make sure I got there relaxed (and I also didn’t want to worry about driving back home for 2+ hours after my run on Sunday).

I got to San Francisco around 1:30 p.m. and then had to make my way over to the Race Expo at Fort Mason. Took a wrong bus that took me to the Presidio and had to walk back through the Marina to Fort Mason from there, but I didn’t mind because I was able to walk part of the race course that I was going to run the next day!.

I picked up my race bib + t-shirt and spent some time walking around at the Expo. I met a German guy at the Currex stand, who talked me into some insoles for my running shoes. Well, ‘talked into’ means convincingly showed me research evidence conducted nowhere else but at the Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln (a renowned sports university near my hometown). I mean, if that is not prestigious, well-established research, then I don’t know what is.

We chatted in German for a bit, then I walked around the Expo some more and took a couple of pictures in front of some of the photo ops they had put up.

I snatched two free bottles of Hubert’s Lemonade on my way out and then walked over to Ghirardelli Square, where I sat in the sun and enjoyed my free beverage.

Around 4:30 p.m., I caught a bus back to Union Square and checked into my hotel. I stayed at the Bartlett Bunkhouse, which is somewhere between a hostel and a hotel. I had a room with private bath and I was pretty happy with my sleeping quarters. The room was small, but it had hardwood floors and the bed was pretty comfortable!

I went out again to get some dinner (had a arugula-salami-pizza at Pizzeria Delarosa) and then bought some water and went back to the hotel. I was in bed by 9:30 p.m. 

Countdown was on:

My alarm was set for 4 a.m., but I didn’t really sleep that well and woke up every hour. Why is that before a race, you just can’t seem to sleep through the night (or at least, I can’t)?

I got up bright an early, had some water, nibbled on some oat crunch cereal. I got dressed and ready and was out the door by 4:45 a.m.

The streets of SF were still dark and mostly deserted, but you could see people  (some wrapped in plastic bags) in running gear with bibs pinned to their shirts converge on Market Street heading down to Embarcadero. The runners were up and roaming around the city.

I was a little bit afraid that I was going to be cold in the morning, because I had planned to run in shorts and a tank top (but I did bring a sweater along), but it was surprisingly mild once I had dropped of my sweat bag with the UPS trucks.

I stood in line for a port-a-potty stop and the lines were really long, so I made it into my corral kinda late and was stuck in the back. We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over the Bay Bridge and shortly after, my wave was off at 6:02 a.m..

I had a pretty good start, felt good and was moving along fairly well… or so I thought. There was a lot of swerving around and passing people on the first couple of miles (actually, I found the whole race to be pretty crowded and the crowd never really dispersed) and my pace for the first few miles was definitely slower than I had hoped for.

The first 5 miles were the ‘easy’ part of the course because they were mostly flat except for one relatively short hill in mile 3. In mile 6, we hit the first steep incline leading to the Golden Gate Bridge. I managed to run this, but my pace slowed considerably.

As we headed towards the bridge, I have to be honest and say that I was hoping for more scenic views, but early in the morning in July, the bridge is usually wrapped in Karl, the fog (thick and wet) and Sunday was no different. You literally couldn’t see 50 feet in front of you, let alone the big red arches in their full glory, and the bridge was wet and a bit slick, especially the metal bridge connectors.

We shared the road with oncoming runners coming back over the bridge and even though that was kind of cool, it also felt a bit crowded. 

When we finally reached the other side of the bridge, the clouds opened up to reveal the most beautiful blue skies. But we weren’t able to enjoy that for very long because we turned around at the Vista Point and headed back into the fog towards the Presidio.

There was a fairly rapid decline for about a mile at mile 11 (where I hit my fast pace – surprise, surprise!) and then the rolling hills of the last 2.5 miles started and I was so. not. prepared. Whoever decided to put these hills at the end of the race must like cruel jokes.

Finally, we were outside Golden Gate Park and I knew the finish line was near. I attempted a final push for the last half mile of the course, but it wasn’t quite enough to beat my previous PR.

I finished in 2:09:55 ( which is 25 secondes behind my PR from last year (on the perceived easier 2nd half course).

I was pleasantly surprised how close my Garmin was to the official time (and that I ran a pretty tight race line because I only ran .15 miles long!)

I didn’t reach my time goal, but I am not sad about it. All things considered (a few missed workouts sessions, a forced 2-week rest period right before the race due to some ankle pain, which luckily disappeared and didn’t give me any more trouble), it all worked out pretty well and all that really counts is that I made it to the finish line.

This was a really fun course to run and I couldn’t believe that the miles flew by as fast as they did. The first half marathon felt all around a little quieter than running the second half marathon last year (which could be a combination of an earlier start time and the course being along the shore and over the bridge with less spectators at this early hour. The second half course on the other hand starts quite a bit later and goes through mostly residential neighborhoods).

Overall thoughts on the race organization:

Registration and Packet Pick Up

Registration is online and super-easy, the not so easy part is shelling out the money. This race is not cheap, but then again, you get what you pay for and this race is really well organized.

I wish they would offer to mail the race packet, because if you’re out of town and have to go to the expo to pick up your packet the day before the race, it’s kind of an inconvenience. Then again, the expo is really cool and I am glad I was forced to go see it this time. The race shirt is really nice, too.

Race morning Amenities

There were plenty of port-a-potties and signs at the starting line. UPS trucks were lined up to accept your sweat bags with your belongings (which were driven over to the finish line). Waves started on time.

Race course

This course challenges you right out of the gate with its early start time. I absolutely loved running along the piers, through the Marina, and  over the Golden Gate Bridge, even if the fog completely obscured the view. The hills were challenging, I am not going to lie, but I’d run this race again in a heartbeat.

Each aid/water station was adequately staffed with volunteers and I thought they were appropriately spaced out. I wish runners would just use the provided trash cans to dispose of their paper cups and not just throw them on the ground. It made running/walking through the water stations a little inconvenient.

Finish line and Post Race Amenities

They had water right behind the finish line, bananas and power bars. Then you were moved right along to collect your medal and heat blanket and get out of the way.

They had a special challenge tent where you could pick up your challenge medals. I earned the “Half it all” challenge medal this year, because I participated in the 2nd half marathon last year. It’s a nice perk.

Then even further down, they offered hot coffee and Irish coffee, which was really nice because it was still chilly due to the fog.

Results

The results were up relatively fast. You already could access your ‘unofficial’ finish time through the RTRT.me race app and it ended up being my official time, too. 

Photography

There was an official race photograper (team), but I was disappointed with it this year. There were supposed to be 4 different photo stations along the race path (at the start line, on the Golden Gate Bridge, in the Presidio, and at the finish line in Golden Gate Park) but there were only three photos of me near the finish line. That was kinda disappointing. Every time I did see a photographer along the way, they were just ‘watching’, or fiddling with their cameras. Maybe it was just my bad luck (other people got more photos of themselves), but I was bummed anyway.

Also, last year, all photos were free, this year, you got one – zoomed out – photo of yourself crossing the finish line, every other image must be purchased (starting at $20 for one digital image!). For the price we pay for the registration, I felt this should have been included (like last year).

The photos that I do have (from after the race) were taken by A., who I met at the finish line and who also needed someone to take her picture. We both had run the race alone and it’s hard to get your medal in the picture when you’re attempting selfies.

We started talking and really hit it off.  She’s from Texas and we’re both working in earth science. So cool! We ended up heading back to race festival (at Embarcadero) together, got our ‘free’ beer and some other free goodies, and ended up adding each other on Facebook.  After enjoying our adult beverage and a nice chat, it was time for me to head back to the hotel to check out and go find some food. 

I also had time to hang out for a couple more hours.

All in all, I had a really fanastic weekend in San Francisco. Some people expressed sympathy that I ran this race by myself, but to be honest, I really didn’t mind. Of course, I would have loved to run with Susi again or meet up with other people, but as I mentioned before, I really don’t mind doing things by myself.

Have you run races alone? Would you?