I have the personal belief that half-marathon race reports should only be half as long as full marathon race reports well, because you only ran half the distance, right? That being said, I have a lot to say about SFM so this one is going to be a little longer than it should.

Last year I ran the First Half and signed up to run it again.

{got this photo from the SFM Facebook page. i love the sea of humanity on the GGB!}

But having hurt my foot in June, I decided to switch to the “easier” (I use that term loosely) 2nd Half instead.

{2nd Half Marthon course}

Since the First Half starts at 5:30 am, I had reserved a hotel room in the City for the night before the race. After switching races (the 2nd Half doesn’t start until 8:30 am), I was going to cancel it, but my friend Wendy said she’d join me in the City so we checked in to the Hyatt Embarcadero on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday Dinner

We met Audrey, Sandra and Sandra’s BF for dinner on Nob Hill. We did what any runner typically does before a race – carb-loaded on Italian food. It was soooooo good, but I have come to the conclusion that carb-loading is overrated – at least for me. Why do I think this?

I ate a bunch of rosemary bread and pasta. I rarely eat bread and pasta so eating it before a race is just not a good idea. The rest of the evening and next morning I felt sluggish and bloated. Next time I will just stick to eating the type of carbs that I usually eat.

Sunday AM Pre-Race

My natural body alarm clock woke me up at 3:30 am. My first 2 thoughts were:

1. I’m up so early I could go and spectate the start of the Full and 1st Half races (that didn’t happen).
2. The last thing I want to do is run today (feeling sluggish and bloated).

Before checking into the Hyatt, I received an email notifying me of a pre-race pasta dinner for $22 and a “Grab and Go” race morning continental breakfast with no price listed. So with the cost for one meal listed and no cost for the second meal, wouldn’t you assume that the second meal is free?

Well, I did so I didn’t bring or buy any food for breakfast. So I was really annoyed to find out that there was no free continental breakfast. There were granola bars and pastries for purchase.

Luckily, there is a Noah’s Bagels around the corner so I picked up a bagel there, then we made our way to Mission St where the shuttles were waiting to bus us to the start of the 2nd Half Marathon in Golden Gate Park.

It was a typical San Francisco morning – cool and foggy, but the temps in GGP were about 10 degrees cooler than downtown.

{wendy and i at the starting area}

We got to GGP just in time to see the 3:00 Full Marathoners racing by. It was perfect timing because I knew that a couple of friends should be passing by shortly after that. A decent sized crowd had gathered and it was so much fun for cheer. It helped me get over that “I don’t want to run” feeling.

First I saw a guy running with the Japanese flag. It got me all choked up. Then, right on cue, I saw Katie flying by! She looked so good and was pumping her arms to get the crowd to cheer louder! I knew that Sandra, Audrey and Layla were cheering further in the park so I quickly texted them to let them know that Katie was on her way.

Shortly after Katie, Alyssa came running by. She had told me what she was going to be wearing so I spotted her right away and started yelling her name. I was so happy she saw me. She trained so well for this race and I knew it was going to be her day.

By that time Kerry (who also ran the 2nd Half) arrived so I left the spectating area to meet her.

We chatted for a while, and then I went off to the potty lines (my 5th or 6th time of the morning) and then dropped off my bag. It was time to start our race.

The Race

The 2nd Half started on JFK Drive and headed toward Ocean Beach before turning left and up MLK Drive. This is essentially where Sandra had me run the Sunday before and I was so glad that I did.

Most of the hills in the 2nd Half, especially the tougher ones, are all in GGP so I knew what to expect. While that didn’t make it any easier, I mentally accepted it and just embraced the hills. For the most part. After a few miles of continual climbing, turning and climbing, the hills got old really fast.

I saw Audrey and Layla just before Mile 3 and was so happy to see them. They started yelling and jumping up and down when they saw me and I ran over and high-fived them. It was a real pick-me-up!

{best sign ever!}

Approximately the first 6 miles of the 2nd Half ran through GGP and with every step I kept thinking m*f’ing hills! And I also mentally drafted an open letter to Mayor Lee telling him that he really needs resurface much of the park. Too many uneven surfaces and potholes!

For this race I had planned to drink a Generation UCan drink before the race, take a GU mid-way and just drink water at the aid stations. The UCan drink instructs you to drink it 30-minutes before you run, but since I had to pee so many times before the race started, I was afraid it was going to make have to stop during the race to pee and I didn’t want to do that. So I ended up drinking about .25 of it then taking a GU every 4 miles. Since I ran (for the first time) without a fuel belt, I double-fisted my way through every aid station, just drinking water.

Somewhere around Mile 6 we finally exited the Park. It felt so liberating!

We ran through The Haight (i.e. Haight/Ashbury), which was my most favorite part of the race! It felt great to run down an empty Haight Street. There are so many interesting sights and sounds and I just tried to take it all in – I even smelled brunch!

Around this time I first glanced at my watch and thought that I really should slow down. But The Haight was the start of some serious down hills that were just as tough as the up hills. I really tried to, but it was tough to slow down.

The miles just ticked by and before I knew it, I was in the Mission. I remember thinking to myself, “Wait, this race is going by way too fast.” Some of the best crowds were in the Mission! They had a nice vibe going and really kept the energy up.

It was around this point that I noticed the motorcycle guys (in addition to SFPD the course security/support was a motorcycle gang) changing the course. All morning I had been so confused by runners merging from other streets, but then I remembered Aron explaining that there were alternate routes to allow for traffic. Made sense.

Eventually I got to Mile 10, which is around Potrero Hill. It leads to the industrial area behind AT&T Park. I ran through this area for last year’s Giant Race and I hate it. It is so ugly and desolate. This is where I started to struggle. My legs felt fine, but I started to have a hard time breathing – like I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs.

I took my first walk break, which would be the start of a few during the last 2 miles. I’d pick a street sign or marker to walk till then start running again. It was not fun.

But then I saw the Lululemon cheer squad. THEY. WERE. AWESOME! They had a ton of people cheering with music blasting. I high five’d all of them as I ran by. I don’t think people understand how much it means to have someone there cheering for you. Even if you only see them for 5 seconds, it’s a huge mental lift to know that someone is there waiting for you; you just need to get to them. It really does make all the difference in the world.

The last 2 miles were really tough. I felt bad for the full marathoners. Most of them looked like they were just over it. SFM is crazy hard and I applaud all of them for running it. But seeing them walking made me feel like it was okay to walk too. So I did.

Then I looked at my Garmin and did some calculations in my head (it took me a while since I am not good with numbers) and I realized that I could be close to a PR. I got a little excited since I wasn’t even trying to PR.

So I started running again and willed myself to keep going.

I knew it would be close but I just kept telling myself each step brings me closer to the Finish Line.

But where the hell was it?!? I lapped my Garmin at 13.1 miles and cursed another course that ran long.

When I crossed the Finish my Garmin read 13.37 miles in 2:14:41, which would have been a 25 second PR. But with the problems I’ve been having with my Garmin since I did the software upgrade, I still wasn’t quite sure.

Immediately after crossing the Finish Line, we were forced to come to a full stop. The line was backed up for medals and photos. I immediately felt my legs start to cramp up because there was no place to move. This is the only thing I would recommend changing about this race. Move the medals and photos much farther down the Finish Line chute – like after the food.

Speaking of food, after about a 10-minute wait in the medal line (I skipped the photos) I was handed a bag of scones, fruit and granola bars (the bag made it so much easier to carry everything), and then free Jamba Juice! And then free Zico coconut water!

I waddled my way over to the official results tent and learned that my official time was 2:15:21 aka missing a PR by 7 seconds. I was sad for about 10 seconds then just shrugged it off. I wasn’t trying to PR and was really happy with the way the race went so there was nothing to be sad about.

I collected my Half-It-All Challenge medal, which just happens to be the best medal ever! If you ran each half in consecutive years you qualified for this medal. I am so, so, so glad I decided to switch races. It is so beautiful and I love it so much!

Post Race

Aron arranged a post-race lunch so we all made the mile walk down the Embarcadero to Pier 23 where we ate, drank and shared our race day stories. I *LOVE* these people – they make running in the Bay Area so much fun!

Wendy and I had to check out of the hotel by 2 pm so we left shortly after 1 pm. As we began our shuffle back to the Hyatt, I could feel blisters on my feet and told Wendy that we were taking the first Pedi cab that came by. And we did. It was the best $10 ever spent.

Final Thoughts

- I realize that I am in the minority, but I love the 2nd Half way more than the First Half.
- Thank you to everyone who came out to cheer and volunteer.
- The Half It All Challenge Medal is the best medal I’ve ever received.
- SFM is one of the best-organized races that I’ve run and it makes me love San Francisco more – if that’s even possible.
- Congrats to everyone who ran SFM, especially the full marathoners – running in San Francisco is the real deal!
- Thank you Sandra and BF for taking such great photos and sharing them with us!
- I highly recommend adding the Beastie Boys to your running playlists!

I just got back from a short, easy run in preparation for tomorrow’s race. It was overcast and cool again, which seems to be the trend of the moment. I like it!

Yesterday a colleague and I took an extended lunch to pick up our race packets at the expo. It was scheduled to open at Noon, and we got there just a few minutes before then.

A line had already formed and extended around the building.

When the doors opened, they controlled how many people could enter a time. It took us a good half hour of waiting before we finally got into the building.

Once inside, it wasn’t very crowded at all.

Bib/Chip Pick-Up

When I originally registered for this race, I signed up to run the First Half marathon (in addition to the 5K, this race offers a full marathon, the first half marathon, or second half marathon). But taking running barely any miles in June, I decided to switch to the Second Half, which doesn’t have as many hills, and the ones that it does have aren’t as steep. I made this switch over a month ago and it was rightfully reflected on my Runners Confirmation Sheet.

The bib lines were organized by Bib # and my bib read #15700, which was a number for the First Half. When the volunteers gave me my bib and chip, it read the First Half. I showed them my confirmation sheet and pointed out that it read Second Half. They didn’t know what to do and directed me to the Solutions Desk.

So I had to stand in line at the Solutions Desk. There was a volunteer walking around trying to find out what our issues were. When I told her mine she also had no idea what to do so I had to keep waiting in line.

Once I got to the actual desk, I explained my situation and the girl told me, “Well you’re in the computer as the second half, so your chip will just be timed for that.”

I explained to her that:

1. I didn’t want hassles from any volunteers/officials at the start line of the Second Half for wearing a First Half bib.

2. I would qualify for the Half It All Challenge (a special medal if you ran both half’s in consecutive years) and I also didn’t want any hassles trying to get my medal.

So she ended up giving me a new Second Half bib chip, but sadly, it doesn’t have my name on it. It’s okay, I can live that.

Oh and she also moved me up a Wave. :/

Race Shirt

Next we moved onto the race shirt pick up. Since this is the town of the World Champion Orange and Black team, I was thrilled to see that the race shirts were orange!

I love that it has the GGB on it. It’s long-sleeved and on the arm it reads, “Worth the Hurt”, the slogan for this race.

Half It All Challenge

My colleague and I had run into a friend of his at the expo who was also doing the Half It All Challenge. We had been wondering what the process would be for that.

When I switched races, I had asked the staff person who corresponded with me about it, but didn’t receive a reply. The day before the expo I was surfing the race’s Web site and saw that I had to “purchase” it, meaning I had to register for it by adding it to a shopping cart and checking out, etc. even though there was no cost for it. It would have been nice to have some correspondence on this. Even after receiving the confirmation email of transaction, there was no other information on what to do.

So at the expo, we asked at the Information Desk and found out that we had to go to Half It All Challenge Desk. Oh ok. So we circled back through the expo and found the desk.

The volunteer working there tried looking up our names from last year but didn’t find them. Then she tried looking up our registrations from this year and couldn’t find them. Instead of giving us a hard time she finally said, “I trust you” and put the special sticker on our bibs indicating that we were eligible for it. God Bless her.

App

One new thing about this year’s SFM that I think brilliant was the iPhone app!

It has all the information for runners, spectators and for those of you who want to track runners.

This along with the Virtual Race bag really indicates the race’s efforts towards being green. I love it!

The rest of today will be spent doing last minute errands, then I’m heading up to the City to the expo, dinner and then getting ready for race day.

Good luck to everyone running SFM!

(Warning: ridiculously long post)

I don’t know how I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 12 years and not have run this race before. It is a great one!

I registered for the first half months ago and have been looking forward to it all summer. While I’ve run across the Golden Gate Bridge many times, I’ve never actually done so in a race. Its one of those things that you just *have* to do.

With so many people from Daily Mile, Twitter and Facebook running the race, I was looking forward the weekend.

Here’s a photo of a sign that Martiza made. Its the first race sign I’ve ever had my name on!

I had planned to meet up with Missy to head to the expo on Saturday afternoon. I headed up to the City a few hours early to run a few errands. As I parked at the San Francisco Center, I got a notification on my phone that Chanthana had just “checked-in” on foursquare at the same location! I got so excited because we’d tried making plans to meet up at the expo and our schedules didn’t jive. I quickly messaged her and we ended up meeting in shoes and handbags at Nordstrom (aka “home base”)

Having followed her training on the Daily Mile, as well as on Twitter, I was so excited to meet her in person. And its the first time that I’ve actually met up with anyone as a result of foursquare!

After lunch with Missy, we caught the shuttle from the Hyatt to the expo. I am *so glad* I did not drive there. Parking in the area was a madhouse. I think we arrived as the crowd was filtering out because it wasn’t as bad as other people described (someone told me that 80,000 people filtered through the expo over the 2-day period). We had very little wait time to get our bibs, and while a bit crowded walking through the exhibitor area, it wasn’t quite so bad. I made a few purchases and was happy to be able to say hello to Danica and Page.

After the expo we got to see Ron and the rest of the Ironman family.

I was beyond happy when Ron gave me a Lucy bobblehead to add to my collection!

Having waited too long to reserve a decently priced hotel room in the City, I was fortunate to have a good friend put me up for the night. Although my wave wasn’t starting until 6:02 am, I wanted to get there early. I called it a night at 10 pm, with my alarm set to go off at 4 am. I slept like a baby until 2:15 am, then tossed and turned for about 45 minutes. The next thing I knew I had snoozed my alarm twice and actually dreamt I was already dressed and at the Start Line.

Eventually I dragged myself out of bed and got race ready. This is where I veered off from my usual race day rituals.

* I usually have a whole-wheat bagel with peanut butter for breakfast. But when we went to Safeway the night before I saw King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread instead and *had* to get it. So that’s what I ate for breakfast, without the peanut butter. It just didn’t seem to go together.

* During the last half I ran, I didn’t even use my fuel belt so I decided not bring it at all. Its the first half that I’ve done that. I did carry a small hand-held bottle with grape Cytomax (also a first) but ended up just relying on the aid stations.

My friend dropped me off at Mission and Embarcadero, right where the bag drop was. It was perfect timing because the crowd had not yet arrived. I walked around for a bit and then realized there was tons of open space with very little people there so I went on my mile warm-up jog. I’ve been having issues with my lower left leg and it was extra stiff and painful. After the jog I headed to my wave area (or what I thought was my wave area). It ended up being a wave later so in total, I probably stood there waiting for about an hour before I crossed the Start Line.

During the entire time all I could think about was how much I was hurting. The longer I waited, the more doubt crept in my mind and I wondered if I should even run the race. But I couldn’t bring myself to walk away.

Seven minutes before we were to begin I had to use the bathroom. And once I have to go, I *have* to go. There was no getting out of the starting chute, it was fenced it. So I decided to just start the race and pull off at the first porta-a-potty that I saw. Another first for me – I’ve never stopped to use the *facilities* during a race before.

There was a single porta-a-potty at .11 miles, but the line was about 20 people deep and not moving. So I ran further and saw one of those single stall public restrooms. The line was only about 8 people deep so I stopped. I watched the time click by on my Garmin and couldn’t stand it. I knew my chip would record my “official” time so I paused my Garmin so I could track my *actual* running time. 15-20 minutes later I was back on course.

Surprisingly, my leg did not feel painful. Yes, it was a little bothersome, but not painful. I could run with ease and not think about it – which is what I did. While I was working hard, I never felt like I was over-extenuating myself.

We could not have asked for better weather. It was *perfect* running weather – mid 50’s and foggy – typical San Francisco summer weather. I wore a long-sleeved shirt. I could have done with a short-sleeved one, but didn’t feel like it was too hot at all. It was very comfortable conditions.

It seems like every San Francisco race has to include the Fort Mason hill. While not very long, it is steep and killed me during last month’s Giant Race. I was determined conquer it this time. Once I made it up that hill it was smooth sailing until the Golden Gate Bridge. As we ran through Crissy Field, we could see it, and thankfully, it was only partially covered in fog.

I feared the incline up to the GGB. While it was tough, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I imagined it to me. (Side-note of personal pet-peeve: Why do they have Japanese drums at every Bay Area race? Do they motivate anyone?! They were rather annoying here…)

(Cheesy alert: While most of my friends do not care for Train, I love them and was thrilled when my little iPOD shuffle played “Save Me San Francisco” as I ran across the GGB). While running across the bridge was amazing, trying to manuever through the congestion was not. Only half the bridge closed and it was crowded. I got elbowed, kicked, cut-off — you name it. As Missy said, “I dropped more f*bombs on the bridge than Barry Zito during his last game.”

Coming off the bridge we made the turn into Golden Gate Park on to what I think was the toughest hill of the whole first half. And the beginning of a series of rolling tough hills. I’m not gonna lie, they got to me. But with each uphill, there is a downhill. But those were tough too. My quads are not happy right now. I remembered my coach telling me, “Hills are our friends, they make us stronger.” That happy thought did not last long.

At one point, somewhere on Mile 11, as I was being cut-off for the umpteenth time by someone from the Korean-American Running Team, I reached the top of the hill, turned the corner, only to find another hill waiting. I literally put my hands up and said, “You have got to be kidding me.” At this point I was pretty grouchy but tried to put it into conquering the hill.

Those last 2 miles were the toughest. I admit, I stopped to walk a couple of times. My legs felt like jelly. But then I looked at the people who were running the full and I knew I had to suck it up and not be a wimp, so I pushed to the Finish Line, which by the way, was at 13.30 miles – not 13.1. (For those of you who do not run…it matters.)

Missy and I with our bling!

I guess you could say officially, it was probably my worst half-marathon time, but I’m going to take my unofficial Garmin time and call this a PR. Its 3 minutes faster than any of the 6 previous half-marathons I’ve finished.

After the race I had wanted to head back to the Finish Line and cheer on the 2nd-half runners, as well as the full marathon runners. But the wait for the buses was well over an hour and by that time, I was ridiculously freezing. I ended up calling my friend (who is so good to me) to come and pick me up. I needed a hot shower badly.

12+ hours later, I am a little sore, mostly in my achilles and the arch of my foot. But I’ve iced, stretched, rolled, and had a Polkers’ burger and curly fries, so I am absolutely a happy girl.

This was such a well-organized race and so widely attended. I am definitely going to be doing it again! Congrats to everyone who ran it – it sounds like San Francisco was good to many of us!

PS I realize that this will come as a shock to most of my friends, but I did not take any photos during this race, not even on the GGB. I was all business. So, here’s a nice photo from SFGate.com of today’s race.