San Francisco Half Marathon July 29, 2007

Race Number Nine (91 to go)

Next to Disneyland, this was my favorite race out of the first nine that I have run. What a great city and venue to hold a marathon and two half marathons.

The last time I was in San Francisco, my boys and I stumbled on to the largest gay pride parade in San Francisco and world history. Therefore, you can imagine that I was a bit concerned that I was going to have similar “luck” this time around. Not so, thank goodness! I was not up to running into grown men and women dressed up as angels, unicorns and ladies/men of the night. My fear of getting a slap on the butt-tocks (read that as if Forrest Gump was saying it. One of my dear friends has posted a comment calling me Forrest, as I think she thinks I am an idiot to be doing all this running-“Stupid is as stupid does!”-just kidding, Terry) was also decreased knowing we did not come to SF on the wrong weekend. Cam (my oldest son) and I were up at 3:30 am and Cam dropped me off at the start line by 4:30. The race started at 5:30 in the morning and nearly 14,000 marathoners and half-marathoners gathered on the Embarcadero.

With a temperature at race time of 56 degrees and the standard issue SF fog and mist, it was almost perfect weather for a marathon. I have never been to London, but I imagined it might be like this on certain days. I got to my wave 3 line up point and began to loosen up. Now a quick TRUE story before I tell you a bit about the race.

As I was standing in my wave three corral, waiting for the start gun, I overheard two men conversing behind me. One fellow says to the other that he was really looking forward to the race but he had a BRIDGE PHOBIA. Well, you can imagine what crossed my cynical, twisted and very practical mind. Why in God’s precious and holy name (and I guess Buddha, Allah, and Krishna, too-after all I am in San Francisco) would a person CHOOSE to run the San Francisco Marathon who KNEW, well in advance, that he would be running over the most famous suspension bridge in the world, the Golden Gate!!! I could hardly contain myself from busting out in laughter. Now, I can anticipate many of your reactions to my comments. ‘But Mike, he probably signed up to conquer a fear or at least address it. Have some compassion, Forrest!’ My response to you: When is comes to athletics and competitive events, I generally leave my compassion in the locker room, on the bench, or in this case, in the porta-potty. In addition, how would YOU like to be one of the runners who runs smack dab into this person at mile 5.5 as he freezes in his running tracks at the base of the huge Golden Gate Bridge? Can you picture this guy looking up at the first tower, trebling, with hundreds of runners trying to get around him? Take a glimpse through the eye of a classic motion picture director like Spielberg or Hitchcock. Imagine this scene at the end of a very depressing movie with the camera panning back from our runner’s horrified face and then the camera moves back at medium speed as our runner’s “frozen-with-fear” body fades and you begin to see hundreds, then thousands of runners coming into the picture and then the orange bridge and then the surrounding SF area. I would edit the film to show just enough of our stalwart runner to make it appear that thousands of runners are streaming around what appears to be a pole in the middle of the course. I would name the film, “Waiting for Deliverance” as I am quite sure our runner was waiting for one of the aforementioned gods (or the SF fire department or sanitation crew, for obvious reasons) to get him out of this mess (no pun intended). What a moment, huh? Maybe I should sign up for the UCLA (NOT USC) film school!

FOCUS, Munier, you have a race to share with a somewhat interested public (notice I did not say entourage).

The race took us through the Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf, Mason Street (MAJOR HILL, oh my god), the Golden Gate Bridge and then up and down (mostly up) into Golden Gate Park. The four major hills or climbs were quite challenging. Very much-expected in SF, though. Hydration was easy. All you had to do was breath in all the mist and fog!

I ran the race in honor of Shania Crumrine, one of my student’s at Jefferson Academy. At each mile marker, I sent up a prayer for her. She had a liver transplant this spring and is still battling some continuing and major complications due to the surgery. We love you sweetie!!!

My humble statistics:
Finishing time: 2:15:25 Pace 10:20 per mile
Placed 2,429th out of 4,924 overall first half runners (second half had about 2,500 runners)
Placed 1,310th out of 2,157 Males in the first half
Placed 116th out of 237 50-59 Year olds
Compensating for my advancing age, I would have placed 1,711th out of 4,924 runners or in the top 35%.

After a cold and hot shower and an overdose of Aleve and Mannatech Sport, Cam and I headed to Napa Valley for some wine tasting for the balance of the afternoon. Numb probably describes my condition at about 4 pm. This race may be a regular on my calendar…… as long as it is not on gay pride weekend!