Since this was my first full marathon, I was cautious about going out too fast. I needed to make sure I didn't get too excited. My run went well, despite feeling some ankle discomfort starting around mile 8. I figured the pain wasn't going to go away, so I knew I was going to just have to suck it up and deal with any pain that was going to come my way the next 18 miles. The first half went well and I resisted the urge to go out faster. I truley underestimated the number of short hills on the second half of the marathon. It wasn't the climbing that was a problem, it was the jarring decents that gave me problems. I was hoping to finish under 4 hrs...obviously didn't hit my goal.

Do more hill training...mix more climbs into my training runs.

My warm down consisted of getting funneled through the end of the race and looking for the rest of my running group that ran the 1st half marathon. I met up with them almost immeditely, as they arrived at the finish line almost exactly the same time I exited. We then started our 8 block walk back to the hotel. After we all showered, we had some awesome burgers down the street from the hotel, then proceded to cover another 6-7 miles total, as we walked to Chinatown and back backdown Union Square.


Discomfort in my right ankle starting at mile 8, also still had some tightness and soreness from Piriformis Syndrome, which caused my hamstrings to feel extremely tight around mile 24. The hills probably added to my pain, but everyone else running the full marathon had to run the same exact hills as I did, so I can't complain about the route.


The actual race was great. Now I know why the theme is , "Worth the Hurt", because this race caused some pain. The course was very humbling. The expo, some of the pre-race organization and the post-race activities weren't that great. In fact the expo was the worst one I've ever been to. Last year's was much better. This will probably be the last time I run SF for quite a while.