She came to San Francisco to run in her third Golden Gate Half Marathon.<\/p>\n
“I love it! Running on the Golden Gate. Seeing the ocean and everything. It’s amazing,” Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n
Kayleigh Aquino, who lives in Berkeley, recently moved to the Bay Area. She has been training since early summer. A former collegiate cross-country athlete, she says this race is one way to stay competitive.<\/p>\n
“I’m stoked. This is my first half marathon. And I could not be more excited,” Aquino said.<\/p>\n
There are 7,500 participants who signed up for the sold-out race. They picked up their bids and t-shirts on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The race starts at 6:50 a.m. at Aquatic Park. It’s 13.1 miles through the city and ends at Ghirardelli Square. Top male runners will likely finish under 1:30:00. For women, under 1:40:00. A time under 2:00:00 is considered a strong time.<\/p>\n
But this year, the course has changed.<\/p>\n
“If you have run this race before, what you will notice is we are not going to Fort Point. We are not going through Hopper’s Hands, because those are federally managed areas,” said Gretchen Schoenstein with Golden State Challenge, which organizes the race.<\/p>\n
Schoenstein said because of the federal government shutdown, they had to scramble over the past few days to plot out a new course with city officials.<\/p>\n
But because of the last-minute changes, the course could not be certified by U.S. Track and Field officials. Runners who need a certification to qualify for bigger races, like the Boston Marathon, have to defer to next year.<\/p>\n
However, organizers say the certification affects only about 5% of the total participants. Most are just running for fun — like San Francisco resident Rakesh Sharma.<\/p>\n
“This is one of the races that I have always kind of done. The course correction is fine. It doesn’t really bother me as much,” Sharma said.<\/p>\n
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