Finished Oakland Marathon yesterday. Really good race. The course is a really tough one (really hilly). This elevation chart is from the official Oakland Marathon page.
Many say that the San Francisco Marathon is really hilly. This blog puts the Oakland marathon in perspective. Great comparison of the elevation between the two races.
http://peterhome.com/triathlon/places-to-run/oakland-marathon/
So how did it go? Well it started off really good. The temperature was awesome. I have basically never done a marathon before where the temperature has been under 85F. Yesterday I think it might have peaked at around 60F. I felt really strong going up the hills. I guess all of the hilly training runs paid off. Just like last year the brutal downhill around mile 10 was actually more grueling than all of the uphill running. It was really nice to come down the hill and start with the flat part. I had a little bit of a tough section after the downhill but hit my second wind around mile 15. I think it really dawned on me that i would break 4 hours when I got to mile 20 and that gave me some extra power also.
With about 3-4 miles left I started getting some really strange cramps that I have never really experienced before. I had a hard time controlling my left leg and foot. I was basically unable to control if I was setting my foot down normally, it went slightly inwards or outwards for every step and I couldn’t really control it. This made slow down the pace a bit as I didn’t really want to completely bonk at the end and miss beating 4 hours for the first time.
I finished at 3:57:34 so I did beat 4 hours for the first time. What was also interesting is that I felt way less tired when I finished compared to all of the other marathons that I have done. On top of that, I am writing this the day after the race and I feel pretty good. My legs are sore off course but all other marathons that I have done have been way worse.
