San Francisco Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

My goal was to complete this race at a 9:15 pace. As this was my first 1/2 marathon, I didn't know what to expect.

The start of the marathon was pretty quick--compared to what I had imaged. I was slowed up for probably the first 15 second. Once you got past the gate, the field opened up quite a bit. I ended up starting much faster than I intended. Mile two was at 7:42 pace. Smoking! The entire race I was worried that I started too quick. I was doing great until about mile 7. My hips started to tighten up a little. However, I began to run with another runner who what running at the same pace. He was from Florida and talked me through the race. Without him I would have slowed down. Thanks Glenn Vercles! About mile 10 I wanted to quit! What kept me going were two things. First, I thought about my ability to do a HIM for Team in Training--which kept me gong. Second, was visualizing drinking the Guiness that my niece brought me from Ireland! About mile 11, I started to tell myself only eight more laps! My legs and feet were killing me at this point. Also, I noticed that my shoulder were pretty tight, which is a good indication that I was too tense. During the last 3/4 mile, we hit the hill (not much of one at that) and my calf began to cramp up. Finally, we hit the last turn and I saw that wonderful finish line! Whoo Hoo. My speed had probably dropped down to 10 miles per minute.

I had to stop twice during first three miles to tie my shoes. I need to learn to double knot them! Or better than that, I need to get those little lace do-hickies. Also, three steps into the race I realized that I should have gone to the bathroom. I ended up finding a porta-potty about 1/3 through the race.

These two things probably cost me 2 minutes.

I wandered around for about 20 minutes and stretched out for about 10 minutes.


As this wasn't one of my top races this year (and maybe it should have been) I did not intend to peak. I ended up sort of peaking. I ended up doing 11 miles two weeks before and the previous week I did a 5 mile hill run.

My nutrition for the last two weeks was not very good. I believe this was the root cause for my leg cramps.


I would do this race again.