San Francisco Marathon

5:30am My phone alarm beeps and I quickly turn it off. I stayed at my in-laws apartment in Sunnyvale because we took Matthew and Christina to Felton for our fourth year going to A Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine.

I quickly got dressed and was out the door to a brisk cool morning with few people on the road and my music blasting through the speakers.

I arrived in San Francisco and took Sunset to Golden Gate Park. Of course the roads were blocked so now my plan was to head along Great Highway to the other side of the park at Fulton, find parking near 36th and walk into the park to the 2nd Half Marathon start location. I got onto Fulton just as the late night chips & salsa, margarita, and race anxiety were wreaking havoc on my stomach. I made a quick stop at the Safeway on Fulton. As expected, filthy dirty and barely any better than a porta-potty except NO LINES. After circling for parking, I found something on the street at Fulton & 39th.

After packing on my iPod headphones, Garmin, sweatband w/ car keys, nipple band-aids, cellphone, gloves, Gu's and hat, I made my way into the park. As luck would have it, a bus of half marathoners were dropped off at that exact moment and I spotted one of the pacers, Mr. 3:20 to be exact.

I shadowed him into the park, past the start line and up the road were all the pacers were lining up to take over for the 1st half marathon pacers. At the time I was glad to find everything so easily but when I look back at it, these pacers are weak compared to the CIM guys who pace the entire marathon distance.

I stretched and waited. The 3:10 group passed, the the 3:20. Within 3 minutes at around 7:12am, Chris came running down the road looking strong. He was ahead of the 3:30 pace group and running at about a 7:50min/mile pace. I quickly caught up on his race thus far and his physical status and we were good to go another 13+ miles.

We spent alot of time cruising around the park, circling lakes, and rolling over some hills. We averaged a 7:50 pace with a few miles of negative splits at 7:47. We ran through Alvord Lake Tunnel just before exiting the park and I told Chris once we were in the city things would appear to move more quickly. I knew the city blocks, turning onto different streets and having a change of scenery would help break up the run into smaller, manageable parts. The encouraging and sometimes crazy-looking spectators helped to distract us at this point too.

We were out of the park and 19 miles into the marathon. I had Chris check his heart-rate and breathing at various times and his body was handling the run perfectly. Slight bpm increase up the hills but quickly back to normal once we leveled off. I was grabbing cups of water for Chris and making sure he drank most of it. I also made sure to join the chorus of encouraging words every now and then to make sure Chris stayed upbeat and focused.

Mile 20 "the wall" came and went without a problem because it was almost completely downhill. It also hepled that just before the descent, we could see the city laid out before us and several landmarks that signified the end of the marathon. We coasted toward the south end of the city. I reminded Chris we only had a 10K left to run.

At one point Chris dropped his little towel and before I knew what had happened he ran back and picked it up! I was under floored. "What are you doing?" He said it was his lucky towel but I said the next time you need a towel or anything, tell me and I'll get it! He said his calf was bothering him a little bit but at the time it wasn't a show stopper. We marched under 101 and 280 freeways near Potrero Hill and I told Chris just the 5K was left just like coming back on Iron Horse from Alcosta. Chris dropped his towel a couple other times but I grabbed it while he kept running. We turned north around the 24 mile mark and headed toward AT&T Park. We were 3 minutes ahead of schedule.

Once we got to the baseball field and South Beach Marina, there was just over a mile to go. Chris said his calf felt like it may be cramping up and I told him to actively stretch it in his stride and NOT STOP RUNNING. We were passing other runners with greater frequency at this point. I tried to encourage them to run with us but few did. One guy I saw walking and offered a Gu to really looked wasted with sweat all over, red, irritated skin around the eyes, and a complete expression of exhaustion. For those running but more slowly, I singled them out to Chris and told him we were going to catch them before the finish and that all his hard training paid off.

We approached the Bay Bridge with less than half a mile to go and there was a runner passed out in the middle of the street getting medical attention surrounded by a crowd. The guy looked so pale he could've been dead. As we passed, a guy from that crowd jumped up and started running with us and shouting words of encouragement. I thought "Who is this guy?" I was shouting too and pumping my fists and he kept running with wearing jeans and flat tennis shoes. More and more people lined the course and were cheering as Chris approached the finish line. We actually sped up and I distanced myself from Chris as he entered the chutes and crossed the mat with his hands in the air.

Chris Chung ran the San Francisco Marathon in 3:25:39!!! More than 5 minutes faster than his 3:30:59 Boston Qualifying Time! He kicked ass and it was an incredible effort.

For me, it was a rewarding experience to be there and a great way to get my 2mile/week butt back into some serious running.

San Francisco Marathon     -    Full Marathon

Bib:	2122
Name:	Christopher Chung
Gender:	M
Age:	47
Hometown:	San Ramon CA

Place Overall:	264	out of   4358
Men:	249	out of   2875
M 45-49:	18	out of   311

FINISH:

3:25:39

pace:   7:51

7.5 Mi:	1:01:00	pace:   8:08
Half:	1:43:46	pace:   7:55

Chip Time:	3:25:39
Gun Time:	3:27:18

Business: 13.5 miles

Gut-check
Breakfast: Gu, banana, water.
Lunch: Pasta w/ clams.
Dinner: Carnitas, carrots, pasta w/ ham, wine, water.

Run. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

=RUMBLE