San Francisco Half Marathon

Today I ran in the San Francisco Half Marathon. My goal for this race was to beat my time from the Oakland Running Festival Half Marathon (which was 1:59:38). I accomplished my goal, I shaved off five whole minutes!! Here are my stats:

Finish Time: 1:54:28 (8:44 minute mile pace)
Overall: 1025/4244 = top 24%
Female: 301/2367= top 12.7%
Age Group - F20-29: 123/756= top 16%

This time I raised money for the HALO Trust, a non-profit organization that clears land mines all over the world. With the help of friends, family, and co-workers, I was able to raise $700.

I ran in the "Second Half" which started in Golden Gate park at Spreckels Lake, meandered through the park, then eventually through the Haight/Asbury district, down through SOMA (area South of Market), past AT&T Park Stadium, and down the Embarcadero, ending just before the Ferry Building. Here is a shot my husband took of the finish line.


My friend JP ran this race with me again, which always makes things more fun!! She and I ran together the whole time, so she had the same finish time as me!


Here is a shot of my husband and me, enjoying the free Sierra Nevada that was offered at the finish line area.



Below is the map & time from my Garmin watch. My Garmin was off by 30 seconds because it clocked the end of the race by .1 miles too soon. The distance of the Garmin is probably accurate in that it likely reflects the tiny amount of distance added by weaving around other runners for the first several miles. Even though the race had five different wave times, there were a lot of runners in front of us with a much slower pace than our wave group. The beginning of the route was also narrow, making it harder to get around people. Once we got out of Golden Gate Park, we had much more space to maneuver around other runners.