Ya' ever say, "That's it, no more, I'm done racing," after a race?

That's what I said at the finish line of the San Francisco Half Marathon today. I ran the 2nd half of the full course and I don't know why, but I was expecting it to be flat and easy. There were some flat part and some easy parts, but that was most definitely not like the half I ran in Sacramento in March (real flat), or the San Jose RocknRoll course (also real flat). Today's course was just downright hard, but take that for what it's worth from a runner who hasn't run hills since May. More to come on the race in a few.

DAY BEFORE THE RACE:
Anyway, Saturday was a great day! I worked at the Runningskirts.com booth all day with Christy (co-owner and twin sister of Cindy). It was so, so great to meet her in person and I had a real blast working with her. She is not only very kind and personable, but gorgeous. Those expos are busy, and tough on the body. I don't know how they do so many.

It was really cool to meet so many different runners who enjoy running in skirts. The skirts and bras were selling like hot cakes, like they were going out of style or something. I think I sat down for maybe 5 or 10 minutes the entire day, that is how busy we were! Have I ever mentioned how much I love their skirts? ;) Christy and Cindy, anytime you need a hand at one of the expos and I am available, I would love to work with you again. I really enjoyed it. Thank you very much for the fun opportunity and for your generosity! Christy, can't wait to read a little report on the first half. I saw your finish time and you did GREAT, especially for the first half of that course. I can only imagine the hills.

Many people came by the booth to say hello and it was great to meet a lot of the other runners who use the Runnersworld.com forums. After talking running so long with these people, you sometimes feel like they're your training partners when you finally do meet them in person. Fellow blogger, and ultra runner extraordinaire Rick Gaston came by to say hi and update me on his life. Rick, I'm so happy that things are going well for you!!! :) Now let that thigh/knee of yours heal!

On Saturday night after the expo I met up with a lot of runners from the California Running and Racing Forum on Runnersworld.com at Buca di Beppo. It was so hard to get a chance to talk with everybody because it was very crowded in there and quite loud, but it was nice to put more faces to names. Runners really are so friendly and supportive of one another, in many aspects of life and not just running. I really enjoyed talking with Lori and Gundy. Gundy just finished running the Badwater Ultra Marathon through Death Valley and finishing up Mt. Whitney. Talk about a super knowledgeable, dedicated, talented yet very humble man. And Lori was just a sweetheart! She made her goal in the full marathon in SF running a sub-3:30 by 2 minutes. Go girl!

RACE MORNING:
Nothing too eventful. Woke up about 3 hours before gun time and choked down more fluids, sports drink, coffee and half a bagel with butter. My tummy was nervous, I was nervous. Met Larry, aka Mosquito, our running store general manager at the shuttle buses at 6:30 and off we went to the 2nd half starting line at Golden Gate Park. Made use of the port o potties once, and then made use of the dense trees and shrubs several times. Saw BUFFALO grazing in a field at the park and I had to stop and stare.

Warmed up for 1.5 miles, including long strides at goal pace. Changed into racing flats, checked the gear bag and fell into line in wave 1. I had gotten a voice mail from Miguel the night before and he said to go out at 6:45-6:50 for the first 3 miles, and then after the little hill at 3 miles, let it loose and be aggressive. Just go for it. He said not to be afraid and to push myself. He said to visualize seeing the clock at the finish line saying sub 1:25 (hahhahahaha, right), and that I was ready. And you know what, I know I was ready (but the course has to be pretty damn flat for me to get that time, at least right now).

Followed his instructions pretty much to the letter, but I live in flat land and the hills were longer and more challenging than I thought they'd be. I thought they'd be little rollers like CIM's course, but no, to me these were actual hills. Enough so that my pace slowed significantly on them. The downhills in Mile 6 were THE BOMB though. I FLEW down those things and had a blast doing so. What I did was monitor my Garmin for the first 3 miles to make sure I wasn't going too fast, and then I just stopped looking at it completely until I got to the finish line. I ran the last 10 miles completely by feel, and let me tell you, I felt it.

Looking at the Garmin AFTER the race, I realized that I ran .38 miles longer than I had to. I did not run the tangents which added on a significant amount to the race. I ran 13.48 miles at 1:30:03, which was a 6:41/mile average. But since that's not official, I have to go with running 13.1 in 1:29:09 (6:49/mile average). Not much of a PR at all, but I have to cut myself some slack because this course was so different from the last half marathon I ran in March.

My splits were:
6:44
7:03
7:14
6:49 (first 4 miles had some hills, in Golden Gate Park)
6:22
6:40 (several rollers)
6:40
6:05 (can you tell there were a couple down hills in this mile?)
6:33 (aah, flat)
6:31
6:46 (feeling fatigue and feeling headwinds)
6:40 (see above)
6:45 (barely, barely hanging on... in fact, gasping at the end)
3:15 (for . 48)
2.08 mile cool down a little while later

As soon as I crossed the finish line, Larry and David (another RW forum user) asked me if I was all right. I must've not looked too good. I didn't feel too good either. I saw my husband and ALMOST said, "Never again," out loud. Instead, I just said the words silently to myself. Of course that won't last long.

Afterward I went through waves of feeling decent, and then feeling just plain ill, exhausted, wanting to lay down and curl up into a ball and sleep. I still feel pretty crappy at 8:15 p.m., but I'll get over it.

I talked to Miguel after the race and he said he knew the course was tougher than he let on, but didn't want to psyche me out before the race. He was happy with what I did today because he said I was still very strong on high volume/low intensity (which is what I've done through the summer). He feels that the high volume, high intensity workouts that will come for marathon training will really help me improve by a lot, and not by just seconds.

To Larry (Mosquito Mosquito) & David (Golden State Runner): You guys completely rocked that 2nd half! Larry ran a 1:12 & change and David ran a new PR of 1:23 & change. As I mentioned earlier, the course was not easy. My hat is off to these two because they went twice as fast as me and felt twice the pain! ;)

I wanted to give a shout out to Billy & Paul, two other RW forum users that I met at the expo on Saturday. SF was Paul's FIRST MARATHON and he did great! Paul, you're a nut to pick that one for your first, but it shows how much gumption you've got. And Billy PR'd AND broke 4 hours by 8 minutes. He wanted to break 4 at the San Diego Rock N Roll in June but didn't, and I know SF's course is much harder than SD's, and he not only broke 4 but he broke it by a ton of time! Great job guys!

I have a few weeks of easy running and cross training to do. I'm looking forward to the down time. I'm sure it's all I need to get my race mojo back. Thanks so much for reading and for all the good wishes prior to the race. :)