I went out for about 10 miles today without the flag. Felt pretty good. I used a knee pad while running. I didn’t feel anything from my knee. Looks like I almost ready to go. :-)

I have been stretching, biking and doing some leg exercises. I tried to run without the flag as far as I can without hurting my knee. My form is kind of wired, trying not to land on my right leg too hard. I only did three miles and came back.

No Pictures today.

Learning my lessons from last Marathon I stretched a lot after the San Francisco Marathon. My legs weren’t as sore and I felt pretty good. After a week and half rest I went out for a 10 miles test run without the flag. Just want to see if I am recovered. Unfortunately I was not ready. My body was recovered but my right knee hurt a lot. I had to stop and walk home after 4 miles. I decided that I need more recovery time. Don’t want to get injured now. I have the Honolulu Marathon in December.

The day finally came. I was very excited. I took the Friday off, packed the flag and headed to Boston Logan airport. I stayed at my friend Frank Johnston’s place in San Jose. My goal was to finish the race under four hours. That is about 9 minutes per mile.

On the race day, I got up at 2:00am, (it is really 5:00am Boston time.) drove to San Francisco and parked right at the start of the race (close to the start of Market st.) The race started at 5:30 but my wave didn’t start until 5:50. The temperature was perfect for running, not humid or hot at all. I crossed the one mile mark at a 7:45 pace. I felt great. Somehow the race seemed easy. I guess all the training paid off.

Here are two more pictures of my running before the San Francisco Marathon. I have been carrying a water pack on my runs. It has been very hot and humid lately, about 70 degrees in the morning. I am drenched from head to toe every morning running to work.

I will be flying to san francisco July 27th for the marathon. It pretty exciting. Just recently i realized that is going to be a hilly course with really big hills. There are a couple hills on the way to work I train myself on. But they might not not big enough.