rococo - then rubble

Yesterday I completed the San Francisco Marathon (my first) with a time of 3:50:09. Here’s the stats. My goal was a flat 4:00 so I’m pretty pleased with the time. Most of my family came down to run the half marathon or 5K, and my wife also ran the half.

This being my first race I learned a few things along the way.

1. Several people told me take it easy for the first half of the run, but I think it’s actually better to keep a consistent pace the whole time. There’s no way you’re going to make up the time later on and at least for me the most wear is caused by the distance, not speed.

2. When I registered for the race I put down an expected finishing time of 4:15. It didn’t occur to me that this was important, but it turns out to be. Once we got to the Golden Gate Bridge the course became narrow and I lost some time trying to pass people. I’ll underestimate next time.

3. I thought I was good at running down hills, but I was wrong. When I’m tired I tend to lean back against the hill instead of leaning downhill and as a result my knees were in bad shape by the end. I’ll definitely pay more attention to this next time.

The most amusing moment was the beer station at mile 15. I suspect the Hash House Harriers were involved in that.

It was a great experience and I’m looking forward to my next race. Not too soon though.

For my birthday celebration last year I did something a little different: a Birthday Challenge. What is a Birthday Challenge?

… a birthday challenge is essentially a goal, generally in the form of physical achievement, to make your birthday more memorable than the last. Usually the number of your years lends itself to the base of your challenge.

– from http://www.birthdaychallenge.com/whatis.html

Last year’s challenge (my first) consisted of a 26Km run, 26 pullups and 2.6L of beer. For this year’s challenge I’ve decided to run a marathon, which has been a long-term goal of mine. I’ve signed up for the San Francisco Marathon this July 29th. This is great for a few reasons: this distance aligns with my age (26.2 miles vs 27 years), the date almost falls on my birthday, and I’ll by living in the Bay Area this summer.

I haven’t yet decided what all of the events will be for this year but it will probably include another physical challenge and some kind of eating or drinking. Wish me luck!