Golden Gate Bridge, SFO

What a beauty!! A few days ago, Philippine Airlines came out with super cheap rates to USA, Asia and Australia and I was able to book (though it took a long time) for two tickets to San Francisco for end of October for two -week stay in that city.

Naturally, I wanted to try any race they have during that week. First race I found was to be held on November 1 and is a 4-miler run. It's a Halloween themed event and prizes go for best costumes and for fastest finishers. Good enough for us and Per game also to do one race in USA (I'm aiming for two!).

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Unfortunately, it doesn't go through the Golden Gate Bridge which was what I wanted. I was able to convince Per to do some jogging on GGB at a very relaxed pace just so we can see what the experience was like and to which she agreed to it. I even proposed bringing a camera with me so we can stop and take pictures from it.

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But last night, as I was browsing through my back issues of Runners World magazines, I came upon a race review for a race that happened in San Francisco. It was called US Half Marathon, San Francisco and route passed through the Golden Gate Bridge!! SIGH! If only we booked our travel dates to be at the same time as this race!

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With sadness and envy, I looked at the date when it was last held and it says "November 2, 2008"! WHAT???!!!! Can it be? Is it possible ???

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This morning, I went to their website: www.ushalf.com and got a VERY VERY AWESOME SURPRISE! Next race to be held will be on 11.01.09 !

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So FREAKING COOL !!! Immediately, I booked myself for the Half Marathon event. Per was contemplating the Half Marathon or the 10km event as the farthest she ran was a 15km race and she vowed at that time never to run that far or that long again. BUT.... The 10km event DOESN'T go on the Golden Gate Bridge!

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With a cut-off time of 3.5 hours (about 9:22 min/km pace), very chilly weather, nice finisher medal and me willing to stick by her if she wants me to, she said YES to the Half Marathon as well! DOUBLE AWESOME!

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I researched on what the finisher medal looks like and this is what I found from last year's event:

How great is that???? Perfect souvenir for our USA Vacation! Our bibs will be personalized as well. We decided to put our full names on the bibs (wonderful for framing with the medals when we get back to Manila).

This race will have about 5,000 runners and will pass by Marina, Crissy Field, Presidio and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge! Hydration stops at every 2 miles and has some hills to run on.

Upon finishing race, you will get a medal, t shirt and goodie bag. There will be a Free Concert held near Aquatic Park. There will also be a Sports Expo the day before race for race kit collection, food and drink samples and training/ nutrition tips.

November is so far away (more than 5 months!) but I am already excited for this run! In honor of the GGB color, all blogs related to USA Trip will be in ORANGE -RED.

Trivia: Why is the Golden Gate Bridge called Golden when it is actually orange?

The term Golden Gate refers to the Golden Gate Strait which is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The strait is approximately three-miles long by one-mile wide with currents ranging from 4.5 to 7.5 knots. It is generally accepted that the strait was named "Chrysopylae" or Golden Gate by Army Captain John C. Fremont, circa 1846. It is said it reminded him of a harbor in Istanbul named Chrysoceras or Golden Horn.