San Francisco Marathon Race Report

Drove into SF on Saturday and headed to the Expo.  They couldn’t find my bib, so I had to go to the solutions line and was issued a new bib.  They were very helpful, but the new bib was a disappointment because it didn’t have my name or proper wave placement—they gave me a pass to get into my desired wave.  Frankly, I thought the rest of the Expo was a bit of a dud.  Saturday night went to North Beach for some great pasta and the best beet salad I have ever eaten.  If you’re ever in SF, try Bocce Café.  Drove as much of the race course as possible Saturday night and my only reaction was Yikes!

I was a little worried about getting to the start line on Sunday morning as my hotel was across town, so I called for an early cab when I woke up.  Stood outside my hotel for a couple of minutes when a cab pulled up, so I made it to the start without any hassle and plenty early.  Sat around waiting for time to start.  Bart Yasso was announcing the race start and he did the countdown for each wave. 

 I was in Wave 5 because I wanted to run with the 4:00 Pace Group.  I was told that they typically start near the end of the wave, but they were right up front.  As we prepared for our start, I wasn’t prepared for the emotion of actually toeing the line at my first marathon.  Counted down and off we went.  I cruised into my goal pace for the first mile—aiming to do a 9:20 mile.  The 4:00 pace group pulled out irresponsibly fast—there is no way they were doing 9:09 or 9:10.  I figured they were trying to bank time ahead of the hills.  I actually never saw them again, but my wife said I was always just behind them (until the end).  My wife and kids were cheering for me at mile two.  At mile 4, there was a group from “Wear Blue” honoring fallen soldiers (the founder of the group was running a double marathon today, one for her, one for her late husband), that was an awesome spectacle.  The first few miles clicked by just great—9:14, 9:06, 9:11, 9:09, 9:08.

Mile five begins the climb up the steep hill that takes you from sea level up to the Golden Gate Bride.  Here is where the hill training really pays off.  I felt pretty good going for an even effort up the hill.  We made it up onto the bridge and it was so nice getting to run on the actual roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We were only given a single lane of traffic in each direction so it was a little crowded, but not unbearable.  I caught up with a staff member of the official training program and just sort of paced off of her across the bridge and back.  Back across the bridge, the course heads down Lincoln past some amazing views of the coast.  Miles six through ten—9:33, 9:00, 8:50, 9:00, 9:05.

Next we headed toward Golden Gate Park.  Here the First Half Marathoners split off and then rejoin as they finish.  Then for a stretch it feel a little lonely as it is just the Full Marathoners.  Then all of a sudden I was overtaken by pace bikes and the lead runners of the Second Half Marathon.  This gets a little discouraging because you’re feeling slow and tired and being passed by fresher runners for the rest of the race.  Miles eleven through 15—8:44, 9:20, 9:07, (HM split-2:01:08), 8:46, 9:39.

My wife and kids were waiting at the 18 mile mark.  What an encouraging thing to have people cheering for you.  I also got a big boost by cheering for the 2^nd Half Pace groups as they went by.  This portion of the race takes your out of Golden Gate Park and onto Haight.  Miles 16 through 20—9:45, 8:10, 8:54, 8:56, 9:25.

Here Haight starts it’s huge descent which was steep enough to make it hard to actually run fast.  This was also new territory for me as my longest run prior to the race was 20.5 miles.  I started to fade here.  Getting passed by lots of 2^nd half Marathoners here.   This is by far some of the ugliest portions of the race as once you turn off Haight, the race winds through industrial portions of the City.  The funny thing was that the ugliness seemed to fit perfectly with how I was feeling.  I think I was one solid grimace through section.  I switched over to some better music here, but even the “Imperial March” aka Darth Vader’s theme, didn’t help much.  Miles 21 through 25—9:38, 9:36, 9:46, 10:24, 11:17.

At Mile 25 we run up to AT&T park (SF Giants’ Stadium) and we had planned to have my son run the race mile with me.  My wife and kids were waiting next to the stadium and my son joined me.  It was cool to have him along side me for that last mile.  11:23 and then 3:17 to the finish line.  Official finish time:  4:09:12!

Bart Yasso commented on my son helping me finish.  We headed through to get snacks, the awesome 3.5” coaster medal, finish line photos, and then began to wander around trying to connect back up with my wife and daughter.  About that time I began to feel faint, so we made a beeline for the medical tent to lie down for a while.  Reconnected with my family there and took in the finish line festivities.  First marathon done. 

What was I happy with?  I felt really good on the hills.  I was also able to run the whole thing only stopping for a couple of pictures and porta-potty visits.  I was also so glad that I wore my hydration belt.  That helped me fuel and hydrate on my terms.  What could have been better?  I did get a little fast on some of those early miles—which contributed to my fade at the end.  It just seemed a little hard with all the early hills to gauge the effort for an even race.  I was pretty close to my planned time at the half, but I could have run a slightly smarter race in the second half.

All in all a great first marathon experience.  Really captured the SF Marathon motto:  WORTH THE HURT!