The plan was to start this run at 8:30ish miles and see how long I could hang on. I still haven't gotten around to fixing/replacing my Garmin so I was going off of my stopwatch and just checking my mile splits. That worked out pretty well for the first five miles and I was pleased with how things were going. I slowed down on one tough hill, but still was sub-9 without killing myself and I was able to bounce back to my 8:30ish pace pretty easy. The start of the race was beautiful, running right by the bay with the fog rolling in.

Then we hit the incline to the bridge and the bridge itself. I was feeling OK but there were no mile markers on the bridge (no miler markers at all between miles 5 and 10) and I very quickly fell off my pace and had no idea what I was running. The bridge itself is pretty hilly -- nothing terrible, but enough that it sapped my speed quite a bit. It also seems to go on forever, heh. But I was having fun and getting a kick out of the cars honking and going by. About a quarter of the way across the bridge the front-runners passed us coming back and everyone cheered like crazy. That's the only reason I like out-and-backs!

I grabbed some water at the bridge turnaround. For most of the return trip I was keeping my eyes on the runners coming at me, hoping to catch Shizu. I finally spotted her about 3/4 of the way across and she was booking it with the 3:55 marathon pace group. She looked awesome! We passed so fast I only had time to yell her name and catch her eye before she was gone.

From there it was a nice downhill onto Lincoln and I took a gel. And that was when I fell apart. I knew there were some rolling hills for the last three miles of the race but I was not expecting them to be as tough as they were (and I studied elevation charts!). After the bridge there's an underpass and then the course curves into a sharp uphill to mile 10 and I felt completely spent. For a few minutes there I seriously thought I was going to throw up.

I hit the top of the hill, grabbed some water and checked my watch for the first time in a while (no point when I was on the bridge) and saw that I was at 1:29 and change. So...no shot whatsoever at a PR. All of my goals were out the window at that point. I despaired for about three minutes and then said screw it, I'm having fun. Fortunately that coincided with a looooooooooong downhill stretch that I flew down (running my only sub-8 mile).

From there it was a long series of climbs and each one took more out of me. I wasn't in pain so much as I just *could not* work the hills. I had nothing in me. It was disappointing, especially considering all the hills I've run in training, but what are you going to do? I got passed like crazy on every hill and was doing a shuffle like it was the end of a marathon. Yuck.

The last couple miles went by pretty fast, though, and soon enough I was in Golden Gate Park and spectators were yelling that we were "almost there" and for once they were totally right. The finish line really sprang up on me.

On the one hand, I'm disappointed that after some pretty intense training I ran my slowest half mary so far. On the other, this was the most difficult half mary I've done (I'm not counting the trail run a month or two ago, since I didn't race that one) and there's no way I could've pulled off this time in this race last year. I was in the top 13 percent of my age group and the top 20 percent overall, which I think is my strongest overall finish.

That said, I'm definitely doing another race (either a half mary or a 10k, or both) sometime soon -- I have earned a PR!

I think the only thing I'm really bothered by is how thoroughly I fell apart in the last couple miles. I'll admit that I gave up a little when I realized how much time I'd lost on the bridge. I wish I'd kept my mental game on.

I walked through the finishers' chute and picked up my space blanket and medal and hit the buffet line, then grabbed my sweat bag. I found Paul pretty easily. I got super cold while waiting for Shizu, so I put on all my clothes and bundled up in the space blanket then did quite a bit of stretching, and more stretching after Shizu came in.

Shizu was fantastic -- 2:09 for her first half mary, on a tough course. And she looked SO HAPPY. She was really damned proud of herself, as she should be, and when I told her I was thinking about doing another half mary soon she said to let her know because she thinks she'll want to join me. I've created a monster!


Hills. I also did zero speed training for this race, but I'm not sure that was an issue.


San Francisco Marathon is a top-notch event. Considering how much they're doing at once -- a full marathon, two half marathons and a 5k -- everything runs very smoothly and on time. The course for the first half marathon is tough but beautiful and it's fun running with all the marathoners. My friends said the course got pretty crowded on the bridge, but I was in an early wave and didn't have any issues.