Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon & 5K - RunHalf Marathon

My first half marathon is done! I don't even know where to start, I had so many highs and lows during the run.

Felt good for the first few miles. Started out slow because of the crowds, ended up doing a lot of weaving around walkers and Team in Training people before I was able to get my own little patch of road to run.

Started to get a bit tired around mile 5. The outside of my left knee started hurting and I was much more tired at that point that I was on my normal training runs (probably because I had been holding 10:45's instead of 11:00's). Started to get into a groove from miles 6 through 9, especially when I reached the Great Highway and ran by the GGTC tent.

Then the Great Highway death march began. This last part of the race is an out and back with a turnaround way down the road, then back into the park for the finish. It felt like the turnaround would never come, and all of the people ahead of my coming back towards the finish made me wish I was with them rather than where I was. It sucked. Finally I reached the turnaround and my legs were toast. My lungs were fine, but it was no longer my legs that were keeping my moving forward it was my head. I had lots of conversations with myself, not allowing myself to even consider walking and telling myself that I would be done soon and would get to sit down. The Great Highway is wide open with no shade, and on the way back we had a killer headwind which made things even tougher.

I finally made the turn back into the park and tried to put in the last little kick for the last half mile. I knew I had beaten my goal time (2:30) by a lot, but wanted to see what I could do the last little bit. Ended up dragging myself up the last hill and across the finish line in 2:23:34.

Overall I thought it was a great effort for my first half marathon. I did the training, and finished better than I thought I could. Even with that there are a few things I would do differently:

- Long runs longer than 10 miles. I needed to know what the pain of those last few miles would be like in advance of the race.
- Running routes with less stops. In training I have lots of stops for stoplights and traffic and not having those little rests made a big difference in terms of fatigue in the race today.

Found my husband, got my t-shirt, walked through the Expo and headed down to the GGTC tent. Got a bagel and said hi to the GGTC'ers. I was one of the last to finish of our group so most people were heading home. Walked with the husband down to the bus stop and took the bus home. Did lots of stretching and foam rolling when I got home, followed by an ice bath. Then went out to lunch for patty melts and milkshakes!


Just time in my running shoes. I'm really pleased with how today went.


Did the 5k associated with this race back in 2007 when I was almost 50 pounds heavier and in horrible shape. Finished that 5k in something like 37 minutes. To come back 3 years later as a triathlete and finish the half marathon in 2:23:34 is a huge accomplishment which I'm super proud of. I think that spending the off season this year focused on the run and training for this race was a great decision. Taking this next week easy and then training begins for Wildflower and Vineman!