Home Depot Half Marathon
On Super Bowl Sunday, I ran the Home Depot Half-marathon in San Francisco, along with Kevin, Phil, Sharon, and Steve B., who were friends and fellow members of the Tri-City Triathlon Club. It was a little cold and misty—cold enough to use gloves—but not too bad for running.
Emails from the day of the race
I never did a full write-up for this race, but here are some emails that give some details about it.
Email to my friend Tori
Speaking of running, if you’re wondering why I’m up at this hour, I will be leaving shortly to run the Home Depot Half Marathon in SF. Should be fun, too bad I didn’t sleep as much as I’d have liked to catch up on missed sleep (slept from 6p-12am, but couldn’t go back to sleep after midnight.)
I don’t remember the reason for being sleep-deprived or having to go to sleep at 6 p.m. the day before.
Email to my bud Loren
Just wanted to say THANKS for your gift! I checked my mailbox on Friday and there it was in there. You wouldn’t believe the perfect timing of it, too… so in a few hours am doing my first race of the year, in SF (the Home Depot Half-Marathon). I’ll be wearing your singlet today… am pretty excited.
Anyhow, looking forward to seeing you today! Should be a good game… shouldn’t be as lopsided as last year’s.
The “game” I mentioned was Super Bowl XXXVIII between the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots, which I watched at the “House of ALM” (my friends Aaron, Loren, and Mike). The Patriots won 32-29. I didn’t have a bone in the game, but in hindsight, it was notable for Tom Brady starting his eventual run of 10 Super Bowl appearances. The game would actually be more remembered for Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson’s nipple.
The blue and white singlet that Loren gave me was one I’d use in various races for nearly 15 years.
Email to the Tri-City Tri Club
Article: Two Men Run Laps Around Fellow Seniors
So last week I felt like I did pretty darn well for myself in the Home Depot Half Marathon. Not quite feeling that way anymore! 🙂
Apparently, I would have got whooped by these 72-year-olds:
http://tinyurl.com/2bhly
Pretty inspiring!
The Shoes I Was Wearing
I was using a pair of Nike Air Durham Plus Bowerman Series shoes that I had purchased in 2002. The shoes paid homage to Bill Bowerman, the legendary University of Oregon coach and co-founder of Nike.
They were rather heavy—14 ounces each, if I remember correctly—and featured a “Dual Pressure Heel Air Sole.” Indeed, during this race, I tried lengthening my stride and intentionally landing on my heels. That is even evident in the featured photo of this post. Never mind that a year later, I would learn that overstriding and heel-striking is both inefficient and injurious (I corrected this in 2004-5 by following the Pose Method).
Despite the poor running mechanics, this was the first half-marathon that I broke 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Race Data
Final time: 1:39:56 (7:38/mile)
Division place: 58
Men place: 508
Overall place: 598/3364
Official results
