Twenty thousand of my closest friends and I got up at 5:00am Sunday to run the streets of San Francisco in the 2009 San Francisco Marathon and Half Marathon.
Yes, I totally cropped the people in front of me from this picture to make it look like I’m winning.
I did the Half. The course went from nearby the Bay Bridge, along the Embarcadero past Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Mason, across the Golden Gate (into Marin County…ugh had to run to another county…) and back, then south along the Presidio and Pacific coast before finishing at Golden Gate Park. Would have been great scenery except the whole time we were shrouded in the trademark SF summer fog. But it probably helped keep things cool and it was “fun” to be running on the bridge-to-nowhere into the mist. There were some unwelcome hills on the homestretch but I made it. They gave me this medal to prove it. And it doubles as a keychain. What a bonus.
My time was 2:03:36. Seems like I could have shaved 0:03:37 off that time somewhere along the way to finish under 2 hrs but I don’t know where. Felt like I was pushing pretty hard. My previous best distance was 10 miles and my previous best race time was 1 hr for a 10k, so I’m happy with it. And definitely kudos to all the real marathon finishers. I couldn’t do it.
We ate dinner at this Italian place in SF the night before, which was doing a booming business with runners carbo-loading for the race. I got some raviolis and some cheesecake and it was great. The lady behind us — also clearly in marathon-prep mode — had a plate of plain tube-pasta. No sauce, no meat, no nothing. I’m sure she kicked my ass, but at least I had a good meal.
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Tags: california, running, success
Congratulations! Finishing must feel so good.
Hey, Nick, great work! I hope to join the running world again someday! Meanwhile, check this out: http://www.terrafugia.com/
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