My younger brother Joey doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to great ideas- take running away from home and hiding in the bushes at school with only a bag of Teddy Grahams, for example....not such a great idea (everyone knows a box of Chicken in a Biscuit would have been a tastier option.) Or the time he ran a Stomper in my hair, resulting in my sporting a spiky Kate Gosselin 'do years before the world had ever heard of her.
Thankfully, he has finally redeemed himself. Because he just called me a few days ago to say that he signed us up to run the San Francisco Half Marathon while we're there! So in roughly two weeks, guess who will be panting furiously across the historic, picturesque Golden Gate Bridge with 5,000 lithe, WASPY vegans with braided hair & recycled hemp shoes? ME! ME! ME! That's who!!!
I have to admit though, as soon as my excitement died down, I got scared. Because I seem to recall that the last two dozen or so times that I've been there (I have a love affair with the city), that they have hills. Lots and lots of steep ones. And while I certainly don't mind them when I'm riding up one on a cable car stuffing my face with Ghiradelli chocolate and clam chowder...but when I'm running?! Not so much. So I quickly hopped online to check out the race course map and saw this verbiage, which I will quote verbatim-
No need to be intimidated by the hills- they're actually good for you!
Well, well, well...isn't that comforting and helpful. The hills are described as 'challenging', but my brother described them as 'brutal.' So now I'm a little freaked (not so much that I actually plan to train for the hills or something, sillies!). Instead I plan on just hoping that the MUCH cooler weather up there will help balance my time out a little. I usually run a half in 2 hours and change, so I'm hoping to do the same over there (please note that technically, a 2:59 finish is '2 hours and change'). ;-)
We land in San Fran late on a Friday night, and already have tickets to Six Flags on Saturday. I'm thinking that hanging upside down in a roller coaster and puking out cotton candy the entire day before a half is probably not highly recommended, but that's just how I roll... :-)
1 comment:
I will be running the US Half, too!! I ran the April event which is, sadly, quite a hilly course. But the views are worth it and you get to run over the bridge and back! Hopefully we can meet up! (long time blog stalker...I'm originally from Oahu)
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