US Half Marathon Weekend

Flew in to SFO a few days before the race, first to see Jim, then to meet up with Elizabeth (met her at Worlds) and her friend Christy. The first thing we did was go pick up our race packets and tons of free Lara bars. Then we walked back on the last mile or so of the race course and took this first photo.

The next day we tried to get a tour of Alcatraz, but they were sold out for the day, so we climbed a ton of stairs up the back of Coit Tower and took this obligatory photo of Golden Gate Bridge. Cool. Hard to believe we're going to run across it tomorrow. Coit Tower wasn't actually open yet (yeah, we got up THAT early), so we got a cab over to Nob Hill and walked through Grace Cathedral, then down to Union Square where we took the cable car back to the hotel. Then it was over to Union Street for lunch and shopping!

Race day was hard, in fact, this is the hardest 13.1 miles I've ever run. But the photos prove I had good form, and I appear to be having fun.

Jim met me on the very last hill before the finish line and ran with me to the end. He looks like he is trying to out-sprint me but I am in fact letting him beat me.

After the race, we got cleaned up, went to a bar, and had multiple Appletinis. We were going to only have 2 each, but the bartender had a bunch of mix leftover, so we poured it into our glasses and voila! There was a 3rd drink for each of us. Hooray! I have never been so drunk after a race.

Then we walked (ok, sort of shuffled/stumbled) our way over to see the Sea Lions. Wow do they stink. They're loud too, but I was enjoying just watching them.

This last photo is a little gem we found while climbing the stairs to Coit Tower. This is someones "backyard" and is so cool. It has such a zen feeling to it. I would like to have a space like this someday.


1/2 marathon
1:51:16 total time
8:29 pace
1000' ascent (ouch!)

Here are the rest of the photos.