Race Report - 2016 Rock 'n' Roll San Francisco ½ Marathon

April 3

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Travel

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Late flight booking cost a bit more, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave Friday night, or Saturday morning. The last race had me rushing everywhere, so I finally decided on a early morning Saturday flight. Last year, due to fog, the flight to SFO was canceled, which had me panicking. I'm a more experienced traveler now, so I took my chances again. Southwest has a promotional A-list status, so my boarding position was A-21. There were not too many ahead of me (paid A-status), so I was one of the first 10 to board, and I got the only extreme leg room seat on the Southwest flight. As the other passengers boarded, the FA announced that the flight was only 80 percent full. So not only did I get a window seat, more leg room than I could ever use, I had an empty seat next to me. Flight left on time, so I arrived at Oakland (my first time flying here), at 8:25 am.

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There's an automated people mover from the airport to the BART Coliseum station that opened in Nov 2014. The tram runs every 8 minutes, so there's not much of a wait. This is part of the BART service, and it's free (just to the Coliseum). As I purchased my ticket, and headed down the escalator, a train was just coming in with the destination of Richmond. I didn't have time to look at the map, but the destination seemed to be the right direction. I jumped on, and figured if it wasn't the right train, I would just get off at the next stop. My final destination was Walnut Creek, and after I looked at the map, I was headed in the right direction, but had to transfer at 19th street to head towards Pittsburg/Bay Point. BART made it easy, the train was waiting on the other side of the platform, so little delay. Lunch with an old friend, then back on to BART to head to downtown SF and check in to the hotel.

Expo

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I got off at the Powell Street station, but was a bit disoriented. I was just here last year, so I thought my memory would lead me the right way. I stayed at the same hotel, Marriott Marquis, which is only a few blocks from the BART station and the Expo. My GPS on my phone didn't help much, since the signal was bouncing of the buildings and provided a false location. When I passed the Buca di Beppo where we had pre-race dinner last year (and this year too), I sorta got my sense of direction back. Arrived at the hotel just before 2 pm, and stayed on the 10th floor. Even though the Expo was a few blocks away, I was not going to walk there as Elvis. Not surprisingly I was welcomed with the picture of the running Elvi which seems to be at every race in the series this year. No Toyota Ride n Drive on this tour stop. Some fun at the PowerBar booth, one way to get a free product.

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Race Day

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Like last year, I walked the mile from the hotel to the Civic Center finish, where yellow school buses would take runners to the start. Much warmer this year, I brought a jacket in case the winds at the beach were strong. Luckily it was relatively warm at the beach, so I checked in my gear as to minimize my walking pre-race. I put on my Xero Sandals to protect my feet until I got to the start line. Our running group met up for our traditional group photo, and we were assembled in corral 1. One thing nice about starting up front is the photo ops. I made sure everyone would notice me as I waved my guitar high in the air. For some reason, there seemed to be more twilight this year, as I didn't have any problems seeing where I was going. After a few blocks from the start, we turn right, and got a view of our first hill. Although I did not train on hills, I had plenty of strength to climb at a good pace. I also pushed hard, because I wanted to make sure I beat the cut off for the return trip on the Golden Gate. Last year, I just missed it, and had to return on the sidewalk.

RNRSFBLUE

Pretty much the same course as last year, which is great for me, since I knew what to expect. Road surfaces are challenging, but not too bad. This year, Transamerica Rock ā€˜nā€™ Roll Half Marathon San Francisco partnered with Wear Blue: Run to Remember, a running community that honors the service and sacrifice of the American military. For about a mile, volunteers held American flags, wore blue, and cheered us on. Slight wind, so the flags were fluttered patriotically. High fives with the flag holders was tricky, depending on how high they were holding their flag. There was a lady taking pictures (with a long lens), and as I passed her, I suggested to her that she should get a picture of me since I was all in blue. I ran up a bit, turned around, and she got the best photo of me in Elvis blue.

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As we reached the top of the hill, there was a photo spot with the Golden Gate in the background, but it's on a dirt path off to the side. Last year we actual stopped and performed a line dance. My pace at this point is under a 12 minute mile, pretty fast for me, considering the hills. As I was getting a picture taken, some of the group caught up, and we got a nice group shot. Just a short distance up, and we begin crossing the Golden Gate. Just a few runners returning as we start across, but more as we crossed further. Last year I was in awe by the sights. This year, I took a few selfies as I ran across the bridge. Low clouds covered the very top of the supports, but kept the temperatures down. At the turnaround, the view was obscured by the low clouds, so I did not stop, and elected to get on the street before the cut off. So much better running across the bridge on the street instead of on the edge on the sidewalk. Only problem was that since started out so fast and charged up the hills, my quads were began to feel sore. Pace at the 6.4 turnaround was 12:05 min/mile. I slowed my pace a bit, since I reached my time goal, and needed to finish the rest of the race.

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Cloud cover continued, which was great, since I'm plenty warm in my Elvis outfit. A few rough sections down the hill to Crissy Field, but nothing I couldn't handle by slowing my pace. My last race is Dallas was great since I did not have to make a potty stop. I practiced the same hydration technique, and things were looked good. At mile 9, I began to look for the Glukos energy gel station. I began to worry as we got close to mile 10. Did they run out? I was excited to see the station just after mile 10, and consumed a liquid gel. A few more hills to go before the finish, my official pace at mile 10 was now down to 13:07 min/mile. My legs were pretty sore, but actually felt better when I went uphill. At mile 12.5, the last uphill was completed, now just a slight downhill to the finish. The road surface was still slightly rough, and combined with my tired legs, I could not pick up the pace much to the end. Official finish 2:57:02 (13:31 min/mile pace). With the cooler conditions, and less stops, I had hoped to finish much faster, since last year's time was 2:58:50.



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Post race

The sun just started to appear after I was finished. I planned to meet a friend for lunch, so I changed out of Elvis, and headed back to the hotel. As I did last year, I took BART to the Powell station, instead of walking. Showered and packed everything by 11 am, far ahead of the noon check out time. A burger for lunch, and a bit of sightseeing downtown. My friend lives in the East Bay, so we took BART over, and I spent some time with his family before I headed out to the Oakland airport. My flight was scheduled to leave a 6:20 pm, but was delayed about 20 minute. An earlier flight was about 10 minutes from boarding, so I asked if I could get on standby, and was able to board. I've been so used to the two night Remix weekends, that this weekend seemed kind of short. Next stop San Diego, but not until June.