Sport Today

In spite of the fact that my longest race has been 10K, and my longest
training run to date an 8-miler, I signed up for the San Francisco
(half) marathon this July 31st (http://www.runsfm.com).  I've talked to
a lot of people who say this is a challenging course--that's OK, as I'm
running it just to finish, not necessarily for time.  From looking at
the map--http://www.runsfm.com/course_map.pdf--it starts on the west
side of SF, just south of the West Sunset Playground.  It goes north to
MLK Jr. Drive, then west through Golden Gate park.  The map lists
elevations/hills, and from what I read it looks to be somewhat flat
(the biggest change in elevation seems to be a downhill, 200ft over 2
miles).  So, am I going to get off easier than I thought, or is the map
not showing all the hills?

Any other advice/encouragement would be appreciated...

Jim

Take the first few miles very easy. WALK if you cannot force yourself
to run a gentle pace.

Hydrate. Drink at every official water station, and some of the un
official ones too.

As one person once told me: if you can run a 10K you can run a Half
marathon.
(but she never said how fast to run either one!)

  HTH and enjoy the race.
  ed

13 miles is not a big increase over 8 miles,
if you do it steadily.  Do a long run of 9
miles in March, 10 in April, and so on.
I'd alternate distance with shorter runs
in hills too.

Steve S.