By Brian Sawyer

After a short trip on Caltrain from San Jose, I arrived in San Francisco early Saturday afternoon, checked into the Hyatt, and jumped on the shuttle bus to the expo, where I picked up my bib, a nice official tech shirt, and new Fuel Belt to hold my phone and the several packs of Gu I was planning to carry with me on Sunday (I love my SPIbelt, but it won’t hold much more than my phone).

The expo wasn’t as big or as crowded as I was expecting, but perhaps that’s just because I was comparing it with Boston. But it did have a foam-rolling station, which I made use of before taking the shuttle back to the hotel. I also picked up a copy of the course map, which I probably should have looked at a little more carefully than I did (more on that much later):

Personalized Course Map (click to expand)

It was a perfect day–sunny, dry, and in the mid 60s–with a forecast for perfect race conditions to follow. A little restless and anxious, I walked around the Embarcadero a bit before settling into my room to rest. From my window, I could see the Bay Bridge behind the first part of the marathon course:

View From My Hotel Room (Starting Line Off to Right)

My wave start was 6:18 a.m., which means I’d have to get up wicked early, but at least not as early as anyone who stayed anywhere other than the official race hotel. Unfortunately, after spending a week in California already, I’d finally recovered from the jet lag that had been getting me up at 4:00 a.m. every morning, so I actually needed to set my alarm for the wee hours. I had the “runner’s pasta special” in the hotel restaurant, watched a little of Alien vs. Predator on cable to calm my nerves, called Kristina for a few final words of encouragement, and turned in early.

Woke up at 5:00, hit the Brew button on the in-room coffeemaker, put a Band Aid on each nipple, and slipped into my race kit I’d laid out the night before. Slipped the timing chip through my laces, tied it on, and I was off to the “race grab and go” station in the lobby (open earlier than regular breakfast hours). I charged my $3.00 bagel to my room and looked around for the peanut butter. No peanut butter. I asked the attendant where it was and he suggested I go look at the unopened full breakfast bar. “No peanut butter there either,” I told him when I returned. I looked at my watch in a way I hope suggested urgency. Who ever heard of a runner’s breakfast station without peanut butter? Thankfully, my expression must have made an impact, because the attendant went off to the back room somewhere to bring me my strange, though necessary request. Okay, phew, now I was ready to go.

Stepping outside, chewing my bagel and sipping my barely adequate hotel-room coffee, I knew I couldn’t have asked for better race-day conditions. Mid 50s. Slightly overcast and hazy. Dry. I began my brief walk to the starting line, hopeful, anxious, and excited. Ready.

Assuming you’ve signed up for the appropriate estimated finish time for your pace (more on that later), the wave schedule and organization works well. Faster runners start earlier, and wave identifiers increase as the estimated finish time gets later. You just walk from the start back until you get to your corral and wait your turn, at which point you move as a group up to the starting line. Not having much of an idea of my current pace when I registered, I signed up for a 4:30 finish, which put me in wave #6. I started walking, paused for a surprisingly short wait in line at a bank of Johnny On the Spots and warmed up a bit by jogging the rest of the way to my designated queue, where I didn’t have long to wait.

At 6:08, I tweeted “Go time” from my phone (and later returned home to my Twitter feed and Facebook page to find a flood of supportive replies from friends who were following me, for which I was extremely grateful and touched), and few minutes later I hit Start on my watch as my wave crossed the line and my own race was on its way.

My biggest concern about the start was getting caught up in the excitement and going out too fast. During training, I used a tracking app on my phone to manage my pace, but the GPS used so much power that I doubted the battery would last the whole race. So, I was just using a stopwatch and counting on mile markers to work out my splits. I hit mile 1 at 8:16, which seemed a little fast to me, but I felt good.

Later on, Still Smiling

But then I didn’t see another mile marker until mile 5, so I had no way to gauge my early pace after the first mile. I don’t know if they didn’t exist or if I just missed them, but I was definitely looking for them and was frustrated not to have them. Still, I felt great physically, and when I hit the marker at mile 5, I pressed the Lap button on my watch and did a little mental math to work out that the other four miles averaged out to around 8:16 too. Again, this felt a little fast and difficult to keep up, but I didn’t have my heart set on a negative split, so at five miles in, I was happy to be at around 41:20.

As you can see from the course elevation map, aside from a steep but short hill at mile 2.5, the first serious elevation gain begins at this point:

Course Elevation (click to expand)

Increasing in elevation by more than 200 feet over the next a mile and a half, this hill begins a steep climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge and continues a gradual incline across the bridge before leveling off around the aptly named “Vista Point.” I’m not going to lie, the hill up to the bridge was tough, but it was early enough in the race that I handled it without too much trouble.

Up next, the Golden Gate Bridge …