October 14th: Nike Women's Marathon (Half, that is)

Earlier this year my friend Kristi put a group of women runners she knows together and asked us if we would like to enter the lottery to register for the Nike Women's Half Marathon, and register for Fresno's Two Cities Half Marathon.  She was hoping we wouldn't get picked for the lottery, and be able to just do Two Cities.  As fate would have it, our group was chosen and before I knew I was signed up!  I had always been intrigued with the event.  It's held in San Francisco, is the target race for the Team in Training marathon group, and always looked like a lot of fun.  I heard the course was hilly and not very fast though, so I wasn't interested in it to try to qualify for Boston.  But this year is different.  I knew that my focus race didn't require a fast time, and that it would be a fun girl's weekend with some fabulous ladies, so I looked forward to trying it out.

Then the leg injury of August happened, and I didn't think I would be able to do it.  A month before NWM I wasn't even able to run.  How would I do 13 hilly miles?  I looked into whether or not I could get a refund.  No.  I stuck with physical therapy, and saw a slow improvement.  Yes, healing was happening.  I had been hoping for a grand, momentous healing experience, but God chose the old-fashioned way: slowly and naturally. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to run 11 miles the week before, so I knew I would be able to finish 13.  This injury thing has been such a roller coaster ride!  For the month of September I was going up and down and all around with emotions.  It would seem like my calf was getting better, then it wasn't.  Then it lingered and wasn't improving, then it was.  I didn't know what events I'd be able to do, how much training I would be able to do, and now I'm able to do it all. 

The Friday before the half marathon (the race was on a Sunday), Pat and I rode 100 miles.  We wanted to get a solid ride in, knowing that the next weekend would be our 3/4 brick.  It was the best day to get the ride in, and I figured I had a whole day to rest for the run.  I think I was the only one running that day who had ridden 100 miles two days before.  But I'm cool with that.  Bring it on.

Saturday the ladies and I were on the bus and headed to San Francisco.  I didn't know everyone in the group, so the bus ride gave me a chance to make a couple new friends.  They are such an amazing group of women, and the bus ride went by fast!

We arrived near Union Square, and walked down to pick up our packets.  When Nike does an event, they really, really do an EVENT!

The huge poster!

 

Nike took over Union Square! 

(Stephanie, Me, Amanda and Kristi- We were roomies for the weekend!)

 

We picked up our packets and then tried to maneuver in the crowded Expo.  We scored some freebies and then decided to get some fresh air.  Being the girls we are, we took as many photo-ops as possible along the way.

Nike Town:
W-O-W!  That place is huge.  On the outside were purple window coverings.  Looking closer, it's covered with the names of all the 22,000+ runners!

We all successfully found our names...Now to go inside and brave more crowds.

There was this huge banner that you were suppossed to sign.  We each took a turn writing something.  Mine is a bit adolescent in nature (the blue ink):

 

The almost life-sized map of the course.  Just kidding.

 

We then hopped on the escalator to go upstairs.  The store was four levels!

Kristi had made a dinner reservation for us for 4:45, so we got cleaned up and walked to the cutest, quaintest Italian restaurant ever.  They serve family-size portions, the food was delicious, and we had a great time carb-loading!

(Missing are the other three fun ladies who joined us: Sumer, Tammy, and Kristi)

On our way back to the hotel we happened to run into our friend Kym, her husband and their baby.  Perfect timing for another picture! haha

(Amanda, Kristi, Stephanie, Kym and I...we [heart] San Francisco!)

Race Day:

Here we are...the group Kristi got together!  Stephanie, Amanda, Kym, me, Heidi and Kristi.  Ready to run!!!

It was a beautiful morning, not too cold, and a little misty.

 Here it is...the starting arch!

 

This was the crowd in front of Kristi and Amanda's corral.  Kym and I scored a spot close to the front!

 

22,000+ runners is a LOT of people.  Do you see that there are people waaaaaay back there?  Crazy!

At 7:00am sharp the air horns blew, and away we went.  I had to leave my Garmin watch at the hotel because the battery was low and wasn't going to last the entire race.  I decided it was going to be a fun run with Kym, and not worry about time.  Ok, let me rephrase that.  I was going to try to not worry about time.  That lasted until the first mile, when I saw we had a 9:15 split.  Ew, that is slow!  But not knowing how my calf would do on the hills, I tried to not let it bother me.  Just keep running... just keep running!

Our next few miles went by fast.  No, our splits didn't get much faster, it just seemed like the miles were shorter.  We stopped around mile 3 to use the port-a-potties, and then carried on our way.  I stopped to drink water at each aid station.  As we neared mile 6, there was the hill.  I asked Kym if that was "It" and she said, "Yep."  This hill was almost a mile in length...and who hasn't done any hill training?  This girl.  Me.  While on the hill I got to see a couple of my TNT buddies, Ron and Nabil, which was a joyful boost to the run.

Around mile 7 I said goodbye to Kym and took off.  What I forgot about were the "other" hills I didn't pay attention to on the elevation map of the course.  The only one that stuck in my head was mile 6.  Granted, that was the largest of them, but there were a couple more later that made we wish hills away.

The course was lovely, but it was misty so we couldn't see very far ahead of us.  We ran through the Golden Gate park, but weren't able to see the bridge.  Oh well.  I was just so excited to be feeling so great!  My mile pace picked up to eight-minute miles, and there were plenty of down hills with the ups.  Going down does not strain the calf at all, so I just tried to have quick feet and shimmy on down those hills!

All along the course were inspiring signs.  This one is right before mile 9.  I chose to run on the Victorious side, since getting to run at all felt like such a victory for me!

At mile 10 the hills were done, and it was all down and flat to the finish.  I went as fast as I could, passing people like crazy.  Not one person passed me the last three miles!  I really wanted to get under 1:50, but knew my slow start was coming back to ruin it.  Before I knew it I was rounding the last turn with the huge, blue, Finish arch ahead of me.  I gave a big smile for the camera and then burst into tears.  Success because I finished.  It was so very, very sweet and I cried happy tears.  It is technically the slowest half marathon I have ever run (including the half I ran at Barb's...where I swam and biked before the run).  My official time was 1:50.26, but it still meant a lot!

After crossing the finish, you are directed into chutes, where waiting on the other side are men in tuxedos handing out the Tiffany & Co. finish necklaces on silver platters.  Oh yeah! 

Kristi and Amanda getting their little blue boxes!

 

The finish-assembly continued, as we were directed to a tent with Finisher shirts arranged by sizes.  Coming out of the tent they mark your race bib that you received your shirt, then give you a recycled shopping bag.

Farther down the assembly line you just start to dump stuff in your bag: bagel, water bottle, coconut water, face towel, fruit cups, chocolate...

I was just nearing the end when my friend Sumer saw me and called out my name.  I had just stopped crying, but started again when we hugged.  She busted out a 9-minute Personal Record!  That was so cool.  We hung out and ate a little, I checked out what the necklace looked like and put it on.  Kym came walking through, so I picked her out of the crowd.  Sumer went to go find her other buddies, so Kym and I made our way through the other freebie area.  We were able to score full-size stuff from the Neutrogena tent, but it was so crowded we decided to bypass the other stuff and get our warm clothes on.  Kym headed off to her bus, and I tried to find mine.

After a dramatic experience of trying to find the bus and the other girls in our group, we finally reunited.  And yes.  We took another picture.

We got back to our hotel with 20 minutes to check out.  Four women packed, showered and got ready in that 20 minutes?  Oh yes!  And what does that call for?  Yep, a picture:

And what do you suppose girls eat after they've successfully run 13.1 miles?  Hint: It has bacon on it, and comes with fries.  And it was worth every fat gram and calorie.  I cleaned my plate!

What a fun weekend!  I got to see old friends, make new ones, have a victorious run, and get to be a girl.  Thank you, Kristi for getting it all put together!

Next on the racing agenda:  The Two Cities Half marathon.  This is the local race, and I love it.  It's a great community event that takes the cooperation of many to come together to plan and pull off.  I've volunteered (2009), ran the marathon (2010), the half relay (2011), and this year get to do the popular half.