San Francisco Rock n Roll {Race Recap}

Last weekend I completed my 20^th half marathon- the San Francisco Rock n Roll! I was nervous going into the race and doubted my decision to run at 23 weeks pregnant. I wondered if I was doing the right thing by running in the first place and woke up a bundle of nerves on race morning. I didn’t sleep much the night before and was wide awake at 4 am. I didn’t want to wake up Little so I had laid out my race attire in the bathroom the night before.

Pre race selfies- check!

After getting ready I woke up Cam so he could walk me downstairs with me to get me an Uber to the race shuttles. The finish line was only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, but we didn’t have time to figure out how I could walk down the day before and I was nervous to figure it out on my own at 5 am. I saw the start the day before because it was over by the zoo and knew that it was at least a 30 minute bus ride away. I had no problems getting to the race shuttle and was dropped off at the race start about 40 minutes prior to the start at 6:30 am. It was chilly, but not super cold. I walked around for a bit and then with about 15 minutes left until “go time” I handed over my gear bag and went to get a spot in my corral.

Starting line, check!

Unintentionally we had driven part of the course the day before as we were leaving the zoo, but I wasn’t sure which direction we would go once the race started. Within the first 3 minutes we hit hill numero one. It was a doozy!!!!! With people already walking I kept repeating “just keep running” over and over in my head and powered through without stopping. After some rolling rolls we had some gentle downhill running and one more uphill at mile 3 that had amazing views of Golden Gate.

Golden Gate

I remember last time I ran this race how windy it was running over Golden Gate and how crowded it was because they didn’t close off lanes of traffic. This wasn’t the case this year. The wind both directions was minimal and they closed off two lanes of traffic for runners clearing out a lot of the congestion issues. Once you completed the Golden Gate out and back we headed towards downtown with just a little over a 5K left.

Golden Gate with San Francisco in background

Screenshot of a race photo taken on Golden Gate

Running back over golden Gate at mile 7

My first goal for the race was to just finish, my second goal was to finish between 2:00- 2:15. I passed the 2:00 hour pacer about mile 8 so I knew as long as I didn’t stop or I didn’t need a port-a-potty stop I should be able to finish close to the 2:00 hour mark. Cam had texted me earlier and told me to have fun, enjoy the course and to not kill myself. He might know that I am a competitive person.

My free race photo- Just beyond mile 10

At mile 10 I texted Cam and told him where I was at because morning of the athlete tracker wouldn’t download to his phone. By then Little should have been up so that they could walk down and meet me at the finish. There were a few more uphills sprinkled in the last few miles with a monster of a hill in the last mile. I was dying at this point and walked twice. I looked down at my garmin to see how much further I had left when I realized it wasn’t working- what?! It stopped tracking my mileage at 12.09 miles. UGH!!!!! By now the 2:00 pacer caught up and passed me so I stepped it up a notch, knowing that the top of the hill was close and that there had to be a downhill. I passed the pacer again, hit the top of the hill and saw a huge downhill with the finish line off in the far distance. The finish was so close and I knew that my favorite Little person would be waiting for me. They spotted me first, but once I saw my husband waving I ran over and quickly said “hi” to Little. Her face just lit up, it was the best.

Seeing my favorites! Photo credit goes to the husband

After I finished I made it through the finish line corral and then called Cam so that we could walk back to the hotel. We had a tight schedule and I knew that he wanted to get checked out of the hotel as soon as possible so we could head to the aquarium in Monterrey.


#20 is in the books! Thanks San Francisco!

My official finish time was 2:01:35. Now to get ready for half marathon #21 this Sunday.


--Tasha