Nike Half Marathon
Louisa was signed up for this, but she hurt her hip and couldn’t run. So, I took her bib, and with almost no training, decided to go for it. After all, I ran a marathon just a few months ago, so how bad could it be? Famous last words…
My longest training run was about 9 miles, and I had only had one of those, as well as a couple of 7 milers, to get me ready. I was running about once a week. Not a good way to train for a fast half marathon, but then again, I wasn’t trying to set a PR.
The Nike was targeted at women, so I was one of the few men. I will say that there were more men than I thought – probably around 10% or so. I didn’t feel too intimidated surrounded by all those women, especially those really fast ones – really, I didn’t!
I met Charlie and Betsy at 5:30am to carpool up to Union Square, and swapped stories about our vomiting kids on the way up. We found parking amazingly quickly at the Sutter Stockton garage, and walked over to Starbucks for a much-needed caffeine hit. There we met Cindy and Eve, and headed into Union Square. The weather was cool and foggy, but not too bad. Even at 6:30am, it was completely dark.
We found a spot to camp out and stretched, put on our race numbers, etc. Soon it was time to check our bags of sweats and head toward our starting corral on Powell. We had a moment of panic when Betsy discovered that her bag check was actually 2 blocks away, but she got there and back and found us in plenty of time.
The first mile or two were easy, running with the crowd and chatting. It was so dark, people were actually handing out glow sticks. But a few minutes later the fog became a lighter color. Soon, Betsy trundled off with her iPod on, and Cindy and Eve set a quicker pace, so Charlie and I stuck together. We cruised down the Embarcadero and over Fort Mason, bringing back memories of the SF Marathon for me.
Along Crissy Field we caught up with Cindy and Eve briefly, but then Charlie had to make a pit stop. I waited for her, then we charged up the hill toward the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, the course didn’t go across the bridge, but it didn’t really matter, since the weather was very foggy and we could hardly see anyway. That hill goes on and on, but we kept at it pretty well, and enjoyed the long downhill that followed.
At mile 9 we saw Louisa, with David and Stephanie waving their Go Bonnie and Go Daddy Go signs. It was great to see them, and apparently Stephanie was devastated that I didn’t stop and take her with me. Mike was a little further up, and got a great picture of Charlie and me.
Then we cruised up and back down along the coast by the Cliff House. Here we were starting to flag a bit, our speed dropping from a peak of about 9:20 to over 10 min miles. We had a couple brief breaks, walking through water stops. Coming down the hill toward Great Highway we could see the finish, but we knew we had several miles to go.
We turned into the park and stopped for a short walk and stretch break. Charlie and I kept each other going with encouragement and small talk, and got through the last uphill in the park to the Polo Fields. We got a chocolate bar there, and then headed into the blessed downhill from there back to the Great Highway.
The final mile we cruised pretty well, both focused on the finish. We crossed the line at around 2:13, not bad, but not as fast as I would have liked. We saw everyone at the finish – Betsy, Cindy, and Eve had all finished a little before us. I felt pretty good, with my legs starting to tihnk about cramping but never quite getting there. For the record, I drank Gatorade at every stop, like about 4-5 times, and had one gel.
Finish line logistics were crazy – the line for tshirts was not well organized, and the line for picking up your checked bag was even worse. Betsy waited over 30 minutes to get her bag – I jumped in line with her. But the Tiffany necklace was nice – it’s going to look great on Louisa.
Next time, I’d better do some training…
