California, here I come
Right back where I started from
Where bowers of flowers
Bloom in the spring
Each morning, at dawning
Birdies sing and everything
A sun-kissed miss said, “Don’t be late”
That’s why I can hardly wait
Open up that Golden Gate
California, here I come

The Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, CA)

My Wife and I just signed up for the San Francisco Half Marathon (the 1st Half Marathon) as part of the San Francisco Marathon weekend in June.  We were looking for a getaway for our 10th wedding anniversary and I had always wanted to visit the city and Shari said we should look to find a race out there. As I said in my previous post it’s awesome to have someone to share your interests with.

We started to ask people what there was to do in San Francisco (recommendations still welcome by the way) and someone suggested walking the Golden Gate Bridge.  My thought is why walk it when you can run it….TWICE!!!

Based on what we have seen the 1st Half Marathon (starting at a very ‘Disney’esque time of 5:30am) is more scenic and the only Half Marathon that goes over the famous bridge.  (There are two Half Marathons which basically follow the Full Marathon route – just split the course down the middle for each). Although the city appears to be hilly (based on my recollections from seeing the film Bullitt and countless others) the 1st Half is the least hilly of the two half marathons.  Not that I’m complaining.

Here is a tour of the course for the 1st Half Marathon.

Shari says that having run the Benjamin Franklin Bridge run in Philadelphia in 2011 and 2012 this won’t be too dissimilar.  Well, maybe it will be warmer in San Francisco in June than it is in November in Philadelphia.  I hope.

Although it is an early start we are staying about 15 minutes walk from the start line area and if we do our usual pacing we may be done before 8 a.m. and back in the hotel to shower and grab breakfast which still leaves us with a full day for sightseeing.  Nice.  Looking at the website the it says that all finishers over the age of 21 will get an Irish coffee at the finish line.  At 8 a.m.?  Well, you are on vacation so why not (plus the kids are at home with my In-laws).

Looking forward to writing my race report after the race.  Excuse any typos…not sure how well I function after running 13.1 miles and drinking an Irish coffee but it will be fun to find out. 🙂