Longest Run Ever and Beautiful course Ever - San Francisco Half Marathon

Longest Run Ever and Beautiful course Ever
Run Stats: 13.1 miles in 2:45':45''




I intent to capture some of the feelings I have gone through before, during and after San Francisco Half Marathon through this race report.

Before the race:
It is been more than 2 months since I joined Team Asha marathon training program. I see my progress from hardly running a mile to running 11 miles in Crissy field training run. I felt so confident to finish the half marathon (13.1 miles) when I ran my first double digit miles during the Crissy field training run two weeks before the sfm. All along, I was following coaches & mentors advise to the dot to avoid any injuries during the training. As usual, followed the coaches advice not to run long distances 1 week prior to the event. By saturday, I started feeling a bit rusted and wondering how I am going to fare at the actual race. Mentor madhavi mentioned that she had the same feeling during her first race and that gave a bit of relief.

Saturday before the race:
I asked Prakash to pick up my bib from SF on saturday. Missed the corbo lunch and got it replaced with my wife's delicious home made pasta for dinner. Night before, kept all my race gear at one place after putting the bib on my asha t-shirt. I asked my wife & kids to come to the finish line and they aggreed to come there when one of my friend Madhu offered accompanying her. Thanks Madhu! Checked with Praveen on where to park car for the family visiting me. I slept at 10ish after putting alarms on my cell phone(2:30), wrist watch(2:35), clock radio(2:40am).

Race Day:
Got up at 2:40 after my third alarm rang. Took a warm shower, had some breakfast and put on my marathon gear. Ready for the race. Rushed to the train station exactly at 3:45 and people were still arriving at the station. Got in the second bus. Co-ords arranged for banana & bagel in the bus. Reached SF around 5:15am. Happy to see the excitement among asha runners. Everybody is Looking Good! Luckily, whether was not that cold. After sweats check in at the startline, did some stretching along with Satish, Naren & Praveen. Praveen suggested us to go in the Wave 6 even though ours says Wave 8. We lined up at Wave 6 and happened to see most of Shoreline running buddies. Satish took lot of pictures for us during the wait. Finally, we started at 6:05 from the start line.

During the Race:
At the start line, Tanu and myself decided to run together as much as possible. First couple of miles was a breeze going thru Embarcadero, Pier 39. Feeling so strong (partly due to rest week). We hit the first hill at Fort Mason and I ran past it. Our Ranchos hill training really helped here. Running through Crissy field and approached the second hill near the Golden gate bridge. Ran this hill as well. Just after the hill, we were delighted to see Krishna, Deepu and couple of asha co-ords. They cheers made us run quicker on the golden gate bridge. Thanks guys for showing up so early in the morning. Finished 1 hour of running by this point and drank/ate my first gu gel. For a change, GG bridge was visible and it was looking so beautiful. Nice to see so many runners on the bridge not on the side-walk. We missed the mile 6 mark to mark time in my watch & went past that. Realized it after seeing the mile 7 mark. That's when, I felt the difference of running with somebody. Thanks to Tanu for sticking to me until this point and our paces were matching. Finished the 4 miles running to & fro on the bridge. This reminded me of my run on the bridge 9 years back during my bachelor days. We made a big deal for doing that then. Now, I am at the 9th mile mark. Krishna & Deepu joined us to run the last 4 miles with us. The biggest hill has hit us now and ran past it as we were indulged in talking with each other. Finished the 10 miles and 3 more to go. Tanu started feeling some pain in the calf and she slowed down. I went ahead and Mousumi & Krishna joined me during the numerous rolling hills phase. Successfully managed to run through them and entered the golden gate park. We were welcomed by loud music at 12th mile. Did my slow motion run for brief duration while enjoying the music. I started seeing runners walking back from the finish lines with their medal & shinny shawls on.

Finishing:
Final mile went very quick and finish line suddenly appeared in our vicinity. Krishna accompanied me in sprinting the last few yards towards the finish. That's it! I finished the half-marathon longer run of my life in 2:45:45.

I was eagerly looking for my family and then I heard my wife shouting my name. I turned towards them and my two kids located me & started chanting DADDY.. I was so happy to see them there. I got my medal & shawl. Both of my kids wanted one each. I requested the folks to give me one more medal and got an extra one.

Then, I met fellow asha runners and mentors. Had some pictures taken. Exchanged hi5's and shared the timings. I didn't go to the Asha tent and hit back home to attend a lunch party at Mountain House.

Without the traning, support from Coaches, Mentors, Co-ords, running buddies, I wouldn't have finished strong my longest run ever. Thanks a million to all of you to help me navigate through the half of journey towards Chicago marathon.

This fist ever endurance running race is etched in my memory and savor the experience for sometime.