Golden Gate Bridge Run

Two weeks ago Tuesday (I hope to catch up to the current week soon!), my friend Brian sent me an e-mail asking if I wanted to join him on a "long run" that Saturday. Brian has a few marathons under his belt and is pretty good about keeping an even pace during a long race. He proposed running 15 miles since he had just recently decided to run the Seattle Marathon on November 26 and really needed to get his training going. He wanted to run from the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. I was only supposed to run 12 miles for my long run, but it sounded fun, so I agreed.

I also mentioned this long run to one of my co-workers, Christina, who has not run long distances regularly, but is faster than both of us. She clearly outpaced us during the Cable Car Chase, but I think this is only because (a) she is much younger than either of us and still has a lot of spring in her step, or (b) some of Alan Webb's (who she apparently dated in high school) speed wore off on her. For the non-runners, Alan Webb ran the mile in 3:53.43 in 2001 while he was in high school, breaking Jim Ryan's record.

I hadn't really done any training runs with other people before, and I was a little worried that I might have trouble keeping up. Luckily, it was much better than expected as the miles ticked by pretty quickly as we chatted. We started at the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, ran along the Embarcadero, past the tourists at Fisherman's Wharf, through Aquatic Park, Fort Mason, the Marina, Crissy Field, and, finally, to the Golden Gate Bridge. The variety of scenery is amazing, and we got to see a nice cross-section of San Francisco. The weather was also nice and cool although the winds really started to whip up as we approached the bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 1937, is about 1.7 miles long, and stands 220 feet above the San Francisco Bay. Traffic roars past on the left of the pedestrian lane, and there are wide gaps to the right which look right down on the Bay below. It was cloudy when we ran (the view of San Francisco was entirely lost in the fog), which minimized the number of pedestrians on the bridge. Still, the views down toward the Bay were pretty amazing, as people were out kite surfing right under the Golden Gate. At the end of the first half of the run, we stopped at the Visitor's Center on the Marin side of the bridge, and I was feeling great. Unlike in San Francisco, it was sunny and warm in Marin. We stopped for a minute, I had a Cola flavored Clif Shot, and we headed back.

My legs felt a little wobbly on the way back, and Christina and Brian were whipping up the pace. Once we got back across the Bridge, after almost 10 miles (unfortunately, my GPS device malfunctioned about 4 miles into the run, so I am not 100% sure how far we went), Christina decided she was done and we parted ways. Brian was still feeling good, and he got me to press on. I was starting to feel sore in both of my knees and my hips and, after about 12 miles, was really starting to fade. Fortunately for me, the entire run was only about 14 miles (rather than the anticipated 15) and I made my way back to the Ferry Building intact.

All in all, it was beautiful run, and it was also nice to share the pain with others. I also felt pretty good about running the length of a half marathon (13.1 miles) in less than two hours. All told, we ran 14 miles in 2:05:39. Jessica and Brian's fiancee (and Jessica's high school friend), Sarah, met us at the Ferry Building and we enjoyed a glass of wine at "Wine" (in Embarcadero Center 2) followed by a fine rack of ribs at MacArthur Park Restaurant.

Here is the recap for the week:

Week Three
Miles: 24.5
Time: 3:33:45

Totals
Total miles (running): 62.4
Total time (running): 8:57:27

I was definitely sore that evening and a little sore the next day, but recovered pretty quickly. Things are still looking good!