What an amazing experience! Running 26.2 miles all over SF allowed me to see all the sights on completely open roads. The traffic was blocked off everywhere on the course including some of the biggies like Embarcadero, the Golden Gate bridge, the entire park and even Haight street.
The starting line was at Embarcadero and Mission. With 20,000 people entered in the mix of full and two half marathons and a 5K, there were people everywhere! My start time was 6:45 (wave 8), but I arrived early and snuck into wave 7.
I was fortunate enough to find a hotel .8 miles from the start. Just enough walking to warm up and not too far to walk back after the race.
The course started along Embarcadero with views of the piers, Alcatraz Island and Fishersman Wharf.
My goal was to finish in 4 hours, which would require a 9 minute mile average. I knew I had an uphill battle when the sea of people restricted my first few miles to a 11 minute pace. The photographers were taking pictures a few yards from the starting line and everyone slowed down raising their hands for the photo op.
The early fog helped keep it cool and first half of the marathon remained packed with people. Some of the road, trail and hills narrowed concentrating the people, making it harder to stay on pace. I was zig-zagging to pass people all over the place. Starting in the 7th wave, I must have passed hundreds of people (Ron would have been proud to see such a kill stat).
Running across the Golden Gate Bridge was amazingly cool (literally and figuratively). Runners were stopping (and some cases not) to take pictures. Having the Golden Gate Park to ourselves was also cool.
The hills were challenging. And there were many of them. But each time I reached the bottom looking up at the task at hand, I’d just say “what would Matthew do?” And that would give me the kick to get up the hill quickly. The SF hills aren’t quite as challenging as the Chicken run or Kingsburg Grade; my local running prepared me well!
I’ve never been to Haight Asbury, so that was a treat too. Running down Haight Street with the road closed was a weird sight with all the colorful store fronts and odd sells. Just past Haight, the marathon folks would change the course to keep car traffic moving. I was right at the beginning of one of these changes. I ended up leading the pack down 16th Street. It felt weird running down 16th by myself (or at least it felt like by myself since I was out ahead of the group).
At this point the crowd was thinning out and I was feeling good. I averaged 10 minute miles for the first 7.6 miles and was about 14 minutes off my 4 hour goal. The second half I felt good enough to shave 4 minutes off that time. I ended up finishing in 4 hours and 10 minutes (9:34 pace). My fastest marathon to date, I felt like I could have done better. I’ll need to try a course with fewer hills and fewer people!
This run ranks up there as one of my best and most enjoyable. The views and challenging terrain were incredible. My running is progressing well enough now; I can’t wait to try either Fresno or Sacramento this winter.
