Rice A Roni!

The leaders quickly dashed to the front and disappeared into the dark morning. I was left to fend for my self amongst the elite female runners. Well, somebody had to do it.

My plantar was behaving nicely even though I didn't give it much of a warm up this morning. I figure not warming up would force me to take it out slow and easy at the start. I was shooting for sub-3 (secretly, sub-2:50), so my overall average pace had to be no slower than 6:51.88, give or take 38 god damn seconds.

With that goal pace in mind I definitely started out way too fast with the first 5 miles around 6:40 average. This was more indicative of a sub-2:50 mindset based on my run at Boston.

The hills began around 2.7 and didn't let up for the rest of the race. If we weren't going up, then we were going down. It was a merciless assault on the quads and hamstrings for 26.2 miles.

The centerpiece of the race came early at mile 6 as we made the 3 mile trek out, across, and back over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was barely light out when I got onto the bridge, and of course it was windy. I was too zoned out to enjoy the scenery, but it was pretty damn cool to see the endless stream of runners as we turned around and headed back into San Francisco proper. Hi, Fil! Hi, Lauren!

(chick getting chicked)

(before she started hydrating)

Also, with the out and back I was able to guesstimate that I was in the top 30 at the moment, but there was still plenty of race left to go for me to completely crash and burn in Buicide fashion.

The hills continued as we dropped off of the bridge and then climbed back up and into Golden Gate Park via the Presidio.

I was feeling OK, not great, but OK as I crossed the convoluted (they make you loop around the park a couple of times) half-marathon mark in 1:28. I knew for sure at this point that sub-2:55 was out of the question, and that sub-3 might also be in jeopardy based on the way I usually run positive split marathons, especially when I'm not in 100% running shape....like always.

My legs were feeling really, really heavy and beat up when I finally exited Golden Gate Park at mile 19 and onto Haight St. I eventually crossed over Haight and Ashbury at mile 19.5, which was pretty far out, man.

Haight is as straight as an arrow, unfortunately, it's a broken arrow. Little did I know that this was waiting for me and my dead legs at Mile 20...

(it's the 3rd video)

Enjoy watching my demise as I head towards the finish in a flame of glory....