Cowboy Hazel

I flew into San Francisco on Saturday afternoon and headed straight from the airport to the expo with my cousin and her son. We got my bib and then stopped by the Runner's World booth so I could say hi to my buddy Jeff. He and I chatted for a bit and realized that our "race" plans were almost identical – take the first half real easy, pick it up later if it felt good, but still not to push too hard. Later that afternoon, he emailed me and suggested we meet up in the corral in the morning and start the run together.

Because of the ridiculously early start time, I had to leave my cousin's house at 3:15 on Sunday morning. My cousin-in-law was nice enough to wake up and drive me across the bay. We didn't hit any traffic and I got to the strangely quiet and dark start with plenty of time to spare. I leisurely ate my saltines, used the still clean port-a-potties, and then had a long phone call with Helen. I probably should have stretched or gone for a warm-up jog, but I didn't really feel like it. I was still half asleep and not worried about the race at all.

About 5:20 or so, I met up with Jeff and we chatted with a few runners who were there as part of the Runner's World Challenge. One of them, named Robert also, would end up running the first ten miles with us. Our wave was supposed to start at 5:32, so we were still chatting and standing around casually when the first wave start went off at 5:30. But then, instead of just moving up to the starting line, everyone kept going. "Are we running now?" "I guess so." "Better start the watch." And we were off...

It was still dark and very cool when we started and the first few miles had that dreamlike feeling that running in the pre-dawn morning always brings. We worked our way through the fog, consistently hitting our planned eight minute splits on our way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a hill climbing up to it, but nothing nearly as intense as everyone had made it out to be. Up on the bridge, we had two lanes closed to traffic for the race, and we kept plodding through the fog while getting to see the leaders come flying back the other way.

Jeff stopped at the turnaround to use the bathroom but caught up within a half mile by picking up the pace a bit. When he got back, I showed him my watch and said, "Look, I held it to 8:20's for you." I was happy to have been able to keep my pace under control in a marathon environment, especially out there on a bridge where it's so hard not to run fast.

He had his camera with him and was snapping photos as we ran along. In a lot of ways, the run felt less intense than our run in Central Park together the previous Monday – If nothing else, it was better weather. Some runners in our vicinity were annoyed at our lack of seriousness while running the marathon including one older guy who said something along the lines of, "You two could run a 2:45 if you weren't busy taking so many photos." Not quite, but thanks...

Coming off the bridge, we hit a bunch of small hills and they sped us up. We entered Golden Gate Park and the hills continued. I was enjoying the ups, but the downs were really hurting my left hip. I felt a tweak in it early on and by the time we were halfway through the race, I was getting some serious pain with every step. The park was strangely quiet and there was almost no crowd support at all. That helped build the impression that we were just on a long training run and not running a marathon. We hit the half mark at just under 1:43 and I was starting to feel fatigued, more than I expected to.

Our pace kept picking up and we started chatting less, only making observations here and there as opposed to the earlier full on conversation. The park portion of the course ended and we found ourselves back on the city streets, but it was still strangely quiet – there was even more crowd support at Leadville, I think. We settled into a groove around 7:10s and it wasn't easy, but it wasn't exhausting either. My hip was hurting a lot, but I got a big second wind around mile 20 and was ready to fly into the finish. Luckily, I had Jeff there to keep me from stupidly charging ahead too fast, because even though we maintained the same pace, my second wind faded and I was feeling pretty crappy by mile 23. Both of us faded even more the last couple miles, and without any reason to push hard, we just let the pace ease back to 7:40's. Back along the waterfront, we passed the stadium and then jogged into the finish on the Embarcadero with a time of 3:20:19. I met up with my aunt and uncle who had trekked over to see the finish and then we rode back inland on the Bart and finally got some sunshine.

My plan was to head out for another 20+ miles on Monday, but by the time we got off of the train, my hip was hurting so bad I couldn't walk without limping. That kept up all day and then Monday too. I wasn't exactly being easy on it – playing catch, basketball, swimming, horseback riding, etc. – but I knew that it wouldn't be smart to try to force a run. So, I ended up taking Monday off and then just running 5 miles Tuesday, and then taking yesterday off too. It's feeling better today, but still I'm walking with a bit of a limp.

So, yet another planned weekend of solid mileage in preparation for the 100 miler didn't happen. I'm starting to get a little nervous... I'm four weeks out now and I don't feel like I have the miles in that I should have at this point. A lesson learned is to not over-schedule my summer so much in the future. But, then again, I've thoroughly enjoyed all my recent running adventures, including this one, and I wouldn't want to give any of them back.