(Originally posted April 7th, 2014)
Summary
This was the start of my racing campaign for 2014. My goal is to make the Boston Marathon qualifying mark of 3:05:00 for the Marathon and I was planning to use the SF RnR Half as a great check to see how my training has been going for the year, and as preparation for the SD RnR Full Marathon, where I hope to actually run a solid Marathon. Previously, I've gone out too quick for the Marathon and have struggled to avoid cramping and walking.
In any case, the SF RnR was a solid run that involved some solid hills for an urban Half. I had the chance to start around Ocean Beach (corner of JFK and Great Highway), run up along the hills and northwest portion of the City (Sea Cliff, Richmond, and Presidio areas), cross the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge, run along the Marina, climb some more hills on Polk in order to make my finish at the Civic Center Plaza.
New Half Marathon PR of 1:28:47! Huzzah!
Race Details
I made sure to start off comfortable for the first few miles, as I would be climbing up to Sea Cliff and then to the Bridge. I was very conservative for the first mile and felt relaxed enough to pick it up a notch for the next two miles.
As I made my way up Lincoln, I made sure to not go too fast as I knew that the GGBridge is deceiving on it's initial incline. I picked up the pace once I got to the bridge and ran all my miles between 5 and 9 at sub 6:40min/mile pace maximizing on the downhill towards Marina Blvd.
Surprisingly, I started to feel tired on the flat portion of Marina Blvd starting around Sports Basement. I thought the downhill would keep my speed up, but I slowed down a bit as I approached Jeff's Palace (199 Marina Blvd). I slowed down considerably on miles 11 and 12 as the climb up Polk lasted for those 2 miles (7:08min and 7:42min, respectively). I then tried to finish strong on the downhill and straight away towards Civic Center. A runner started to come up on my right on the straight away and I pushed it (feeling my quads beginning to spasm) but I stayed in front even after he took the lead for a quick second. It was a great feeling to finish strong and have all the cowbells cheering me on!
The local news (KTVU 2) even caught my finish!
Reflections
Waking Up and morning Breakfast
I woke up around 4:00am in order to get my oatmeal and banana in before needing my necessary bathroom time. I was able to wake up exactly at 4:00am, warmed up water, quickly ate my oatmeal and banana, and went back to bed. At around 4:45am I got up to get all my essentials ready. I headed out to Civic Center around 5:15am.
Next time, I should probably give myself slightly more time, Waking up 3 hours before race time would probably be best (Race started at 6:30am)
Getting to the Start
I am very fortunate to live only a couple of miles away from the Start (Ocean Beach - corner of JFK and Great Highway). The race organized shuttles from Civic Center to Ocean Beach. Since I live closer to Civic Center, I thought I should go there. That decision was not great. I arrived around 5:30am (race starts at 6:30am) as the last buss left at 5:45am. The place was crowded and it took quite a bit of time to get on a bus. The travel time also seemed extraordinarily long.
By the time I got to Ocean Beach, the only thing I could do was wait in line for bag check as the lines were ridiculously long as well. This didn't worry me too much as I got a chance to stretch and put Icy-Hot on before. I even got a few striders in before getting to Coral 1.
Next time, I'll go straight to the start instead of using the shuttles ... maybe I'll just leave earlier.
Energy during Race
I should be more consistent on taking energy gels and Salt tablets during the race, I believe that if I took them earlier and at calculated times, I could have done better on the hills on the later stage of the race.
Event
Rock and Roll Marathon Series was pretty cool. This was my first event with them and I had been wanting to do one for a while. The medal was not as cool as some other events I have run, which was a surprise, as I expected this race to be more blingy since it is probably tailored for the non high mileage competitor runners (due to it's shear numbers, high marketing, and gimmicky events).
I like the bands they had along the course, but I felt that I was at the front pack and the bands weren't as pumped for me as they probably would be for runners in the later groups.
Post Race
The Civic Center Post-race was great. They had a lot of bananas and chocolate milk. I even got a picture with the Nesquik bunny.
I had my friends Andrew Beck, Mimo, Jeff Zeller, and Sidhtara Tep cheering me on. Patrick also came by and gave me a high five (he was representing Lerma). I got a chance to listen to The Neighbourhood at the post-race concert. Sweater Weather is so good.
All in all, I was very excited for this race. Running across the Golden Gate Bridge always makes for a great time as the magnitude of that structure is just awesome. I'll be running across it again on July 27th for the SF Marathon First Half!
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