The San Francisco Marathon Experience

This was my third attempt at doing the San Francisco Marathon and I am glad I finally did the race.

A number of years ago (when my 12 year old was a baby) I took the family on vacation there and had signed up for the race but we were having such a good time visiting the city for the first time as a family that I ended up blowing off the race.

It was a good idea because I was not ready to run the race and was pretty exhausted by race day. travling with three small children will do that to you.

Then last year I took my two oldest sons on a tour of the U.C. campuses and was signed up for the full but ended up running the half instead. Visiting UCSC, UC Davis, UC Merced and Berkeley proved to be an enjoyable but exhausting experience.

But in 2010, I finally did the full and posted a good time for me and was very pleased that my last 10k was my fastest section of the race. I credit my performance to a lot better training and trying to limit my pre-race exertions as much as possible. Of course that can be difficult when visiting a place like San Francisco.

Our trip began on Friday morning around 8am with the always fun drive up the valley. At least the miles go by rather quickly and we only had to make one pit stop.

Too be Continued