San Francisco 1/2-Marathon

I had been pretty wishy washy about doing this event as I haven't been doing any real walking in the last 6-months as I had been concentrating so much on cycling. I have also had this foot problem that just hasn't completely gone away. I waited until the last possible day to make the decision and just decided to go for it. Christine and I actually did different 1/2-marathons with her doing the first 1/2 of the course and me doing the second half. My race started in Golden Gate park and I got rolling. The course was pretty rolly but generally not too bad. The weather was perfect being a bit cool and slightly overcast. There were lot's of other walkers and the people doing the full marathon also were on the same course so I always had lots of company. The first 3-miles weren't too bad with me trying to recapture my walk form and doing 14 minute/miles. Around Mile 6 I knew there was trouble in paradise. I wasn't physically tired but my body was starting to hurt pretty badly. My walk form was horrible as I haven't been training and consequently, I was getting a lot of hip pain. My feet were also starting to swell up dramatically and my right ankle was throbbing. Mile 9, I'm in full on pain. My pace has slowed down a LOT. My average speed when I was doing a lot of walking was anywhere from 13-15 mins/mile and I was now doing 16+ minutes/miles. Creeping doubt started to enter my brain about whether I was actually going to be able to complete this event. Well I'm nothing if not stubborn and just kept trodding along. The last 4 miles crept by at a snail's pace as I watch my average pace slow very noticeably. When I was walking a lot I could usually finish up a 1/2-marathon in right around 3 hours. I was beginning to doubt as whether I was going to be able to finish within the course time limit of 3-1/2 hours. I do some quick math and realize that I need to step it up. I start jogging on the downhills which gains me some time but makes the foot pain worse. Also, when I start walking again, I would have trouble finding the rhythm. The last two miles were extremely painful and I was wincing at every step. I was obviously struggling, with my average pace slipping to 18 minute/miles. Some of the people on the side of the road yelled out encouraging words which help quite a bit. I finally crossed the finish line with just a few minutes to spare. Christine was waiting for me as her 1/2 course had finished 2 hours earlier. I was hurting pretty bad and was actually having trouble talking. I immediately gobbled down some post race food and started stretching. I have enough experience to know that my pain would be a lot worse if I didn't stretch right away. I limp back to the hotel which is thankfully only a three blocks from the finish line, kick off the shoes and fall into bed. Brutal. We had to check out soon afterwards but I was in no shape to walk around too much so we spent the afternoon along the waterfront laying in the sun napping and reading. Really nice.

I used to almost scoff a the 1/2 -marathon distance when I was doing a lot of walking while training for my full marathon. No longer. I definitely learned a valuable lesson, no more 1/2-marathons without training.