RNR San Francisco Year 2 - Fun Run

There are those races you put your heart into and PR.  There are those races you put your heart into and it's just not your day and then there are the races when you say screw it and just enjoy the experience,  beautiful course and being surrounded by other runners.  That was RNR on Sunday.

I really did have full intention of pushing for a 2:05 but after mile 8 MFR (who hadn't trained at all) said he wanted to walk.  My dad also came into town to walk the race and was behind us by a few miles.  I contemplated my choices.  I could either push pretty hard for that 2:05, the first few miles were HILLY and I'd have to step up my pace to get there, and wait for them at the finish. Or I could enjoy a nice walk with my husband and take in the beautiful day and being surrounded by other racers.  I opted for the latter.

Check out those views

I won't lie, a little piece of me died when the 2:10, 2:15 and eventually 2:30 pace groups raced past us.  The competitor in me was embarrassed to be out there without any sort of drive to finish in a hurry.  A few times I almost left MFR and ran again but I wasn't going to gain anything by finishing in 2:20 etc... and I wanted the company.  My last few races I've ran completely solo so this was a nice change.  All in all I'd actually say it was a successful training run since we planned out our trip to Vegas and decided which concerts we want to go to this summer while walking the last few miles.

I wasn't the only one stopping to smell the roses.  I saw Pavement Runner and few other running friends out there stopping to take pics and enjoy the views.  I think because the course had so many hills and was very crowded, people knew it wasn't gonna be a PR day.  Plus with the 75 degree weather and gorgeous views, everyone wanted to just soak it in.  It was a different kind of race day but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

RNR finish line shot

As far as the new course goes, I've pretty much summed it up.  HILLS + GORGEOUS VIEWS.  The hills were brutal and kept coming.  If you've done Nike Women's then you know that steep decline around mile 8 (?) where you feel like you're flying - you have to go up that.  It was also really crowded, especially on the bridge.  They doubled the field from last year and were at close to 15,000 runners.  Although they closed driving lanes on the bridge this year, it was only two car lanes (one each way) so it wasn't that much more room than the walking lanes last year.

Finish line festivities

The expo was a standard RNR expo, nothing too exciting.  The shuttles to the race start ran very smoothly which I was surprised by.  We walked down to civic center at 5am and were out at the beach by 5:40.  The finish-line celebration was nicely laid out.  Everyone was just relaxin in the sun and enjoying the music.  I think as long as I live in SF I'll continue to run this race.  Two years and counting! 

Shirt - Which is red but looks orange

Medal - SFRNR - Year 2