Question:
In spite of the fact that my longest
race has been 10K, and my longest
training run to date an 8-miler,
I signed up for the San Francisco
(half) marathon this July 31st .
I've talked to a lot of people who
say this is a challenging course,
that's OK, as I'm
running it just to finish, not necessarily
for time.
From looking
at the map, it starts on the west
side of SF, just south of the West
Sunset Playground. It goes north
to MLK Jr. Drive, then west through
Golden Gate park. The map lists
elevations/hills, and from what
I read it looks to be somewhat flat
(the biggest change in elevation
seems to be a downhill, 200ft over
2 miles). So, am I going to get
off easier than I thought, or is
the map not showing all the hills?
Answer:
Take the first few miles very easy.
WALK if you cannot force yourself
to run a gentle pace. Hydrate. Drink
at every official water station,
and some of the unofficial ones
too. As one person once told me:
if you can run a 10K you can run
a Half marathon. 13 miles is not
a big increase over 8 miles, if
you do it steadily. Do a long run
of 9 miles in March, 10 in April,
and so on. I'd alternate distance
with shorter runs in hills too.
