San Francisco Half (The Retro Race Report)

In keeping with my fabulous tradition of posting race reports weeks, months, and sometimes years after they happen - here's my after-the-fact take on the San Francisco Half Marathon. If you missed it, here is where I posted the bare bones. Now for the flesh! Here's a shot of my loot from the weekend:

I bought the socks and the headband, the Power Bar swag was from the tri-clinic the day before but the rest was stuffed into our SF goody bags. I also got a long-sleeve, technical shirt at the expo for $5 that I wore on race day. Score!

Did I tell you about our rather complicated travel plans? We'd driven from Las Vegas to San Francisco on Friday (the race being on Sunday morning) so that we could check in, get our race numbers, hit the expo and then drive south again to stay closer to Pacific Grove for the night. We got up early and spent all day Saturday at an amazing triathlon clinic in PG and then drove back to San Francisco. We had booked a room Saturday night at the Omni, which was one of the partner hotels for the race, to be close to the start and not have to figure anything out. The discount rate for racers made it a super deal for San Francisco (at a mere $200/night), but it was still a splurge for us! It was worth it, though. We knew ahead of time that both Friday and Saturday would be long days for us. And they were. Saturday evening - after a day in the sun and the Pacific Ocean - we show up at the Omni looking like ass. (And not in a good way.) We had tried to organize it a bit ahead of time but we still resembled bag ladies after valeting our car ($48!) and checking our bikes with the bell hop. We schlepped into the fancy schmancy lobby trying to exude an air of confidence and belonging, despite our crunchy hair and salty clothes. That lasted until the concierge we approached redirected us to a different, special issues concierge (in the corner). I totally thought we were being booted out. The Omni, however, is not like that at all! The concierge was incredibly professional yet nice and explained to us that they had a guest who'd had a family emergency and needed to extend their stay. The Omni - due to the race - was booked solid but wanted to help these people out without adding to their stress by making them move. Would we consider moving to a new hotel? Crap. We didn't want to be the bad guys, but we were tired, we'd just unloaded all our gear - including taking the bikes off the roof and checking them with the Omni's staff, and we didn't want to be further away from the start in the morning. Much polite conversation followed but the gist was that the Omni was offering to comp our parking valet, store our bikes, send us in a limo to the other hotel - which was a tenth of a mile further from the race start, pay for our cab ride back to get our stuff the next day AND pay for a suite at the new hotel. The new hotel being The Four Seasons. Um, yeah. Ok. If you put it like that. SURE!

So the crusty bag ladies were dropped off at an even fancier hotel around the corner. Here are a few pictures of our suite at the Four Seasons. This is our living room:

Our office:

Our bathroom which had an INCREDIBLE bathtub for soaking in. I didn't get a picture of the fluffy robes and slippers, or the marble counter with the baskets of fabulous shampoo, French milled soap, and lotions galore. (I do have a picture of the separate potty with the PHONE next to it but I can't get it to load.) I also didn't take a picture of the bedroom with the king size bed and giant flat screen tv. You'll have to imagine it was as sumptuous as the rest.


This is one of our two walk -in closets. We don't have two walk-in closets in our house. Who are these people that need two closets in their hotel room?
Did I mention we had a corner room? Here is the view out one window:

One thing we had been worried about was getting something to eat. I know, I know, San Francisco is a foodie's paradise but our pre-race nutrition is not very exciting. Plain and nutritious - that's what we were going for. And fast! We needed to eat and get to bed. Once we were done exploring our free (!!) room we decided we could now afford to splurge on room service. We still ordered boring food - chicken noodle soup, chicken sandwich, plain french fries and apples. Here's how it arrived:
Silver baskets, linen napkins, orchids! And the food was all freshly prepared. My soup was light and savory with the best carrots and the most tender chicken. Donna had been soaking in the to-die-for tub when the food arrived and she wasn't particularly interested in getting out for a chicken sandwich. I think my description of the steaming bowls and fresh cut flowers finally got through to her, though. (Wish I had a picture of her face when she saw the table all laid out!) A far cry from our original plan:
Ok enough with the night before! Race Day: We got good sleep, woke up with nerves and sunburns from the day before, and headed down to the race start. It was not quite light yet, cool, and misty. We hit the porta potties and got to our corral just as it was starting to move up to the starting line. (That is Donna's favorite kind of timing. Show up and run. I'd have preferred a half hour more to wander around being nervous but it worked out just fine.) The start:

As much as I love triathlon, it was nice to have nothing else to think about other than running! There were hordes of people at the beginning but it didn't take long to open up. There weren't a lot of spectators - which was pleasant for me. We wound around the wharves and down the Embarcadero up towards the Presidio. There was a marching band/group of cheer leaders there at about mile 3 and that was the most organized cheering section until the finish line! It warmed up enough that I took my long sleeve shirt off for about two miles, but as we got closer to the Golden Gate bridge it got windier and windier. I put it back on and left it on for the rest of the race. Given that it was SF - it was a very flat course (thank goodness)!

I felt great the whole time. I never once hit that dark, icky place. I was completely and totally jazzed to be in the moment, to be in San Francisco, running across the Golden Gate bridge in the fog, and to know I had friends with me and waiting for me at the end. My lovely partner Donna did not have as positive an experience. She'd worked harder in the clinic the day before, doing the bike and the swim and she started having leg pain at about mile 2 of the half marathon. The next 11.1 miles were a battle for her. She's done seven or eight half marathons and this is the first one she has ever wanted to quit. She didn't want to bring me down and she didn't want to be a quitter, but she was tired and in pain from the beginning. Not the kind of pain where she was injuring herself by pushing through. She knows the difference. But it was a mental and emotional struggle to have to spend what little energy she had just to keep herself running. She wanted me to go ahead of her but I didn't want to leave her. Finally somewhere on the bridge she dropped back and growled at me when I slowed down. Then she sort of smiled and made me go on saying she'd catch up. It's hard to know what to do. I was having a great race and wanted to share some of my positive energy with her - but how fucking annoying is it to have Polly Perky running next to you when you're struggling?! I wanted her to have what she needed and giving her a chance to get into her own zone, dig deep, and decide for herself whether to stay in or get out seemed like the best thing. Here is a picture of Polly Perky from the official photographers: I found out later Donna spent most of the first half of the bridge in tears. Miles 5 through 10 were across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. I hit the water station at the turn around/far side of the bridge and walked looking backwards until I found her. She seemed to be in slightly better space but she still tried to make me go on. I told her I'd leave again if that's what she needed, but what I wanted was to share the rest of the race with her at whatever pace, in whatever way - walking or running - that she needed. She was worried we might not make the 3 hour cut off for finisher's medals. (She hadn't worried about that before - her times are usually well under three hours. Before the race I had been the one stressing about the cutoff because I've never run that fast. And I had made a big deal about wanting the medal.) But at mile 8? I was having such a good time - in the race, on the trip as a whole - that I just didn't care about it. I wanted to be together. If we made it in time, fantastic. If not? Ok fine. I was having an amazing time being in the moment. It was so different from any other running experience I've ever had. I think the end of the race was better for Donna because she knew it would be over soon and because she was proud of herself for pushing herself more than she ever had. (Not faster - but just through more pain and ugly voices than ever before.) We finished together before the cut off and got our medals. We did buy this picture but I haven't scanned it yet.

Here's our "OMG it's finally over" photo from my phone:
(I did wear my medal for the rest of the day because I was so proud of myself for having such a good race. But it's a darn good thing I wasn't attached to the medal itself because I haven't been able to find it since. I thought I stuffed it in my bag that night, but it is gone, gone, gone!)

My chip time was 2:50:22 which was a half an hour faster than my only other half marathon and which was a half an hour slower than Donna's PR. Even though she had a crappy race, Donna had a good day. We got to meet and hang with Wille and the RBR girls before heading back east. I loved this race and would do it again in a heartbeat. Peace!