The Golden Hills and Nike Women's Marathon

On October 10, I completed the Golden Hills Marathon, a point-to-point trail run through the East Bay Hills. The next weekend, my girlfriend Jessica ran her first 26.2 miler at the the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco.

The Golden Hills Marathon is a small event that features just under 110 participants. Although a handful of elite runners participate in the marathon, most of the participants are just average runners like me. It is run in conjunction with the Dick Collins' Firetrail 50, a competitive 50-mile ultramarathon.

The main appeal for the GHM and DCFT is the beautiful setting along the hills of Berkeley, Oakland, and Castro Valley. Much of the course traces the East Bay's Skyline Trail, which offers fantastic views of Mt. Diablo to the west and the San Francisco Bay to the east. My favorite portion of the race came about halfway through the course, along the French Trail in Redwood Regional Park, which immersed us in an old-growth redwood forest just a few miles away from downtown Oakland.

Before the race, I worried about the conditioning needed to complete a trail marathon that included 4800 ft. of climb. I had only run one marathon before, and it was a relatively flat course. My fears, though, ended up being unfounded. Even though I walked up all of the hilly portions of the course, my finishing time was only 1 hour slower than my previous marathon time.

The Nike Women's Marathon is a completely different event. San Francisco swells with runners and spectators from around the country, even though a lottery culls the event to just under 20,000 participants. Still, the race is so large it takes 20 minutes just to get all the runners across the starting line at Union Square.

The course makes it way through some of the most scenic places in the city, including North Beach, Crissy Field, Golden Gate Park, and the Great Highway.

Many spectators pay an extra few bucks to sign up for text messages that help locate their loved ones throughout the course. I wasn't aware of the service, so I picked a spot near the finish line and waited for Jessica the old fashioned way. Even though I was waiting for an hour to spot her, the DJ made the waiting seem more like a party than a spectating event.

Overall, we were both very happy with our respective races. Jess was thrilled to be running in the largest women's marathon in the world, and I was thrilled to participate in a small, well-organized marathon in a beautiful setting.