Greetings from San Francisco!

The running gods were kind this morning, so while the clouds hung overhead threatening rain (and even a few drops were felt before the race's start), the result was an overcast, barely chilly morning as we gathered for the 7:30 a.m. start at the Presidio, a park at the foot of the Golden Gate, which used to be home to the U.S. Sixth Army.

Since this was only my third-ever "distance run," I did not know the course, but the lure of running the Golden Gate Bridge in both directions was too much to resist. I was sent to San Francisco on business, but when I learned of this run, it became my personal quest; arriving Saturday afternoon, I took a cab directly to the packet pick-up so as to make sure I would be ready to go.

The race began at 7:45. This was a "SpeedChip" (similar to ChampionChip, I gather) race, but they did not have a starting time pad, so the finish was strictly Gun Time. Also, halfway through the run, the battery in my Timex Garmin GPS receiver died, so all I was left with was the chrono function. Too bad, as I wound up starting too fast (a typical rookie mistake), and even though I tried to slow down early, every time I glanced at the watch I was over my pace. I made up for this, as I'd purchased one of those throw-away cameras, and held on to it the entire run. I stopped a couple of times to photograph Alcatraz, the bridge and other scenic spots. I even managed to get my photo taken a couple of times (so the Reston Runners shirt I was wearing would be visible to all).

At about midpoint in the run, I felt like I'd reached the right pace, and began to run "like a metronome," as I've heard it described. I fell into a comfortable pace, and even the steps down and up at the bridge turn-around didn't trouble me (thanks in part to the  North Hills path I've been using for my training runs). I even managed a late burst as I approached the finish line, and clocked an official gun time of 1:34:41.57. My timer had me better by almost a minute. Whichever way you slice it, this was an improvement over my Army 10-miler time by at least 20 seconds, and since there were two rather brutal hills (and my photo taking "rest stops"), I'm very pleased with the end result.

I also mark this run as the day I "became" a runner. I figure anyone who spends ludicrous amounts of money on cab fare, buys a club shirt to "show the colors" and spends time in an Internet cafe reporting his results is just about crazy enough to qualify! So, from an "aging rookie," I say, this is a t-shirt I'm proud to have earned. I hope there will be many more.

Regards,
Fred Puhan