DSE Summer Race Series 2009

The San Francisco Dolphin South End Running Club had a 12-week summer race series that just ended on August 27. The race ran a 4.5 mile loop around Lake Merced in the southwest corner of San Francisco. The lake is in a naturally occurring depression and is actually a chain of three lakes. There are three golf courses in the area: the public Harding Park municipal course and private courses of the Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club. They all draw water from the lake.  They now use less than in the past because they were draining the lake.  San Francisco State University, part of the California State University System, is also near-by.

The course has a little roll to it. Still, as San Francisco runs go, it is pretty much a flat course. We started and finished at the Sunset parking lot at the North end. The traditional route is clockwise. On a few weeks it was reversed to counter-clockwise. The races started at 6:30 on Thursday evenings. The weather varies from week to week. It can go from sunny, calm and warm to foggy, windy, wet and cold.

My goal was to use the races as tempo runs to get ready for the DSE Lake Merced Half-Marathon on September 20. I tried to arrive a little after 5:30 so that I could do one loop at training pace (about 8:00 per mile). I then did the race at 6:20 - 6:25.  Generally, my times improved as the series progressed.

6/11 - 28:50 / 6:24

6/18 - 28:51 / 6:24

6/25 - 28:59 / 6:26

7/2 - 28:47 / 6:23

7/9 - 28:47 / 6:23

7/16 - 28:37 / 6:21

7/23 - 28:34 / 6:20

7/30 - 28:37 / 6:21

8/6 - 28:26 / 6:19

8/13 - 28:45 / 6:23

8/20 - 28:20 / 6:17

8/27 - Missed Race

So, how did I do in the race series?  Pretty well.  I won my age group (50 - 59) and the MVP competition which takes into account finishing placement and age.  I came in second overall, behind 26 year old Chikara O.  Chikara is a great runner and deserving winner.  In the middle of this series, he ran the Western States 100 Miler, probably the most prestigious and one of he hardest ultra running events.  He ran in that race on a Sunday and was back the next Thursday.

Through the whole series there were about 221 different runners participating.  The races averaged about 51 runners each week, with a low of 44 and a high of 62.  It was a great deal of fun and I even met a few people I had not met before.  Now, on to the half-marathon.

Race photos by Paul Mosel (c) 2009
Map courtesy of MapQuest (c) 2009