Arun Gupta, Miles to go ...

Pictures from Rock'n'Roll San Jose Half Marathon 2009

Here are some pictures (courtesy ASI Photo) from my recently concluded Rock-n-Roll San Jose Half Marathon:

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Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon 2009 Completed - 6:57 pace, personal best!

I ran Rock 'n' Roll San Jose 1/2 marathon this morning - oh what a joy!

The race was very well organized, ample parking space in the San Jose Downtown, very well marked course, 14 lively local rock bands playing through out the course, gun time at each mile marker, short queues at porta potties, nice big sized medal, and last but not the least cheerful crowd at each turn was very pumping.

And all that contributed to run my personal best so far, the results and time splits are:

These are my best timings for 5K, 10K, 10 mile and 1/2 marathon so far. Its exciting to shave off 34 secs from the pace from little over 2 months ago in San Francisco 1/2 Marathon. Read previous marathon results.

The winner was Meb Keflezighi who completed in 1:01:00 at 4:40 pace, congratulations! I'm happy with my results :)

I followed a 1:30 pacer for the first 10 miles but then constant coughing slowed me down little bit. But, I still enjoyed running the wide streets of downtown!

Check out couple of pictures after the finish line:

Some friends and family members ran along with me which made the marathon a special event as well. As you can see, kids also ran in their own spirit. Completing 400 miles of training from Jul-Sep 2009 was not possible without family's support, many thanks to them!

Enjoy a small video clip of the start line and at 4.5 mile:

Some improvement suggestions ...

• The pacers showed up barely 10 minutes before the start of marathon. And their timing flags did not pop out until right before the race. I've seen pacers at other marathons ready typically 15-20 minutes before the start with their flags wide above the runners.
• The water station volunteers were very cheerful and enthusiastic but were way too many. They were literally jamming the running route at some places. If a runner wants water, they'll come get it so please keep them back and the running route empty.
• Generally I don't hydrate during 1/2 marathons at all. But felt the need to drink some Cytomax around 8 miler and so grabbed a glass. It had more ice (biiig cubes) than Cytomax which certainly made drinking a bit of challenge, especially if you are trying to keep the pace as well. The glass should contain liquid and only that to make it easy for the runners.

Over all, I thoroughly loved and will most likely run it again next year, hopefully with a better timing :)

UPDATED: More detailed results (compared to other runners) are now available:



Fully searchable results and leader board is also available:

Read more detailed story listing the records made etc. here.

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San Francisco Marathon 2009 Finishers Certificate & Pictures

Here is my official San Francisco Half Marathon finishers certificate:



And here are some pics (credits marathonfoto.com):

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San Francisco Half Marathon 2009 Completed - Personal Best so far!

I ran San Francisco Half Marathon 2009 yesterday and here are the results:



I'm excited about the results because improved my timing by almost 3 minutes. And running on Golden Gate Bridge is always a great experience. As always, the race was very well organized starting from expo to bib/tee-shirt distribution, well marked course, water and medical stations, local community support, buses from half marathon finish line to start line and every thing else. A few possible improvements are listed below.

I saw Dean Karnazes (50/50/50 marathon man) and met Bart Yasso (Yasso 800 man) in the Expo. There is certainly a wealth of knowledge to pick up from these elite runners.

1. Really, really, really qualify runners in Wave 1. Ask them for a qualifying time from a previous race or something. Walkers and 10-minute milers are NOT Wave 1.
2. Separate the course going on/off the Golden Gate Bridge, not just with orange cones, but with an additional rope. Otherwise slower runners spill over on the other side and almost bumping into the faster runners.
3. The expo hall had a wonderful set of exhibitors but it became really crowded as the day progressed. Either an alternate location or back to Market/Embaracdero next year is a better option.

1. Run a half-marathon with 7ish pace
2. Qualify for Boston - probably next year

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Completed Kaiser Permanente San Francisco 1/2 Marathon - PR

I completed Kaiser Permanente 1/2 marathon earlier today and the statistics are:

• Pace groups were very poorly planned. Even though there were markers for 5, 6 ad 7 min pace at start line but there certainly were some 10 minuters over there. It easily took a mile to filter through them. I like the way waves are planned in runsfm.com.
• No race medal :( I don't mind getting charged a few extra dollars but give me a race medal, c'mon please!

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Running Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon

I'll be running Kaiser Permanente San Francisco 1/2 marathon tomorrow. This is my first time on this course:



Click on the above map to explore!

The course seems slightly confusing because it crosses itself couple of times. But hopefully it's managed nicely to help the runners. The bib and the chip came in via postal mail which saves an additional trip to San Francisco for material pickup, that is nice!

The starting time of 8am, predicted low of 46^o F, 30 days of running this month, and running right next to the ocean - will find out if it's an exciting adventure tomorrow ;)

Anybody else running ?

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Silicon Valley Half Marathon 2008 Completed - best time so far

I completed Silicon Valley Half Marathon yesterday. Although I missed my target of 8 min/mile by 4 seconds but still improved my personal best by 3 min and 8 secs. Here are my official results:
 


A summary of half-marathoners:



And the top 5 finishers:



And then the complete results.

Even though the number of 1/2 marathoners were much smaller (957 instead of 6679) than my previous marathon but I still enjoyed the run. Going through familiar streets and neighborhood was the best part :)

Here is a short video at the start:




And another one at the finish line in Los Gatos High School:




No marathon can ever be completed without family support. All the practice takes a significant amount of time away from family. And it's certainly exciting when they accompany you, early in the morning, for the actual race. Many thanks to my family for helping in my marathons all through out these years :) Here are couple of pictures:

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42k195.com - An exhaustive marathon directory

42k195.com provides an exhaustive directory of marathons across continents. The marathons can be selected by countries, month or by a keyword. The search feature is especially nice because it shows all the details about the race - marathon route, registration page, nearest marathons, community rating, and even hotel booking amongst many other features.

• San Francisco 1/2 2008
• San Francisco Full 2007
• Silicon Valley Full 2006
• San Francisco 1/2 2005

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San Francisco Half Marathon 2008 Completed

Even though it took me 4 minutes extra from 2005 Half Marathon but I'm happy with the results knowing the amount of practice put in. The complete results are available here.

It was really exciting to be running with 19,000+ runners. The spectators, volunteers, staff, cops and everybody else were excellent. It is definitely fun to run this course with the amount of energy and planning, most likely will run again next year as well. Here is a video shot of marathon start:



Even though I ran a half-marathon but my 5-year old and wife did their own by waking up 3am in the morning, driving me around and then picking me from the finish line. Check out some pictures at:

• San Francisco Full Marathon 2007
• Silicon Valley Full Marathon 2006
• San Francisco Half Marathon 2005

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Running San Francisco Marathon 2008

Exactly 1 month later (Aug 3, 2008), I'll be running the San Francisco Marathon (First Half) - the coolest marathon right in the middle of Summer. Register Now! Read the 2nd newlsetter for all the latest developments.

• Music Miles - Local bands, cheerleaders and motivational signs and trivia through out the course
• Best Running City in America - Voted by Runner's World
• Spectator Bus Service for friends and family to cheer up
• Run through historic landmarks - Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Presidio, Home of San Francisco Giants, Bay Bridge
• Going Green - Reducing the impact on environment

Watch the entire course of full marathon in the video footage that follows a group of runners, led by Dean Karnazes (the ultra marathon man).

Part 1 at ...

• San Francisco 2007
• Silicon Valley 2006
• San Francisco 2005 (1/2)

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San Francisco Marathon 07 Finishers Certificate

Read all about my race participation here.

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More pictures from San Francisco Marathon

Here are some more pictures (by marathonfoto.com) from my marathon last weekend:
 

I might have bought couple of pictures but a simple 5x7 is $14 and an 8x10 is $21. I think these prices are exorbitant especially when I get my digital pictures printed at $0.19 at Costco. They can certainly charge for the labor and probably better print quality, but I don't feel justified paying that much!!

 

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Completed San Francisco Marathon 2007

4 hours, 4 mins, 33 secs - yeah, that's what it took me to complete my first San Francisco Full Marathon.

I did First Half Marathon 2 years ago and First Full Marathon last year, but this was the first Full Marathon on the hills of San Francisco. Even though I could not complete within less than 4 hours but I was happy that I took only 3 short walk breaks and maintained my pace as planned. There was San Francisco characteristic-fog all through the course with no Sun shine anywhere at all, and in a way that helped. Here is the complete breakdown from the official results (bib# 1378):

Some other stats are:

The fastest male runner clocked 2:25:57 and the fastest female runner was 2:43:41.

The race was very well organized and some of the highlights that I liked are:

• The course was very well marked and the local crowd support was very supportive. This was much better than Silicon Valley Marathon last year where the course was lonely at quite a few spots. Today the course was well guided by cops or event team.
• There were ample water stations and each station was accompanied with a medical aid staff as well. This proved out to be a boon at Mile 23 where they applied Biofreeze to my sore thighs. And there was no stopping after that at all.
• There were music stations all through out the course and the frequency of stations increased during the last miles. This helped me maintain the rhythm closer to the stations. Kudos to all the bands for playing early in the morning.
• National Holistic Institute, College of Massage Therapy were giving a free massage to all the runners after the race. This helped a quick recovery of my sore body parts.

With my son before Start	Start Line
Right after the Finish	In front of the Bay Bridge
2007 Finisher Pose	With my wife and son after the Finish

And lastly, my wife and 4-year old son drove me to the race early morning and cheered for me at the start and the finish line. This was the biggest morale booster!

I read it somewhere "The only thing that does not hurt after a Marathon is your Pride". And I completely felt it today right after the race and the massage turned out to be a big blessing :)

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18.5 miles this morning

Ran 18.5 miles (2:45:50) this morning. Click on 'large' or 'small' link next to 'Elevation:' and it shows elevation of each point plotted against distance. I created the same route on runningmap (based on Yahoo maps) which showed the minimum and maximum elevation (click on mountain icon in the toolbar at top) as 156.9 and 579.1 feet. There is constant uphill from mile 3.5 to 8.5, a slight dip and then a constant downhill. This is a good route to practice for San Francisco Marathon because of the constant up-hills. But I need to look for another route with constant up-hills and down-hills to be better prepared to meet the course elevation.

Any recommendations ?

BTW, I plotted the entire marathon course but the distance is totaling out to be .4 miles extra.

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Polar F11 and Marathon Training

I've started uploading my running log using Polar F11 to their website.

A monthly view provides a summary for the entire month and shows the days on which any kind of physical activity was recorded by F11.

A weekly view provides more detail in terms of finish times, high and low limit of heart rate and total time spent in the week so far.

A daily view allows you to specify the different types of Activity ("Running" below). It shows the timing to the exact second. If I wear the heart rate monitor during the activity, then it calculates the calories burned, fat consumption, maximum heart rate (HRmax) and average heart rate (HRavg, aka resting heart rate).

I'm planning to use this for tracking my marathon training this year. 

I wish, and hope, Polar define a Web service so that users can access their data programmatically or at least allow the data to be exported in a usable format.

_{Technorati: Running Marathon Training Polar Heart Rate Monitor}

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