Well, I did it. I ran 26.2 miles and didn't die. It's amazing. You know how they say "it's 90% mental and 10% physical"? I have to say, I agree. Now, I'm not exactly who 'they' are or what they think 'it' is, but I agree with them.
Let me just start by saying, I'm not all that amazing as you may think (or maybe you don't think that... which is good). My sister, Lisa, and her friend, April, and I completed this marathon with the following routine: 5-10 minutes running, 1 minute (and a strict 1 minute, I might add) walking. When Lisa first told me to try this routine during training, I thought she was crazy. I thought that would make me even more tired, with all that walking business. But, I promised I'd try it out. It was incredible because 1 minute of walking is short enough that you don't get used to walking or get stiff, but long enough so that you conserve energy and you... er, I mean, I am able to go further, longer without getting injured (with things like shin splints which are ever-so-common when people try to go too far or too much, too fast).
Ok now, on to the weekend in San Francisco.
Bruno, the kids, and I (it's still weird that I have 'kids' plural) drove out on Thursday and arrived at our friends' house that evening. Romulo and Lydia live about 30 minutes from downtown and we had never been to San Fran, so they were the best host and hostess and gave us the tour of everything worth seeing in the city on Friday and Saturday. Ok, I have to say this, "I LOVE BIG CITIES!!" They just excite me! We went to Union Square to pick up my racing packet and outside on the wall of Nike Town was this huge poster of all the names of the contestants!!
So then on Saturday night, I met up with Lisa and her friends (April, who would be running with us, and Carley, who would be watching and cheering us on) at Hotel Herbert. This hotel is right around the corner from Union Square... literally 2 minutes, walking, from where we would need to be at 7am Sunday morning. That evening we all were feeling extremely nervous so, naturally, we went and got a nice, big, fatty serving of Cold Stone ice cream!! yummmm... Totally calms the nerves....
Lisa and I had to share a bed, so we decided to make the best of it and spoon all night long.... haha j/k naw, we just stayed up too late and talked about our facial hair we inherited from our Grandma Raynes;)
So, 5:30am came and we all woke easily, since we all had really been awake for at least a couple hours prior. We ate breakfast and went out into the chilly darkness to find our starting group. The race (like most big marathons) was organized into groups of varying speeds. I think there were something like 6 groups, the fastest were at the starting line, and then the next fastest, and then the next, etc. Our pace group was the 10-11:59 minute mile. From this picture you can see vast amount of women crammed into the streets (it was more organized than it looks). Supposedly there were over 20,000 participants.
Before the start:
After the start (let the chaos begin):
The scenery was beautiful. It's hard to imagine a prettier race. We went down to the Embarcadero, where all the piers on the bay were and then ran up to Ghiradelli Square, then into a park that was right on the coast with the Golden Gate bridge just visible through the fog, then up some hills, through some ritzy neighborhoods, then over to the Golden Gate Park. This is where the weak separated from the strong or rather, the half marathoners broke off from the full marathoners.... haha I kid, I kid...
Anyways, here is a pic during the race.... (I was in charge of our intervals.... and YES those are energy snacks pinned to my shorts) Lisa is doing something really cool with her hands in this pic....I was too focused on my watch to join in on the fun.
Here is one of us shortly after the start (it was still a little dark). You can't see me that well, but since Lisa is nearly 6 foot, she is a head above everyone else in her pink tank. April is the blonde next to her in the blue tank.
Here is something funny and odd that we discovered about this race: Nearly everyone brings a camera or a phone or both! They had a couple of spots where you could stop and take your pictures next to these signs that said cheesy things like, "laugh like a girl" or "hug like a girl" or "poop like a girl"....
So, after we got out of the Golden Gate Park, we went along the Great Highway, which, as it turns out, wasn't all that great. It was pretty, mind you, because it was right along the beach, but it was windy and I was getting reeeeeally tired. Not only that, at the end of the highway, as you approach Lake Merced, it comes down a small little hill, and you see the entirety of the lake. I knew we had to run around that darned thing, and it really pissed me off.
Look how big it is!!(you can see the road on the coast and how it goes inland and kinda loops around the entire border of the lake)
This loop almost killed me. I slowed WAAAAY down and almost lost sight of Lisa and April for awhile. But bless Lisa's heart, she realized how far behind I was and stopped to wait for me to catch up. That was somewhere around mile 20. The remaining 6.2 miles Lisa kept yelling at me to hurry my butt up. Just kidding, she was really nice actually. She gave me much needed words of encouragement and wouldn't let me get too far behind her. Such a nice sister I have. And do you know what I did to repay her for her kindness?
When the finish line came into sight, a surge of adrenaline propelled me forward and I sprinted ahead. Such a bratty little sister thing to do;) Don't worry, she yelled after me, "Oh, no you don't!" or something equally cool like that, and she started sprinting too and finished just a couple seconds behind me. Here are some sweet approaching-the-finish-line/crossing-the-finish-line pics:
When we had crossed the STARTING line, the clock said about 16 minutes after official start time of 7:00am. So my official finish time was actually about 5:20, instead of 5:36, as shown below.
See? She was right behind me
These guys were firemen in tuxedos that greeted our lovely, sweaty selves and presented us with our Tiffany's necklace:
I look a little TOO overjoyed to receive the necklace, don't I? I need to learn to contain myself...
I have never felt so dead in my life. I could barely move. If it hadn't been for people beckoning me forward with free food and things, I probably would have just laid down and gone to sleep. Ahead, I saw them (volunteers) putting these big silver capes around people and I remember thinking that I did not want a victory cape. That looked retarded. Then someone put one around me and I instantly knew that I, in fact, DID want one! They were space blankets and I suddenly was warm!
See that cool running tank I'm wearing? Lisa gave that to me for my early b-day present. I TOLD you she was nice!!
Here are the pics of my loot:
This bag is cooler than it looks... its a REUSABLE shopping bag!! I know what you are thinking: SWEET-O! and that tennis ball? wrong! it's not a tennis ball! it's a massager ball thing that they wanted us to use when we were stretching.
I did it!!
But don't count on me doing it again...
