Compared to the hellish weather of this year’s Boston Marathon, the 2018 San Francisco Marathon conditions were heaven. Mild temperatures ranged from 54-65℉. The wind was minimal, and, like it often is in San Francisco, the sun was mostly hidden behind the clouds. Some might call these ideal running conditions. They might say that running a marathon in these near perfect conditions is easy. Those people would be wrong. The conditions made the marathon easier, but by no means did they make it easy.
As I’ve noted in earlier blogs, completing a marathon is an amazing feat, a proud defiance of normal human limitations. We can’t even store enough easily accessible glucose calories to make it through the entire race, yet—through incredible motivation and strength of will—hundreds of thousands overcome glucose deficiency and other obstacles every year to stagger triumphantly across the glorious marathon finish line. Thousands complete the San Francisco Marathon every year, but this year was special. This year my brother was competing, a novice marathoner running his first of many marathons to come.
Before the marathon, Jason had never run 26.2 miles before, not in training or in races. He had never proven that he could do it, yet, early Sunday morning, he confidently rose to the challenge. And prove himself he did. Jason ran his first ever full marathon in 3:17:16, an impressive 7:32 average pace.
Just a couple months ago, Jason ran his first ever half marathon race in the second leg of the DeCelle Memorial Tahoe Relay (see more on Tahoe Relay). It took him 1:40:36, a respectable 7:41 pace. On Sunday, he blew that race out of the water.
The first half of Jason’s marathon was run in 1:40:17, nineteen seconds faster than at the Tahoe Relay and with another 13.1 miles still to go. Granted, in the Tahoe Relay, altitude was a factor; the air was thin, but altitude cannot even compare to the physical toll of running an additional half marathon.
Unbelievably, Jason’s second half was even more impressive than his first—an adrenaline fueled finish to an experience that Jason will remember all his life. Jason ran his back 13.1 miles in 1:36:59 which calculates to 7:24 pace. Not only did Jason set his marathon PR (personal record), but in the second half of the marathon, he beat his half marathon PR as well.
Sunday, June 29, 2018 was an unforgettable day, a day that will go down in my family’s history as a day of accomplishment, a day of strength and perseverance, the day that my brother, Jason Tsujimoto, ran and completed his first ever marathon. It was a day when a half marathon PR was broken twice in the same race. It was a day with perfect weather and an even more perfect race. It was a day that my brother lost his marathon virginity and that I hope to experience myself in the not too distant future.
Mile Sixteen 
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