Kaiser SF Half Race Report
Overall
It went great, I PR’d by 10 minutes! The course is super fast and the light drizzle of rain didn’t really put a damper on things.
Report
t-0:20
I arrived and was able to use the bathroom – they did a great job of making sure there were enough port-a-potties. After that since it was drizzling I hid under a tree to the side of the start line with a bunch of other runners who looked like they were from a club and knew what they were doing.
t-0:10
I made my way to the start squeezing through a dense crowd. I always enter corrals too late. I found the 1:30 pacer.
t+0:00
The race started!
People around me, despite being right behind the giant “6:00 mile” sign, were significantly slower than that ಠ_ಠ. I probably lost ~30-60 seconds off my time due to this.
I hung onto the 1:30 pacer as closely as possible. There was a good group of 4-6 of us in that pace group.
t+0:07
The crowd was still congested as we all squeezed from 4 lanes to 1 at the beginning of the panhandle section, and someone tripped me. I nearly hit the pavement but was able to recover. From thereafter in the race I held my arms out while turning and ran in a generally defensive manner.
t+0:35
I took my Gu. My legs were already beginning to feel a bit tired.
t+0:48
We made it onto Ocean Beach and it was terrible. There was a strong, cold headwind that didn’t let up. At one point we came up to a giant puddle that squeezed us into a single file line, slowing us down.
t+1:02
Just before we got the turnaround, I fell off from the 1:30 pace group. I knew I could have held onto that group for 5-10 more minutes, but I knew if I attempted to do that I would empty my tank entirely and I wanted to have something left for the ~100ft hill at the finish.
t+1:24
I caught sight of the windmills. At this point I knew I wouldn’t break 1:30, but I would still PR by a good margin.
t+1:30
I started flooring it to the finish. As a net downhill race everything was fairly smooth sailing, even with the Ocean Beach headwind, but the last hill is really a slap in the face. I would have saved up more energy if I realized how my legs would feel going up that hill at the finish.
t+1:31:37
Finished with a chip time of 1:31:37, beating my personal record by 10 minutes and 5 seconds!
On Strava