First the official result. My finish time is: 1:42:06. My daughter's finish
time is: 2:14. She did not run too much because of the tennis and
summer camps. I trained for the last two months.
Though my finish time was the slowest in the last 5 half marathons,
It was the best one. First,
the course was so great. We started
at
Mission Street and The Embarcadero in San Francisco, then
Marina Blvd, Lincoln Blvd to the golden Gate bridge, then all the
way back to Lincon Blvd, and turned west and finished at
the golden Gate park. The scenic view was so beautiful, and
it was my first time to race so many miles on the bridge and along the
sea. The weather was good too, we did not even have fogs, and
the morning view of the oakland bridge was so beautiful before the
race as well.
I followed the
half marathon training and started the training
May 19. My original goal was 1:37 or 1:39, or at east I
tried to train this way. Since this is a very hard course, it would
be great if I can finish 1:42.
Prior to the race, My coach sent me the following prior to the race:
Since your goal is to finish around 1:40 pace I would stay at that pace at least
until 10 miles and then you can speed up if you feel good. Ease into the pace
during the first few miles and then try to keep the effort the same. Remember
everyone feels good the first half so make sure you stay relaxed and save your
energy for the second half of the race.
Because of the hilly course, I changed my plan to run the first 4 miles at pace 7:40, then
follow the 1:40 pacer and finished the last a few miles strong after mile 10.
Here are the splits(my watch were dead before the finishing line):
| 1 | 7:36.8 | 1.00 | 7:37 |
| 2 | 7:40.5 | 1.00 | 7:40 |
| 3 | 7:49.6 | 1.00 | 7:50 |
| 4 | 7:37.9 | 1.00 | 7:38 |
| 5 | 7:42.4 | 1.00 | 7:42 |
| 6 | 8:16.8 | 1.00 | 8:17 |
| 7 | 7:36.5 | 1.00 | 7:37 |
| 8 | 7:39.5 | 1.00 | 7:40 |
| 9 | 7:45.4 | 1.00 | 7:45 |
| 10 | 7:59.9 | 1.00 | 8:00 |
| 11 | 7:00.7 | 1.00 | 7:01 |
| 12 | 8:02.2 | 1.00 | 8:02 |
| 13 | 7:59.9 | 1.00 | 8:00 |
I slowed on mile 6 on the bridge and mile 10 from the bridge to
Lincoln Blvd. Then I ran too fast on mile 11, used most
of my energy and slowed down on mile 12, 13.
Though I was slow, the good news is that : I was 27 of 703
from my age group 40-49. So I was at 3.58% percent level.
That was great. It seems like other runners slowed down as
well because of this hard course.
After this race, I will run another 4 races with my daughter
this year. And next year, we will try Napa as well, maybe
a marathon
