Race Notes: San Francisco Marathon

A good day, even if my overall pace wasn't as fast as I'd hoped.

• I executed well against my plan until the final half mile or so. My plan was 7 minutes running followed by 1 minute recovery walking. On the most brutal hills, I planned to walk up the hill when needed and run on the decline. I was mostly okay with 7:1
• The Hills Were Alive With The Sound of Complaining. On the last hill I had some cramping in my hip rotators. However, all the miles of hill work really paid out in this race.
  
• I woke up with a knot in my left calf, started the race with a knot in my left calf, ran with a knot in my left calf, and then finished with a knot in my left calf. It never loosened up and it annoyed me all day.
• Pre-race prep was suboptimal. On Saturday, I spent the day walking about 6-7 miles around Berkeley, then had Indian food for dinner. When will I learn to take it easy that day before a race?
• I loved the race start - wave starts with all runners on the marathon course on the road by 6am. I shot out at 5:30 and it was heavenly to run in the cool air and see the sun rise.
  
• I had a lllloooonnnnngggg bathroom stop at mile 7.5. Generally, I do not stop on a half marathon because I've got a camel-like bladder. I spent about 20 minutes waiting for a port-o-let. This is really the fault of course organizers. Six port-o-lets for 17,000 runners is not sufficient. This bathroom stop was jammed because it was the turnaround to go back across the Golden Gate Bridge. No runner had been able to stop for un besoin naturel for the last 2 miles going across the bridge and no one could stop for the next two miles returning across the bridge. That meant most runners needed to stop here, me included. Nothing to change in my race prep, but it did kill my pace by adding a minute and a half per mile.
  

This Just In... San Francisco Is Hilly

I don't know why, but every time I looked at the elevation map for the San Francisco Marathon, I thought it didn't look too hilly. It looked more like low, rolling hills. Uh, no. There were some challenging climbs and the headwind was stiff at times, but overall a good effort.

Race report to follow.

Calendar Management Skills Fail

I somehow managed to get behind on my training calendar and I haven't been doing enough running mileage to be fully prepared for San Francisco. Normally, I like to increase my long run by a mile a week. If I follow that plan, I'll have only run 10 miles before San Francisco. That's actually enough to do the race, but I really want to have 12 miles of running under my belt.

That means I need a more aggressive plan than bumping it up by a mile a week. Here's the new long run plan through the AFC Half Marathon in mid-August:
July 12 -9 miles (+2),
July 19 -10.5 miles (+1.5),
July 26 -12 miles (+1.5).
August 3 - 13.1 mile (+1.1). San Francisco Half Marathon
August 9 - 14.5 (+1.4)
August 17 - 13.1 (-1.1) America's Finest City Half Marathon

Of course, this is silliness. I can walk a full marathon. If I can't do the full distance running, I can always fall back on my walking to finish the race.

But I'll be really, really disappointed if I can't run the whole way.