Sidelined (and a race recap)

I didn't forget about this blog (even though it's been 2+ months since I wrote a measly 3 posts...).  As it turns out, I have a lot more time to blog about running when I'm too injured to actually run.  I'd like to change that, although I guess I'm technically sidelined again (not because of an injury!  I had an infected wound that I'm not allowed to sweat in.  Seriously.  That's a real thing.).  I figure I'll restart this thing with a (late) race recap from  The San Francisco Marathon.  I only ran the first half (which was plenty far for me).

I went into this race with very few expectations.  A peroneal injury had eaten up most of my training cycle.  I finished a faster, flatter half a month prior so just finishing seemed like a silly goal since I knew I would make it.  My A goal was to break 2:20, which was admittedly probably a little too lofty considering my training.  My B goal was to PR.  My C goal was to make it up the hills without having to walk (San Francisco is hilly, guys).

The first wave.

The morning of the race I woke up at 3:30 to catch a 4:20 shuttle at the BART station nearest my house.  I was so nervous that I was going to miss the shuttle that I didn't even fall asleep until, like, 3:00 so this post could also be titled "racing on zero sleep.".

The shuttle promised to get runners to the start in time for the first (of 8 waves).  I was wave 6 which meant I got to stand around in the dark for an hour watching others take off.  This was an Olympic trial qualifying event so there were plenty of fun, speedy people to see.

With 30 minutes until my wave was slotted to go, I went and stood in line for about 28 minutes to use the bathroom.  The lines were so long and seemed to be crawling.  There were people in waves much earlier than mine that completely missed their start because of this.  By the time my mom (who had come for the race) had arrived I was stripping my sweats off and running to the gear check.  She wanted to take photos but I had to run to my start (I wanted to be near the 2:20 pace group).  I pushed my way through the crowds but never actually found the pacer (my bathroom break put me a little behind schedule) so I took off at a steady pace.

The one pre-race shot my mom took as I was
shoving my sweats into my drop bag.

The first half of the SF marathon is a pretty stellar tour of the city.  You run along the Embarcadero for a couple of miles, through Fort Mason and the Marina and up, up, up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  I actually think I did well pacing myself throughout the race.  I started off easy since I knew the first 3 or so miles of the race was the only part of the course that was flat.  I was able to run the uphills (slowly) and actually passed some people in miles 3-5 as we approached the bridge.  I was around a 10:30-11:00 pace until we hit the uphills and I crept up to ~12:00/mile.  I also had to stop twice -- once my D-Tag fell off my shoe (not sure how) and once my sock was very obviously giving me a blister and I stopped to fix it.  After the second time I had to stop, I lost hope of a 2:20 race and focused on just finishing with a PR.

Around mile 5.5 we started crossing the Golden Gate.  This part of the course was something I was really looking forward to and even though it was cool, it ended up being my least favorite part of the course.  It was crowded (it was an out and back part of the course and the "back" was only separated by cones), the lanes were narrow, it was REALLY slippery and people kept stopping in the middle of the course to take selfies on the bridge.  I kid you not.  I felt really strong going into this part of the course but I expended a ton of energy dodging people taking photos and trying to figure out how to pass people with approximately 0 inches of space.  The bridge is also a slight incline (and then decline) which is my favorite to run on, but I didn't get to enjoy it much.  The "back" portion was better for me because it seemed like the crowds had thinned out and I maintained around 10:00-10:15 pace for miles 7-9 or so.

Dorky post race shot.  I liked that the medal
matched my outfit.

After the bridge there is one major downhill (to rival the ascent to the bridge at mile 4.  I bombed down this hill and clocked mile 11 in at 9:38.  The elevation profile showed the end of the course through the city into Golden Gate Park as a steady incline with a couple of rollers.  They should have zoomed in a little onto the course because it really would have looked like a series of about a bajillion small hills that everyone was cursing at this point.  I pushed hard because I knew I'd be able to see my mom around mile 12 and then it would be over.  After almost splitting the wrong way when the half and full marathons split, I got back on course and ran into my mom!  I was trying to get her to snap a late-race action shot of me but her phone died.  And then it was done.

After the race, I found my mom and we took more than my share of coconut water and muscle milk from the sponsors.  It was only about 8:45 am when we finished (so, still really cold and wet in SF). Instead of post-race beers they gave out post race Irish Coffee.  The coffee was weak and the Irish was strong, which was just what I needed to get through the shuttle ride back to the Embarcadero and the BART ride back home.  I slept for a while, woke up to meet mom for some refueling with mac and cheese and then fell asleep for the rest of the night.

I finished in 2:25 something which is hardly something to write home about, but I also felt much better than I did after finishing my first half (after which I was sore for like a week).  I suspect I can push myself a lot harder than I am and I'm looking forward to test that limit with my next goal race (November).