San Francisco Marathon
San Francisco, California
Sunday, August 3, 2008

I race walked the San Francisco Marathon in San Francisco, California on Sunday, August 3, 2008. The temperature varied from 55 to 65 degrees with a little wind and low cloud overcast. The field was started in waves and my wave started 55 minutes after the first wave. The course is very interesting. The first 5 miles is along the bay past the famous piers and through an old military base. Then it climbs to the Golden Gate Bridge and let me go over and back across. I could see the bay below as well as Alcatraz. From the bridge, mile 9.5, to mile twenty the course was very hilly through two parks and some residential streets. Next came a couple of miles through the Haight-Asbury District, famous in the 1960's for its HIppy population. The remainder of the course took us back to and along the bay. We passed the active ship piers, the AT&T Stadium, and finished under the Oakland Bay Bridge, where Bart Yasso and Dean Karnes were announcing. The announcer said, "Here come one of our race walkers." Bart added "That's my buddy from Key West. He's probably done about 100 marathons." Dean injected, "I seen him some of the races I been at." It was a wonderful event and I enjoyed myself tremendously.