Nick's Half Marathon

Nick decided it would be a good idea to run the SF half marathon this morning.  No no, he didn't sign up on a whim, he signed up for it months ago.  

We spent the night in the city, since the race started at 5:30AM.  Talk about punishment!  Nick was up at 4:45 and I was close behind at 5:00AM.  I dropped him off near the ferry building and I was off to the cheer station - chrissy field.  Then I realized.....I've never driven in the city before.  Shoot.

Never fear - I've got the garmin!  So I pull over and type the address into the Garmione (that's what we call her).  Then those faithful words cross the screen - "Out of Satellite Reception."  The buildings in the city are too tall and you only get periodic signals.  So I was navigating the old fashioned way.  A map (a map that doesn't tell you which streets are one way).  Eventually Garmione was back up and running and I made it to Chrissy field where I snapped the picture above.  Nick started off at a great pace - he was at the 4 mile marker just under a 10 min/mile pace and his bald head was easy to spot!

Then I was back in the car and headed to golden gate park - or, the parking nightmare.  With 20,000+ runners, the event was huge.  So parking near golden gate park was hard to come by.  I think I managed a 5k, walking between the finish line and the car.  But if there was ever a time NOT to complain, it was today.  I mean, it could have been a lot worse.  I could have run from the ferry building to the finish line :-)

I tried to get some pictures of Nick crossing the finish line, but there were too many people in the way.  Then, we had a case of iPod-itis.  Nick didn't take his earbuds out, so he couldn't hear me yelling his name.  He also missed the announcer congratulating him as he crossed the finish line.  Either way, it was a successful outing.  Nick finished in 2hrs, 3min and 36 seconds, a 9min, 27 sec/mile pace.  AWESOME!  I will be much slower in October, but this race got me pumped.  Nicely done, Nick!

Just finishing the race!

Looking around for me.

Still looking for me......