San Francisco Half Marathon

Race Information

What? San Francisco Half Marathon
When? February 1st, 2026
Distance: 13.1 miles (21.1 km)
Where? San Francisco, USA
Website: San Francisco Half Marathon
Strava Activity: Strava
Official Results: Results
Finish Time: 1:17:00

Goals

No specific goal, just run to effort and see what happens.

Preamble

Getting into the 2026 edition of Western States had up-ended my race calendar, which had originally been focused on Boston for the first half of the year. The SF half is a fun “rust buster” start-of-the-year race to see where the fitness is, and this would be the 4th official time I’d run the race, though I’m not sure if the cancelled rain year really counts…

Training

After CIM, I’d taken a few weeks to relax and go hiking in Patagonia. After that, I’ve really been focusing on getting better at hill running / power hiking, so not a huge amount of speed work. The miles had been consistent, but more focused on building my 100-mile endurance versus a faster Half Marathon. That said, it’s half the fun going into these races not knowing where the fitness is.

Whilst I hadn’t taken a specific goal, the previous year I had run a 1:17 high off a ~17:30 5km PR. I felt I was roughly in 17-flat 5km shape, so maybe low 1:17 or dipping into 1:16 high?

Race Day

After waking at 5:30, I grabbed a coffee, toast, and choked down some Maurten Bicarb, bleurgh!

Apart from a really fun course, this race just feels so straightforward compared to a lot of races I do. Hardly any race logistics, with a short drive. Perfect. I parked close to the start line by Golden Gate Park, got changed, and did a brief warmup before quickly consuming a Maurten Caf gel. I got to the start line with about 2 mins to spare, maybe a little closer than I intended, but still enough time to get to the front and get ready to rock ’n’ roll.

Given people self-seed, and I suspect often don’t know where they should seed themselves, it’s easy to get stuck in traffic if you’re targeting a faster time, so I was glad I wasn’t far back.

Miles 1 to 5.5

And go! A little chaotic start, with some folks going out too hard (myself included) and others going out a bit slow. After the initial 200m of chaos, things settled down into a steady rhythm, though perhaps a little faster than I should have been running. As we crept our way out of Golden Gate Park, a tall runner slid up behind me. It was Alex, funnily enough, I had run most of the 2025 edition of this race with him, so it was fun to bump into him again. Another runner, Fernando, joined us and we kept the pace up descending down the Panhandle.

After a quick turnaround, we began the first grind towards the ocean, with the Panhandle to our right. At this point we were still running with the other distances, which provided good targets to help keep the momentum up. It felt like Alex and his friend were finding the going a little easier than me today, but I committed to sticking with them without cooking myself. This meant that at times they pulled ahead, usually on the hills, and I would come back into contact either via tangents or on minor descent.

The climb up through Golden Gate Park continued and continued. After another drop then deep ascent, I began going to a dark place. The effort was far too high, and I felt like I was about to blow up or have my legs cramp. I started thinking maybe today wasn’t my day, maybe I should just DNF, it’s not like this was an A-race. The dark thoughts continued as I saw Alex start to pull away a bit more.

And then I remembered: this happens every year on this course. Just as it seems impossible, there is light. I crested the final climb and hit some sweet, sweet descent.

Miles 5.5 to Finish

And just like that, I felt amazing. I was telling myself “just cruise” and was easily ticking off 3:30 min/km (5:38/mi). I passed the bisons and was in the zone. As I took the final right turn to descend down to Ocean Beach, a soft breeze hit me head-on. This reminded me that this easy portion of the race would soon be over, and I’d need to get back into the pain cave.

Thankfully, the eventual female winner, Lucy Nodler, overtook me. I tucked in behind her running compatriot and let them pull me along for a bit. They both looked effortless as they easily pulled away. Turning left onto the Great Highway, I expected a mighty breeze to smack me in the face, thankfully, it was just a soft side wind. I decided not to push too hard and save my energy for a fast return leg with the wind at my back. I latched onto a few runners as they overtook me, letting them block the little breeze.

As we hit the turnaround, I was hit with a reasonably strong headwind. F$*K. It seemed like the wind gods had been toying with me and decided to swap the direction this year. There were 4 km (2.5 mi) to go, time to dig in. Argghhhh, I was suffering badly. I overheard some spectators say, “looks like he went out too hard,” when they thought I was out of hearing, haha, thanks for the vote of confidence!

I was overtaken a few times, and each time I tried to hang on for dear life. I was eventually dropped, but it certainly helped to keep the pace honest.

As I came up to the final right turn, with 800m (0.6 mi) to go, I looked down at my watch. I had roughly 3 mins to get sub-1:17! IT WAS GO TIME. I started pushing on the uphill, and then when I could see the finish line, it was rocket time. According to Garmin, I was running 2:28 min/km (3:58/mi) for the final section. Had I dipped under 1:17?! Not quite, 1:17:00 :)

Yay, a ~50-second PR over last year.

Wrap & What’s next?

Well, that was fun. Whilst this course is not pancake flat and does have a reputation for wind, it’s super fun, and I can’t wait to get back next year. For now, back to ultra training, with my next big checkpoint being the Way Too Cool 50km Trail Run before States!