San Francisco Kaiser Permanente ½ Marathon
When: Feb 3, 2013 (Super Bowl Sunday)Start: 8:03 am (3 minutes late)
Shuttle to start: Free
Cost: Early birds are $55
Official Time: 1:54:03 13.1 pace: 8:42 (Finally broke my 12-Yr PR)
My Garmin: 1:54:01 13.22 miles pace: 8:38
T-shirt: Cotton long sleeves; extra $ for tech tees
Medal: First time medals were given to finishers
Course: Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway
#Runners 1/2: 5,700
#Runners 5K: 2,500
Weather: Mid 40s 
It was in 2001 when I first
earned my ½ marathon PR. This PR today was
only my 2nd PR and it came 12 years after City to the Sea. My results today has reinvigorated my interest in
running more halves. The half marathon has, for lack of a better analogy, been
like a middle child to me. I often ignored them because compared to the 5Ks and the 10Ks, which are short enough
to train for-- the ½ distance has been overshadowed by my ‘cheapness’. The registration fees for some halves are as much as the
marathon itself. Honestly, if I am going to
train and also pay full price for the entry, I might as well go for the big
one, right? If I can run longer then I
see it as getting my money’s worth. I
know it doesn’t make any sense to some people.
And when I do run my half marathons they are more or less used for my
training as a tune up race. It’s never really my full goal to go all out
because in the back of my mind, I have to save the legs for the real thing, which has always been the marathon. Yeah, the marathon is my 'thang", but maybe not for long.
This time it was no different.
I was not even planning on running this half and I only had two nights to
think about it. A cousin of mine, had signed up in advance and due to unforeseen circumstances,
plans changed so she offered me her spot. Luckily, Rhody Co Productions made it easy to
transfer bibs. I literally walked up to the Will Call table on race morning and
in less than 2 minutes I was squared away.
I’ve run this race in 2010 and
loved the course. I kept telling myself
I will do this race again, but the the cheap person inside of me prevailed: if I’m going to have to drive to the Bay Area I might as well make it to the full
marathon. Driving 4 hours for the ½ seemed so wasteful. This time, since I have a free entry, why
not? Plus, it fit perfectly well in my
training.
I drove up the day before and I
stayed with cousin. We had sushi and sashimi for dinner. I was happy with that since I love
sashimi. I was not worried at all about
lack of carbs. My thoughts were, this is not a
marathon. It’s not that serious. (Not trying to sound like a snob to
halves here.) I was only 15 minutes away from
the start and since I knew exactly where I was headed, I was not nervous at all. I woke up at 4:30, drank my Gatorade, had one
plain mini bagel, a banana and a Power Bar. I got ready in hardly anytime. I was so relaxed I didn’t even lay out my gear the night before like I usually
do for marathon preparations.
I left the house at 6:00 and it
was still pitch black. The nippy air hit me as I tried to get into my car. As I drove down
the Great Highway, I started seeing orange cones that lined the course. Then I
got the fluttering butterfly feelings. Uh-oh, not so relaxed any more. As I saw more cars looking for parking and
runners walking briskly towards the yellow school buses, it was all the
excitement of racing once again that came over me. I love this feeling!
I found a tight parking space and
I was worried that I would be boxing the person to my right. I kept moving back and forth to give that
person more room, but in my excitement to get on the bus, I did a poor job of
parking. Finally the fellow to my left,
helped me out and told me “Yeah, that’s good, there’s enough room for them to
get out.” Thank goodness. I ran to the buses. I didn't know what my hurry was because it was only
6:30 and I had an hour and a half to kill.
That’s the way I like to start my races. Get there in plenty of time to
take care of business.
Running to the buses, got me a
little worried. I felt a little wind.
I knew we would be getting wind in the latter half of the course since
we are by the Pacific Ocean for 6 miles.
Ugh! Wind, here we go again. I
put it out of my mind. Whatever.
As soon as I got off the bus (the
ride was only two miles long) my first order of business was taking care of the
bib transfer. It was hassle-free. They
ripped my cousin’s bib and gave me a new number and a new chip timing tag. The
organizer lady thanked me for taking the time to switch. (I remembered what
Stan said, if anything had happened to me, at least they will know it was not
my cousin.) It started getting crowded
every minute. I did my thing, stretching, hitting the restroom, and chit
chatted it up with a fellow blogger. Before we knew it, it was time to line
up. They started 3 minutes later than
advertised and I was some 3+ minutes away from crossing the start. It was that
crowded. I do love crowded starts now. I
have a different attitude. It gave me a
chance to slow it down and not go crazy at the gun. It was elbow to elbow, I
was watching closely the way everyone around me was swinging it. After all, I
am just about the right height to get slugged in the face if I was not alert.
Mile 1 was my slowest mile at
10:04. Like I said I was glad it was that slow, for it gave me a chance to warm
up. It was cold and even with my gloves
on, I was freezing. I had on my capris, a tank and my long sleeve NY marathon
shirt. It was just perfect. I also took
along my water belt, which I didn’t need since water stations were set every 2
miles.
We started in the middle of the
park and headed out to the panhandle and made a U-turn back towards the
GG park. Since it is an urban park, there’s
a lot of little up and downs and it can get deceivingly tiresome if you are not
careful. I took a conservative pace in
the first 6 miles. For some reason, this
first 6 miles seemed to go on forever unlike the first time I ran it in
2010. I felt then that it flew by. This
year, it seemed longer. However I was still enjoying myself. I was
looking at running outfits and not really paying that much attention to pace. Lots of folks wearing Lululemon; it could be a San Francisco thing.
From time to time I would zero in on a person ahead of me until I can see that
I am gaining on them, then I would look at my watch to see what my pace
was. I would not pull back as I felt
strong. As early as mile 6, I started honing in on picking people in front of
me. I was patient however, I knew that if I kept up the pace and the leg turning
over I can catch up. I felt such a boost after each one that I pass. This seldom
happens to me. It seems it’s the opposite that I am always who ends up watching
folks run by me. I would say, oh yeah, I remember that one, now I am eating her
dust. That’s the way it goes. I love it.
Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some. Today the stars are aligning
for me. About 6 ½ miles, the lead
runner came flying by as he was closing his race. Under a minute behind him, came Jameson Mora,
wearing his Aggies singlet. I was amazed and I got some kind of adrenaline
after seeing these guys pass by. Pretty soon the lead women started rolling by
running with the fast men. Mile 7 and 8 were my fastest miles at 7:58 and
8:10. Their energy is infectious.
By the time we got to the Great Highway
(no wind by the way), it was game time.
The road was long and I could see the thousand bobbing heads of the sea
of runners ahead of me. It was hard looking up because it gave me an idea of
just how far still I had to go. I was
happy not knowing. I would look up to
see every once in a while if I could make out the U-turn. I knew the U-turn was
somewhere past the SF Zoo, on Sloat. But there were no signs of people turning
yet. That meant, the road was still up ahead.
It was fun for a minute, then when I saw the flag for mile 11, I pushed
it a little. However, by this time, it
was taking longer for me to completely pass my person of object, unlike earlier
at mile 6. However slow I may have been, I was still passing,
so that didn’t matter much. Just as long
as I was not being passed by—by not too many people, that is. So I totally forgot that the last
turn, was uphill. The point ten portion of the 13 miles had a nasty little
incline. I thought I could push it one
more, but as soon as I made that turn, I was deeply reminded of it in
2010. Are you kidding me? Yes, I had a name for this little hill.
I was so glad when I got over that last hump. I
looked at the clock above me and it read 1:57. It didn’t hit me yet as I had
not computed the net time from my chip time. I knew it was around 3 minutes. Even
when I looked at my Garmin which read 1:54:01, it still didn’t hit me that I
just broke my 12-year old PR.
The Nitty-Gritty
The volunteers were great, they
called out the mile splits however, I really didn’t want to know so, I drowned
their call outs by blaring my iPod.
The medal was awesome. This is
the 30th running of the KP ½ so they presented each finisher a
medal.
The course didn’t seem all that
hilly at all, contrary to popular belief.
If you are looking for a cheaper
½, with lots of volunteers, great t-shirts and beautiful medal, try this one.
Typical weather for SFO in February is low 50s to mid 40’s—perfect running
weather. The shuttle is free. It was only a 2 mile ride, if you were hard-core, you probably could use the 2 miler as a warm up. After passing through the finish chute, volunteers handed each finisher with a medal, a bottle of water, and chocolate milk .Further down was a tent with previous years t-shirts which they were selling for $5 a piece. It was well worth the price, but I had no cash on me. It was probably a blessing. All in all this is a well-organized half-marathon. I will probably return next year...and bring extra $5.
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