DSE Great "Halloween" Highway 4M - 11/1/09

The Great Highway is on the Western edge of San Francisco, at the Pacific Ocean.  It is about 3.5 miles long and runs from the Cliff House, at the Northern end, just past the San Francisco Zoo, at the Southern end.  From Lincoln Way, at the Southwest corner of Golden Gate Park, the Great Highway is a divided freeway for about two miles, until it crosses Sloat Boulevard.  There is a bike path along the East side of the road and this is where I joined the DSE running club for its four mile Halloween run.

This is an out-and-back course. It starts at Lincoln Way with the turn-around at Sloat Boulevard.  It is good for a race because there are no cross streets for this two mile stretch.  The course is as flat as any outdoor course.  In fact, I have run on an airbase and even that is not perfectly flat -- all that concrete is poured to allow water to run off.  The path is asphalt with a small dirt strip to the west (ocean) side.  Roughly the first half mile has sand dunes between the road and the ocean.  After that, the view opens up and you can see the ocean.  Like most races, if you are running hard, you don't notice the scenery too much.

I like this course because it is flat, straight and near the ocean.  Some don't like it because it is flat, straight and has limited views, especially where there are sand dunes.  The East side of the path has plants to screen the path and road are from the homes to the East.

I ran the course and a little more before the race as a warm-up and to get more mileage for the day.  Sunday is normally my long run.  If all I run on Sunday is a race, it results in a low mileage week.  If the race is a goal race, that is fine.  If it is just part of my training and weekly running, like this one, I need more miles.

The opening to the bike path is the width of the path, but also has several steel posts to keep vehicles out.  This makes the start fairly restricted and I had to run on the dirt path to pass the initial surge and work myself into position.  I passed people for the first mile and seemed to settle-in.  My first mile was 6:01.  Too fast, again (see my comment on the first mile of the Bridge to Bridge).  I should have been about 6:15.

There was one person in front of me who went out even faster than I did.  He looked to be losing ground.  After I had passed the initial surge at the beginning I could see him far ahead, but I was slowly closing the gap.  At about a mile and a half, I passed him.  Somewhere around the turn around, someone shouted that I was in third place.  That gave me a chance for a top-5 finish, including a top-5 ribbon.  As I commented last year, those have become much harder to get.  So, I was excited.  My second mile was 6:11. 

I was having trouble holding pace in the third mile.  I backed off a little and ran 6:25.  If I had not gone out so fast, I might have been a little faster.  I was passed by one person.  He looked strong and I decided not to try to stay with him.  I was now in fourth and still had one slot to give.  No sense trying to keep with him, only to blow-up in the last mile and risk the top 5 all together.

Last mile and I am anticipating the finish.  There is no one in front of me within striking distance.  As far as I can tell, there is no one behind me close enough to challenge me.  I look for the landmarks to distract me and to tell me I am getting close to the finish.  I know there is a slight rise before the finish.  Rather than be discouraged by it I attack it.  My last mile is 6:07.  Although, as noted below, that is probably misleading.

I finish in 24:47, an average pace of 6:11.  This, too, is probably a little misleading.  I think the truth is that the course is 4 or 5 100ths of a mile short.  That is just the way that the roads are and the only way to get that extra distance would be to go into traffic.  Not a good idea.  So, my last mile was probably more like a 6:20 pace and my average for the race was probably closer to 6:15.  I ran this same race last fall and finished in 24:53.  Comparing apples to apples, I was little faster than last year.  This year, I came in fourth out of 113 finishers. 

I ran two miles after the race.  It was more for the mileage than a cool down, but it served both purposes.  Good run, nice day.  What more could I ask for?