Tilden Half Marathon

Post Ragnar Rainier, Avery and Morgan were in the mood for another running challenge. They had signed up to run a half marathon near Stinson Beach in March 2020 with Avery’s dad. Unfortunately, that race was cancelled due to Covid-19. The racing company Urban Coyote Racing let them transfer some of that registration fee to a future race. Avery decided on running the Tilden Half Marathon with them for a few reasons:

1. Tilden is a great park with nice greenery and views of the bay and SF.

2. Tilden is in Berkeley, home of Cheeseboard

3. They should have enough time to train for the longer 13.5 mile race.

Race day loomed ahead quickly. Avery and Morgan were only able to get in a few Rancho San Antonio training sessions in.

Two days before race day, they got a race update from Urban Coyote. Avery was shocked to find out that there would be a cut off time of 3.5 hours. This would require her to keep a pace faster than 15:30! Yikes! Avery checked her training run paces- 14:59, 14:05, and 14:41 were the last recorded entries, and none of them had included the amount of elevation that this half marathon had. She also checked her last half marathon time (from 2019): 3:36. Oh no! Avery might get cut off!

The night before, Morgan prepared a pre-race meal of salisbury steak, green beans, and baked potato. He lamented not having “carbo-loaded” ahead of time. Avery said he could eat two potatoes to make up for it. Instead he decided to bring a lot of gels with him on race day.

Race day arrived. Avery was a ball of nervous energy! Morgan felt calm and prepared. They got to Berkeley just after 8. The Bay Area had gotten a rare soaking the night before and the course was wet and muddy. The conditions were cool and foggy. They got their bib numbers and then they were off!

The first few miles were rough. Avery felt sluggish and tired. Morgan ran past Avery after half a mile and she didn’t see him again until after the race. After her first splits revealed times of 16:29, 14:20, and 18:20, Avery considered turning around and heading back on the 10k route. However, she made a friend Heather who motivated her to keep going. Heather would run past Avery on the uphill sections and then Avery would catch up and run by Heather on the downhills. This continued for several miles.

After mile 4 Avery started feeling a bit better. She was feeling optimistic. Then there was a huge hill. Morgan and Avery both walked this hill. Avery logged a 20:53 min split and worries resumed about finishing on time. Finally, Avery reached Seaview trail. She and Morgan were both familiar with this trail having hiked it in the opposite direction earlier that year with their friends Andy and MG. They knew this was the high point of the race, and the rest should be fairly downhill.

Morgan flew down the trail, a pack of runners hot on his tail. Avery followed 45 min later. When Avery got to Meadow Canyon Trail, she was surprised to see other runners passing her. Avery was sure that she was one of the last 3 runners. Had these other runners started late? She finally made conversation with one that said he was glad to be almost done. Avery was confused. Her watch said they still had 3.5 miles left. She told the guy that maybe he had run an extra loop since his watch was reading 12.1 miles. Well it turned out that the guy had run an another loop- except the loop wasn’t extra. Avery had completely missed a turn off!

Here’s what happened. The pink lines show where the real course was supposed to go.

While bombing down the hill in “familiar territory”, both Avery and Morgan had missed the turn for Lower Big Springs Trail. This cut out about 1.8 miles from their half marathon. This was apparently a very common mistake. The race director said that a lot of the finishers had missed the turn off. It wasn’t well marked and there were flags within a reasonable distance on the wrong way so runners didn’t even know they were off course.

Avery finished with a chip time of 2:53:52. Morgan’s chip time didn’t record, but he texted Avery he was done at 10:35AM which would give him a time of roughly 2:04. If he ran the same path as Avery, that would give him a 10:46 pace…. WOW!

While eating Bakesale Betty’s after the race, Morgan said he felt a little cheated that he didn’t get to run a whole half marathon. He said it was “just training” and that they should sign up for another one!! Avery just felt relieved that she *could have* easily finished a half marathon since she was on pace to make it before the cut off.

Mom was relieved to hear that both Avery and Morgan would be in good condition for their wedding on Monday (2 days after the half marathon). She thought Avery might bust up her knees or something!