This past weekend, I completed my first official half marathon after participating in the 32nd annual Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon! The course was fairly flat and wound its way through Golden Gate Park and along Ocean Beach. You couldn’t have asked for better better weather or scenery! Overall, it was the perfect event for a new runner like myself.
My official result? 2:17:32. That’s kind of the nice thing about your first half marathon — any time is a new personal record. I’ve been training off and on for the last few months (and indeed, I could have trained more) and was hoping to hit 2 hours.
As it turns out, I was on pace to do it until one of my calves started to cramp up exactly half way through the race, forcing me to take a stretching break and limp through the remainder of the course.
That’s me at mile 8! via @kerryme.
That said, it was still a really positive and fun experience and it’s something I’d like to do more of! Which is good, because I signed up for the Oakland Running Festival in March. Oh, boy!
A couple things I learned:
- I brought my own water bottle (mainly so I could eat some of the gross energy gels that I brought with me). Overall, I wasn’t too distracted by it — I had brought a disposable bottle just in case it was annoying and I needed to chuck it. However, I skipped a bunch of water stations at the beginning of the race since I figured I had water. Big mistake! I should have taken advantage of the free water and gatorade (and used it to time when I should have consumed the gels). As it is, I ran out of water at around mile 10.
- The gels really helped! I had the Cliff Bar variety. While they were really thick and gross to consume, I really felt that they gave me energy and I didn’t really hit a wall until the last mile and a half or so of the race. More than anything, I was distracted about my tight calf!
- Someone else had mentioned this to me in the past, but I basically found someone who was running at a pace I was mostly comfortable with and I ended up sticking close to them for the first 6 miles. Trying to keep up with him was kind of a fun game.
- I also discovered the “awful truth about jogging that no one ever talks about.” Oh, man is it true!
