Amy and I had a near picture perfect San Francisco Half Marathon on Sunday, July 25, as we ran with 25,000 other runners over the hills of SF. Yes, there was the whole 3am wakeup, 3:30 drive, etc. But everything went so smoothly! No complaints here. To a Dad, few things bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart more readily than to see my adult children succeed in doing hard things. I can see and delight in the accomplishments of all three of my kids’ lives (the proud Dad that I am), but on Sunday’s run, my focus was on Amy. Despite a challenging pain in her knee, by the strength and help of God, she ran and finished the 13.1 miles!! Yahoo! OK, I ran and finished too, AND was exceedingly pleased at both of our efforts and results. Matter of fact, we were both delighted as to how the day went. We ran the course in a little over two hours; slower than when we ran the Santa Cruz Half in April (a relatively flat course), but Sunday’s was a great run none the less! And we felt good in conquering the hills of SF.
In my description of the course (my prior blog entry), I said there was a hill to run in rising from Bay level at Crissy Field to the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge. True, this was a killer hill of effort. Yet before reaching it was another hill that rose from Aquatic Park to climb over Ft. Mason and down to the Marina Green. After that was the hill to the bridge. Running the bridge (each direction) was also like running a hill as it slopes up to the center point of the span, and then back down. As the picture above shows, it was a foggy morning so visibility from the bridge was poor. By the time we reached center span we could see our breath! It was chilly; we were sweating and it was chilly. The picture also shows how the race had one lane closed for us to run north, a second lane to run south and a third as a safety buffer between us and the cars. After the bridge was the hill running through the Presidio, and after that was a series of hills leading to Golden Gate Park, where one more hill needed to be surmounted before the final slope down to the finish line.
Just as we were rounding the corner to enter the park, I noticed something. I'll call it an “OZ” experience. We had been running along streets of houses; the houses were non-descript in color, the pavement and sky were the same shade of gray. But as we entered the park everything turns “Technicolor”; the trees and bushes are vibrant greens, the walking paths dark brown, flowers were blooming, even the sky seemed to lightened as we headed toward the finish line. I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear Munchkins giggling along the route… actually, I would have been surprised. J One can really appreciate the thoughts and great efforts behind designing, creating and maintaining civic parks. Good job SF!
My rating for this race would be 5 stars out of five stars. Great destination race! Scenic course! Professionally organized! The organizers have it down cold. From the plentiful discounted parking opening at 4:30am, to the organization of the starting waves, to the upbeat announcers, to the ginormous glow stick illuminated balloon arch sculpture, to all the wonderful volunteers along the course cheering us on, to the plentiful water / aid stations, to the finish line organization (water, Cytomax (Gatorade like drink), finisher metals, food, busses & even a first for me: Irish Coffees for those over 21! …I don’t actually see the point of this, but it did bring a smile to my face … and no I did not imbibe). Add to all this the cool weather made for a great running environment. Amy and I both said, “We hope to run it next year!” Then, after getting back to the Embarcadero and the start line… it was off to Blue Bottle Coffee.
… Ahhh time to savor the taste of victory!
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