This Sunday, I will run the full San Francisco Marathon for the third year in a row. Two things are different for this year’s race: I am an ambassador, and I’ll be running with someone. Jesse agreed to run a “slow” marathon (for him) after his Vineman Aquabike on Saturday (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike) and pace me for the race.

We’re aiming for a 10 minute/mile average, with our times expected to slow down on the (many) uphills and to speed up for the downhills. This will only be the second time Jesse and I have ran a race together after last December’s North Face 50K (rather than him finishing way faster than me and taking finisher shots as I hobble through the chute).

I jumped into this marathon post-Wildflower without properly building a running base. After last year’s marathon, I had no intention of running the hilly full again this year-until I became an ambassador. Having been elevated to represent the race, I felt like I couldn’t half ass the race by running the half marathon. I don’t have any real time goals in mind except to beat my time last year (4:34), which, barring catastrophe, will be much easier with Jesse at my side.