30 mi. Charlotte had planned to run the SF marathon since the MBA acceptance went through. Thinking she’d already be living on the west coast, her trip to and from Florida wasn’t something anyone thought would happen. As had happened when I ran in Boston, Charlotte woke up very early, under everyone else’s radar, and ran over 26 miles alone. I saw this SF marathon as a chance for me to do the same.
A 3:15am start from Running Sports gave me temps of 83 degrees and a wind from the east. I didn’t feel the breeze until after 5 miles, Juno condos, Seminole Club and Mac Arthur State Park shield you from the ocean and its breezes. I ran with a camelbak loaded with water and Carbo Pro. I had a visor and a shirt to reduce chafing from the backpack straps. I ran 9:49 pace to the Singer Island Ocean mall, 9:40 pace back north to PGA Blvd & A1A where I met Chiara, Adrienne, Steve and Lisa Reiss. They ran 9:30 pace back to the store. I dropped off the camelbak and shirt, put on sunscreen and continued for the 10.5 mile loop. My plan waking up had me complete a route that was 27.4 mi. We ran to the inlet, Lisa and I dropped back from the faster pace the others carried after the turquoise roof water stop. Lisa felt sick at the turn around, I tried to distract her by talking about the Loggerhead tri, anything to keep her mind off the weird stomach issues. We ran down the Loggerhead finish driveway, down south to the water stop and then she announced she was going to throw up and I should continue. I felt fresh surprisingly at mile 23-24, so I wanted to run marathon pace all the way back. I did not have a Garmin, but I know what my rhythm is like at 7:40 pace. I ran strong to Donald Ross Rd. Now the sun was up over the sea grape trees and it was warming rapidly. At the newest water stop at Donald Ross Road, I drank up and considered running to J-Town Bikes and around the duck pond for more miles. Doing this and going to the base of the Donald Ross bridge would give me 30.4 miles, a nice run in tough conditions. I tried to keep the marathon pace the whole way, but felt myself slowing at times, maybe I was at 8 min miles. I ran around the pond, back to the store, past the store, to the bridge and back again. There were only 3 people left at Running Sports when I returned, Gary Walk and a girl I didn’t know, plus the handlebar mustached ultra runner that is apparently writing a book. I felt glad to have gone so far and to feel very good, no cramping, no overly obvious fatigue… I was hungry and figured after I ate I’d crash.
Once home I ate an egg white omelet and wore the compression catsuit for the rest of the day. I tried to sleep, lying on the bed for 45 minutes to an hour but this idea didn’t work. I felt good about being able to add some extra miles to the distance run, I rationalized that San Fran had hills, so my run needed some weird difficulty like heat and more miles. Done!
drun4fun 