FitLifeSF

I am officially no longer a race virgin!  Here’s the (lengthy) race report:

Bridge to Bridge was a bit of a last-minute thing for me.  I was training “just to finish” the US Half Marathon on November 2, and added the B2B because I wanted to work out any kinks on a shorter distance, plus it was for a good cause. I tucked myself into bed at about 10PM last night with a well-measured 4oz of quality red wine and my spanking new (just delivered yesterday-  thank you, running Universe!) issue of Runners World magazine.  Much to my surprise, I slept like a baby.  Up at 6:30 and powered down a pre-run breakfast.  Usually I have a bowl of Kashi Go Lean with a banana and skim milk.  I thought it might be wise to opt for a Kashi Trail Mix bar (less fiber, no dairy) and a banana, so I did.  Had a half a 5-Hour-Energy, gave my legs a good stretch-n-roll-out, put on my spankin’ new (road-tested, of course!) race ensemble and headed down to the Ferry building.

The race started at 9.  I arrived at about 8, thinking I needed to check in or something to get assigned to a corral, but they just had signs for projected pace.  I ran about a half mile out, stretched overlooking the Bay on what was a gorgeous morning, and ran back to the start.  LOTS of time to kill.  My nervous bladder had me spending most my time near the Ferry Building.  Stretching, peeing, stretching, peeing….  I’m afraid I’ve been spoiled by the fact there were no lines at all for restrooms, which I hear is a rarity at most races.

At about 10 ‘till 9, they got us into the road. I was in the 9+ pace area, which was followed immediately by the “Walkers with Strollers” area.  Yeah, helllooo, ego! 

There was a lot of yacking by Gary Radnich, who is now my least-favorite local newscaster, some more yammering on… the only sweet part was a speech by a woman who was part of the Special Olympics #1 team (it was a Special Olympics benefit race.) 

Countdown to start and… HORN BLOWS!  We’re… well… not off.  At all. 

In fact, we’re standing still, but my Garmin is ticking away the seconds.  Soon, I notice heads bouncing a few hundred feet ahead of us.  Not moving, mind you, just bouncing like at a big ol’ Depeche Mode concert.  Soon, the wave of bounce is upon me and I start to bounce, too.  Watching the “bounce” come towards me was pretty thrilling, I have to say.  So, bouncey-bounce… Not moving, of course, just bouncing.  Finally, we bounce-bounce our way over what I assume is the start line- about 1:45 after the horn sounded (I wonder if they will account for this when posting official times?) 

Slowly, the crowd breaks up some and I’m running at an OK pace down the Embarcadero.  The crowds served to keep me in check, as otherwise I can totally see how I would have gone way too fast out of the gate.  Frustratingly, though, there are a not-insignificant-number of people who were walking who had clearly put themselves into the 6 and 7 minute mile corrals!  Bah, so I am doing some dodging and darting, but trying to keep it in check. 

For the first 3 miles, I notice that I am firmly in the 10-minute mile pace and actually try to slow myself down some.  At about 3.5 miles, we come to the “big hill” on the course.  (Unfortunately, stepping around a woman who looked to be pretty elite and was being helped by medical after taking what appeared to be a face-first dive into the pavement near the base of the hill—big puddle of blood and everything, though she was sitting up and talking, but clearly a bit disoriented when I ran by.)  So, I think a positive thought for her and hit the hill.  It’s like buttah’, baby!  Surprisingly easy.  All the runners cheered when we got to the top.  It looks like it tanked my pace some, but I ran the whole thing.  Couldn’t get as much speed on the downhill as I’d hoped for, owing to crowding, but I am feeling great!

Next up was 2 miles or so that I knew were flats through the Marina, so I pulled out my Jelly Belly Sports Beans.  Half of them went to my “fallen homies” (Sorry, runners behind me who might arrive home to find Phosphorescent Smurf Poops aka Berry Blue Sports Beans in their treads.)  I managed to get a half a pack down, though, and washed them down with the mini water bottle that I’d carried with me.  I plan to have 15g of carbs every 20 minutes for runs over an hour.)

At about the end of the Marina, coming up on Chrissy Field – a little less than the halfway point, I think– and I get fiercely nauseated!  Ugh… not feeling well at all.  I’m taking some sips from my water bottle and powering on, worried I’d be heaving up Phosphorescent Smurf Poo onto the roadway.  We split off from the 7K runners and head towards the ocean to run the dirt path up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  There are some switchbacks here that are mentally grueling.  I like to see progress in the form of a straight line.

On the approach to the Bridge, I am really feeling my pace catching up to me, and forcing myself to slow whenever my pace gets faster than 10:30.  (I decide at this point that a 10:30 pace will suit me just fine- originally, I’d wanted a 10.)  I see runners coming the opposite way and think “when I get to where they are, I’ll be golden!”  (Naively assuming there were only a few hundred yards in the switchback, of course), but it turns out the loop up to and around the base of the Bridge comprised at least a mile.  Ugh…

At this point, my usual mantra of “this is easier than I expected” and/or “I could do this all day” turned into something more like, “I will not walk, I refuse to walk, just keep on picking your feet up (Chi-Running thing), all you have to do is keep picking your feet up.” 

I’ll admit, miles 5-7 I was really down on myself… How could this be so hard?  7.5 miles is nothing.  What is going on?  There were I think two moments where my feet slowed to a walk and then, in an soul-splitting effort accompanied by a guttural noise that I imagine sounded a lot like a wild boar clearing a particularly nasty noseful of mud, I lurched forward and tried to tell myself that all I had to do was keep the feet moving.  Still, though…. At mile 6?!  WTF?!

Finally, I’m at the 7 mile mark, making the turn up into the Presidio. I think I have a little more than .25 of a mile to go (bad math, it was actually a little less than .5 of a mile.)  At this point, I simply refuse to walk across the finish line, much less lumber across puffing and panting.  “Run to the finish” and “Smurf, you WILL not walk across that finish line” are my mantras.  The road takes a surprisingly steep grade at this point up through the finish.  (In fact, though the hill at 3 miles is the only one called out on the course description, my Garmin shows that the .5 mile uphill to the finish is just as steep, if a bit more gradual.) 

I pass a few folks, I’m feeling good- or, at least, better.  And determined.  I see cones about 200 meters ahead of me, people are cheering, I sprint!!  Sprint all the way to… some dude standing there near a cone with an orange flag.  “You’ve gotta be f*&ing kidding me!”  I say (out loud… sorry, everyone.)  I take two walking steps and then back to a laboured jog.  Come around a turn and, there it is!  A line of cones and people walking beyond.  The finish!  I sprint again and then… no, that’s not a line of cones, it’s a turn in the road and people aren’t walking, just running a different way.  More cursing.  Still sorry.  Then another turn, more hill…

I think there were three “sprints to the finish” before the one that actually resulted in the finish.  I’d been keeping an eye out for Rob the whole run and, finally, I see him standing by the side of the road with the video camera, so put on a real gazelle-like stride to the end, tried to smile at the finish line photographers, and got into the chute.  It was several seconds before I remembered to turn off my Garmin.

I’ll leave out the parts about not being able to steer myself down the chute straight and falling over (a few times) in line for my teeshirt.

Garmin Results*:

Total Time: 1:21:25

Distance: 7.62 miles (12.26 kilometers)

Splits:

1- 11:41 (including slow walk to start line)

2- 10:00

3- 10:29

4- 10:10

5- 10:45

6- 10:44

7- 10:39

.62- 6:53

See my full Garmin Report here.

In retrospect, the run doesn’t LOOK as bad as it felt.  Sure, I’d like to see those three 10:30+ miles come down some, but overall I know I gave it my all. 

Lessons learned:

- The limiter in this race was, hands down, endurance.  I hit the wall without any of the usual aches and pains of a long run that were my primary concern going in– my hip was fine, my knee that’s been tight and bothering me was just fine.  It is clear that mileage, mileage, mileage is the name of the game leading up to the US Half on Nov. 2.

- I wonder if the swap to the Kashi Bar lead to the nausea, though I doubt it.  I probably want to experiment with some other fuel source besides the Beans.

- The little hand-sized 8 oz bottles of water I got from Walgreens were pretty awesome. I made one stop about halfway through for a quick refill, but avoided water station traffic jams for the most part. I think I might start carrying one on long runs from here on out.

- I realize how much I was really hoping to hit the start line and put away 9:30 easy.  Apparently, there are dues to be paid with this whole running thing.  (Sarcasm somewhat intended ) I am nowhere near the level of the folks on my running boards, but at least now I have a PR to beat!  I’ll admit to being disappointed, though- both at my final time and at the thoughts that went through my head when I was crashing around the Bridge.

- Apparently, I am shit at spotting Rob in a crowd.  Therefore, dude with the video camera on the left about 200 yards from the finish, please email me the video of my awesome gazelle-like sprint to the finish.  Rob was actually further down before the final turn into the Presidio and, thankfully, never saw me.  (This was when I was huffing, puffing, drooling and generally hating life.)

In other words… there is much to be thankful for!

(*Waiting for the official race times/photos to be posted.)