2014 SF Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Race Report

Tags

Disneyland Half Marathon, healthy-living, Race Report, Race Review, Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series, Rock n Roll San Francisco, Rock n Roll SF, rock n roll sf race review, run, Running, Running motivation, Sparkle athletic, Swirlgear, team sparkle

WOW! I absolutely LOVED this race. Not to mention, I PR’d…on a race with MANY hills. Kind of crazy pants if you ask me.

First things first, the Health Expo and packet pick up.

I headed over to the Moscone Center after work on Friday night. There weren’t a whole lot of people there, which made it kind of nice and quick. I walked in, grabbed my bib, picked up my cute race t-shirt and bag that doubles for the gear check bag.

On the way to the expo

Why, yes. Yes I am ready to rock SF…

The awesome t-shirt

Having a little Elvis style fun

I bought this shirt at the expo. So cute!

Afte I made the rounds, won a couple of lip balms and a wrist sweat band. We grabbed some dinner and then headed home.

RACE MORNING!

I set my phone alarm for 3 times. Just in case…

We stayed at a hotel in SF, so we left the room around 4:30 and walked over to Civic Center to catch the complimentary shuttle. The whole experience of the shuttles getting us to the start line was so incredibly easy and well organized. I was wearing my favorite Swirlgear pink hoodie and my Sparkle skirt!! Pretty sure the outfit is what got me over those hills.

Ready to run with my Swirlgear sweater and my Sparkle Athletic skirt

Rob loves taking photo’s at 4:45AM

The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round…

Once we got to the start, we huddled together to keep warm. It was pretty chilly.

Ready to go!

Because Rob is a speedy, speederson, he was in corral 1, while I was in corral 7, so we said good luck, have fun and parted ways.

The view from corral 7

The National Anthem was sung and there was a nice moment of silence for those affected by the Boston Marathon bombing last year and then corral 1 was off.

It seemed like they were letting corrals go about every 2 minutes, so before I knew it we were off and running. We ran, probably about 1/8 of a mile, turned a corner and….HILL! This was kind of the theme of the race.

Hills.

As I was running up the first few hills, it wasn’t so bad. Around mile 3 or 4, there was a pretty hard hill along the highway. But then I looked up and saw this:

Hello, majestic beauty

I mean, how could that NOT put a pep in someone’s step?

I had to pull over and take a photo.

Half marathon selfie…

This was the only stop I made. Right after mile 4 we headed onto the Golden Gate Bridge. AH-mazing!!

As much as I did love running across the bridge (and passing Rob as he was on the other side finishing up the bridge as I was starting), this was probably the only time on the course where I felt it was a little crowded. There wasn’t a whole lot of room for people to pull over to slow down or walk, so there was a little bit of a bottle neck. Honestly, though, I have to say, this was my favorite part of the race. Probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

YAY Bridge!

The bridge was mile 5-7ish and then we went out to Fort Mason. Luckily, there was a really nice downhill on this part, so I made up some time I lost on the uphill and the selfie.

Mile 9 and 10 were kind of uneventful for me and then we hit mile 11. Ohhhhhhh, mile 11. I’m pretty sure I said a few curse words every time I saw the never-ending hill. When you thought it was over…it wasn’t. I’m not going to lie. I walked a bit. Lost some time, but at this point, I was getting a little tired and my hip was being a little iffy. After what felt like an hour (it was about 12 minutes in regular people time), mile 12 finally came. It started to even out and then…DOWNHILL TO THE FINISH!

I took advantage of that downhill. I looked at my Garmin and noticed, I was on time to hit a PR. YES! So, I picked up the pace. The finish line crowd was great. So much cheering, I loved it.

Happy downhill face 🙂

I crossed the finish line and got my awesome medal!

I got my refreshments (I loved the Cheez-its), and then headed to Rob and my designated meeting spot. He said he had a great run and LOVED the course. I mean, how couldn’t you love the course? It was beautiful. Minus the grueling hills…

YAY!

We stayed to listen to the The Neighbourhood for a couple of songs.

I liked them

Then it was time to head back to the hotel for an ice bath (brrrrrrr) and then grabbed some lunch at Gott’s (Yummmmmmm)

Oh yeah!

I think out of all of the half marathons I have done, this has been the best in regards to views and scenery. The hills were rough, but not something that would deter me from doing this run again. And, surprisingly, I PR’d by 2.5 minutes!! YAHOOOO!!!!

2:11:27

My next goal is to get it down to 2:10…maybe in Santa Barbara next month!

QOTD: What’s your favorite Rock ‘n’ Roll race, if you’ve done one. If you haven’t, which one do you REALLY want to do??