We've had very little rain here in Northern California for the past couple of months; normally the rainy season starts in November and is in full-swing by January. With Tahoe's ski resorts dependent upon the snow for their income and those of us at lower altitude dependent upon the rainfall for agriculture, not to mention drinking water and other household uses, our Governor declared a state of Emergency about 2 weeks ago. However, the 4,300+ runners preparing for the Kaiser Permanent San Francisco Half Marathon must have had a "rain dance" effect, because we woke up to wind and wetness this morning! Edward and I were both supposed to run, but he's been battling a bad cold and bronchitis for a couple of weeks so a few days ago I canceled the babysitter and told him he was staying home! Good thing, because the dreary weather would not have been good for his immune system. Back in February 2009, the Kaiser Half was my first half marathon, and I ran it the
weekend before we left for China to adopt our second daughter. I've run 11 other half marathons since then, but had not been back to do the Kaiser, so I
really wanted to run it this year, despite the rain.
I woke up at 5:45am after a restless night (you know how you wake up every half hour or so, wondering how much time you have left before the alarm goes off? So frustrating!), had a small bowl of hot Grape Nuts, packed some Gu in my capris, and headed into the city. My Prius (not the most aerodynamic automobile) was getting blown around a bit as I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, but the wind didn't seem as strong once I was at Ocean Beach. I parked there and took one of the school bus shuttles into Golden Gate Park. I was happy to have my sweats and a hooded jacket on, but the sweats check turned out to be about a quarter mile from the starting line, so I ended up freezing anyway. Luckily they did have some plastic bags for people to take, so I wore one of those over my shirt as I walked to the start. A bunch of us huddled under the trees near the start, and I met a couple of girls from Boston, one of whom is running the Marathon for the Alzheimer's Association. Chatting with them helped pass the time, and helped me keep my sense of humor as occasional gusts of wind shook bundles of water from the trees over our heads and set us all shivering.
The sky was light by the time the race started, and the park looked beautiful. I wasn't going for a PR, and planned to take it pretty easy (since I got injured after my last half marathon in December!). I enjoyed the verdant surroundings in the park, but it was a shorter jaunt than I had remembered. I guess I forgot that the course went out into the city for quite a while, so that was an interesting change of scenery - the streets were closed for the race, and there weren't many spectators out, but we could see supporters up in windows along Fell Street.
We came back into the park on Stanyan, ran past Kezar Stadium (it's hard to imagine that the 49ers used to play there!), then eventually back onto Kennedy Drive and out to the Great Highway. I'd been running about 9:15-9:20 paces up until then. We had a strong headwind on the way out along Ocean Beach, which made for slow going, but I was happy because I knew that also meant we'd have a nice tailwind for the return! Near mile 7, I saw my friend Peter going in the opposite direction, already past mile 12 - he finished first in his age group with a fabulous 1:22:21. My slowest miles were miles 8 & 9, which I ran at 9:40 and 9:46 (respectively). Shortly after the turnaround near the SF Zoo, as I was enjoying that lovely tailwind, I saw my assistant Bridgit walking her dog Hurley, and this time I got to say "Hey, Bridgit!! Thanks for being out here!" She gave me a big thumbs up, which was a boost to my already happy spirits. I ran the last few miles at about a 9:10 pace, and finished in 2:03:23, with which I was pretty happy considering I was basically treating this like a training run. I saw my colleague again, which was fun, as we waited to get some treats after the finish line. In all it was a good race, a happy 5th anniversary half for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment