It's one week post-Nike, so I'd better add some race day details!
Our Nike Spirit Squad had a blast! We caravaned at 6:30am from the Lafayette BART station -- in the pitch black. The drive into the city was a breeze; parking, however, not so much. The Avenues are always a gamble, and around 7am, "normal" people are sleeping, so street spaces are less than plentiful. After lots of circling, much patience, and a few pleas, we all finally found places. Phew!
We then picked a great spot along the course, just inside Golden Gate Park near the Dutch Windmill -- right past mile 11. At first the runners going by were somewhat few and far between, but they were fast! Gradually their numbers grew until there was a sea of people streaming by, many of them wearing purple.
This is going to sound weird, but I can honestly say I've never seen so many bananas being eaten, and I've certainly never stared at so many people's chests before! The bananas were clearly popular swag from the water stop, and we had to kick many a peel out of the way lest runners slip on them; seriously. As for staring at people's chests, well, I couldn't help it! (See, you always knew there was something strange about me.) I was trying to find people's names on their jersey because I know it can make a huge difference to hear someone cheer for you by name. So I tried!
In addition to screaming our lungs out, we rang cow bells and jingle/Santa bells and held signs. It was a blast! I learned that it's actually pretty hard to pick runners out of the pack. Most of our teammates saw us on the sidelines before we saw them running by. And then in a flash, they were gone! I heard later, when we met up with a few of them at the finisher's tent, that our cheering gave them a boost of energy and motivation. Hooray!
Following our stint on the sidelines, Dene and I jumped into the action at the TNT finisher's tent volunteering to hand out food. At least it was warmer in there since the tent blocked the wind. When our shift first started, the fast marathoners were coming by, and while they looked tired, they looked happy. When I said, "Congratulations!" they smiled back and thanked me. As time went on, however, finishers began to look more and more haggard. Some were limping, others were on the verge of tears. My "Congratulations" brought mixed reactions. Some would find a smile buried within their pain, while others just scowled.
Either way, I could sympathize; completing a marathon is an emotional feat, and I remember well how volatile I was in San Diego. In fact, watching the slower finishers come by at the end of Nike reminded me why I'm running 13.1 miles this fall instead of 26.2 -- because it's really ridiculously hard on your body and it's an incredibly challenging thing to do! I have so much admiration for marathoners, no matter how quickly or slowly they go. Their feat is simply astounding. Maybe, just maybe I'll do one again, but for now, I'll stick with the half. :-)
Thursday evening was all about TNT past and present, with no running involved!
My first stop was the Cheesecake Factory overlooking Union Square. I promised to bring dessert to my "spring team girls" dinner party/reunion, and there's nothing better this time of year than pumpkin pecan cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I don't even like cheesecake, but this dessert is to die for! (It helps that I looooove pumpkin.) If you've never had it, I highly recommend it, but get it now before it's gone, as it's only sold seasonally.
Before I could leave San Francisco and head to Sharon's new house in San Ramon for dinner, I had to walk across the street to check out the Nike Expotique in Union Square. It was like no other running expo I've ever been to -- not that I have that many to compare it to, but still! There were manicure and massage stations, and Thursday was ladies night!
I met a bunch of my teammates there: Heather, Jenny, Shannon, Lynsey, and Janice. We enjoyed seeing well-known athletes, including 
Brandy Chastain and the first ever women's Olympic marathon champion Joan Benoit Samuelson. Plus, we got to partake in complimentary wine, crackers, cheese and fruit. Pretty snazzy expo, if you ask me!
Post-expo, I reunited with Tonya, Sharon, Ginny, Becca, and Shanin. It was great to see so many of the girls who helped me complete my first 26.2 miles! Tonya has been training on her own for the Nike Women's Half, and Shanin recently ran the Rock and Roll San Jose Half-Marathon. Yea girls! We had a wonderful time catching up and hope to do it again during the holidays.
Today was a quintessential September day in San Francisco -- sunny, with temperatures in the mid-70s. I'm so glad I planned ahead to run in the city after work!
I drove out to Ocean Beach -- I used to run out there "a lot" when Chris and I lived in the Inner Sunset. It's such a beautiful landscape (or it would be a seascape?). Don't get me wrong, it's not Hawaii or the Caribbean, but it is the ocean. And it's hard to go wrong running next to the ocean for several miles.
I parked just below the Cliff House and ran all the way down The Great Highway to Sloat Ave. (near the zoo). I noticed along the way that the sun was pretty low in the sky, but I didn't really think I'd still be running come sunset. Well, the timing worked out perfectly; I ran for 55 minutes, getting back to the base of the hill below the Cliff House as the sun was dipping toward the horizon.
I love sunset and twilight; it's my favorite part of the day after sunrise and dawn. Both remind me of the good in the world and of nature's beauty and promise.
Lots of other people were also taking in the stunning panoramic view: Down on the beach a woman kick-boxed, dogs ran wild, couples strolled, and kids chased each other. In the water, surfers in black wetsuits waited for a wave big enough to ride into shore; they looked a bit like a flock of birds. Up on the sidewalk, tourists and locals alike paused to watch the brilliant round ball of yellow gold reflect off the water.
It only took 10 minutes for the sun to sink below the horizon. I watched until the last sliver, which looked like a horizontal canoe, slipped away. It was a priceless respite in a world gone topsy turvy with financial and economic chaos.
[Disclaimer: These aren't my photos; sadly, I didn't have my camera with me!]
Where do I even start with this post? Without a doubt, the “memorable moment” was going off-course (NOT by design), but I’ll get to that.
Today’s run was a combined team outing that previewed the Nike (Half) Marathon course. Team Oz met the San Francisco fall run team at Sports Basement in the Presidio at 6:45am. Yes, that means I woke up around 5:20am, long before sunrise. Fortunately, I carpooled with Andrea and Dene, so I had good company.
The SF coach talked us through the course, noting that it was marked with white flour arrows and that we should ignore other TNT chalk markings, as they were from a different run. Easy enough; besides, most of the course was familiar territory to me. I’ve either run it on my own when I run in the city, or it was along the SF half marathon course. I remember the coach saying something about us not needing to memorize his course directions – we just needed to look for the arrows. Great!
A bunch of us took off together from the water stop that Dene was manning: Glenn, Don, Kyle, Sara, Clara, Michelle, Andrea, Ernie, Russ, Felipe, and Marlita/Marlena (?), from the SF team. I really enjoyed running with everyone! We had to weave our way through throngs of other runners and bikers; so many groups were out! We even had to squeeze, literally, through a mass of triathletes waiting to start their swim just below Ghirardelli Square.
We saw a lot of TNTers since the route went out 2.5 miles and back to Dene’s water stop, and we made a point to yell, “Go Team!”, “Way to go!” and the like. Our teammates returned the cheers, but the SF team didn’t really respond, and they didn’t make a point of cheering us on. Huh?! Well, whatever. Then Marlita said the SF team wasn’t really very social or embracing and that we had already talked to her more than her own teammates had all season long!
My eyes practically bugged out of my head. How could that be? It’s a team outing; it’s all about having a good time and achieving something amazing together. Yes, the results are individual, but everyone encourages each other. I’m so sad that it took until to today for her to experience TNT in all its glory and yet glad she got to run with us!
By the time we got back to Dene’s water stop (the halfway point, more or less) I needed windshield wipers on my glasses! It was super humid and incredibly misty due to very low cloud cover. The humidity was very unusual for SF, and I felt really gross; I was sweating like a pig and had that icky sticky feeling that only humidity can give you. C'est la vie!
Ernie, Kyle, Jon Judge, Glenn and I trotted along Crissy Field toward Fort Point and the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a hairpin turn and headed up the hill. Kyle and Ernie and I opted to walk it, which ended up being a blessing in disguise. Little did we know it, but the three of us were about to go on an urban adventure!The incline heading up Lincoln Blvd. toward the bridge entrance was intense, so we just kept walking. The SF coach had told us during his warm-up speech that there was no shame in walking; he has a friend who runs 3:20 marathons who walks up hills to save her legs. Perfect! I love it.
We started really running again once we crested the last incline on Lincoln, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There was a water stop there, but we opted not to visit it since we had been “conserving energy” and had plenty of fluids with us. I remember there being a group of runners there that pulled out and fell in not too far behind us. We started running downhill (hallelujah!), happy to be coasting. I figured we’d cross the street soon and head back through the Presidio, but we didn’t see any flour arrows. Hmmm.
When we got to the bottom of the hill just past Baker Beach, I started seriously wondering if we were still on course. There was a group ahead of us on the other side of the street, but no one was behind us anymore. Then we saw Coach Al from the Bayside team ride by on his bike in the opposite direction. I yelled out, “Are we going the right way?!” Yes, I was assured. I wanted to yell, “For the summer team or the fall team?” because the summer team was running a different, 20-mile course! But I couldn’t ask fast enough before Coach Al pedaled off.
We ended up running through Seacliff and I was 80% sure we were off-course, but we occasionally saw flour arrows! So we kept going…until we hit the water stop at Clement and 32nd Avenue. The volunteers there confirmed we were on the wrong course. They were nice enough to let us stock up on fuel (pretzels, gummy bears, Starburst) and liquid. Fortunately, this was my old neighborhood. I knew exactly where I was, and there was no way I was going back up the hills we had just run! So, I said: “Here’s the plan. We’re going to run to 25th Ave., jog over to Lake, and run up Lake until it dead ends into Arguello. From there, we run into the Presidio and it’s all downhill from there. We’ll end up right on the back side of Sports Basement. You in?”
Ernie and Kyle were game. So I took them on an unofficial tour of SF. We ran right by Chris’ and my first apartment at 18th and Lake. Most of the route was flat, except the one-block super hill leading to the Presidio Golf Course. The guys were troopers; we definitely walked part of the way. I promised an exquisite view once we got into the Presidio, and I delivered. Not far past that we headed straight downhill, and it felt wonderful!
I was concerned that Lindsay and the rest of the team would be worried about us. Usually I take my cell phone with me on long runs, stashing it in my Camelback, but I didn’t today. I did, however, have extra goos, a mini-Clif bar, and some cash – always prepared! (I am my mother’s daughter.)
Two hours and 20 minutes after starting out, we strolled into the backside of the Sports Basement parking lot, where we were greeted by relieved and inquisitive faces. I don’t know if it was good or bad that Lindsay said she wasn’t too worried since she could tell by the sign-in sheet that the three of us were together and she knew if Kyle was with Ernie and me, we must be all right.
It was quite the journey, one that turned out to be just short of 13 miles – almost a half-marathon! I’ve definitely cemented the “Don’t do what I do” motto.
Click to see more photos.
I ran my first half- marathon this morning! It took 2:16:25, about 10:25 mile/min.
Not too bad, particularly given the hills! That’s about the pace what I wanted to run, and now the quest is on to beat my time later this fall in San Antonio, where the course is flat.
Probably my biggest challenge today (other than persevering at the end, when my legs just wanted to slow down), was keeping my hat on my head. Sounds silly, I know, but it flew off twice -- once on the Golden Gate Bridge and again near the end of the race on 27th Avenue. Fortunately, I didn’t get mowed down trying to retrieve it and nobody stepped on it. Phew! My hair isn’t quite long enough to be in a ponytail by itself, and what does fit in a hair band is pretty tiny. So sans hat, I would’ve been wiping sweat and hair out of my face – ick.
Come to think of it, I was also dexterously challenged. Just before mile 12 I felt my energy level drop (despite having gooed it up at the halfway point), so I whipped a mini-Clif bar that I had gotten at the expo yesterday out of my Camelback (love that thing), but then I couldn’t open it! Although my core was warm, my hands were fairly numb and, even using my teeth, I couldn’t grab the edge of the wrapper to pull hard enough to open it. I feared the bar flying into the air and hitting someone or, let’s face it, landing on the ground where I couldn’t eat it. Well, the bar did hit the ground, but not before I got it open. Disaster averted! I finally managed an opening large enough to work the bar through. Next time, I’ll open the bar before I ever leave the house and cut it into pieces to facilitate eating it.
Overall, the race was fun and really well organized. I loved that we started in staggered waves (versus San Diego, where we were segmented into waves but everyone started together). The only thing that didn’t work very well was after crossing the finish line. They herded us into a narrow corral to hand out medals and it was complete gridlock. You couldn’t move anywhere and, since I had somehow managed to “sprint” the end, I needed to keep moving so my muscles wouldn’t seize up on me. Alas, I was literally trapped among a sea of sweaty runners.
But we managed to inch our way forward and out, find a bus and get back to the car. After a stop at Starbucks for coffee and the restroom, we were off. Amazing, I was home by 10am!
It's one week post-Nike, so I'd better add some race day details!
We then picked a great spot along the course, just inside Golden Gate Park near the Dutch Windmill -- right past mile 11. At first the runners going by were somewhat few and far between, but they were fast! Gradually their numbers grew until there was a sea of people streaming by, many of them wearing purple.
This is going to sound weird, but I can honestly say I've never seen so many bananas being eaten, and I've certainly never stared at so many people's chests before! The bananas were clearly popular swag from the water stop, and we had to kick many a peel out of the way lest runners slip on them; seriously. As for staring at people's chests, well, I couldn't help it! (See, you always knew there was something strange about me.) I was trying to find people's names on their jersey because I know it can make a huge difference to hear someone cheer for you by name. So I tried!
In addition to screaming our lungs out, we rang cow bells and jingle/Santa bells and held signs. It was a blast! I learned that it's actually pretty hard to pick runners out of the pack. Most of our teammates saw us on the sidelines before we saw them running by. And then in a flash, they were gone! I heard later, when we met up with a few of them at the finisher's tent, that our cheering gave them a boost of energy and motivation. Hooray!
Following our stint on the sidelines, Dene and I jumped into the action at the TNT finisher's tent volunteering to hand out food. At least it was warmer in there since the tent blocked the wind. When our shift first started, the fast marathoners were coming by, and while they looked tired, they looked happy. When I said, "Congratulations!" they smiled back and thanked me. As time went on, however, finishers began to look more and more haggard. Some were limping, others were on the verge of tears. My "Congratulations" brought mixed reactions. Some would find a smile buried within their pain, while others just scowled.
Either way, I could sympathize; completing a marathon is an emotional feat, and I remember well how volatile I was in San Diego. In fact, watching the slower finishers come by at the end of Nike reminded me why I'm running 13.1 miles this fall instead of 26.2 -- because it's really ridiculously hard on your body and it's an incredibly challenging thing to do! I have so much admiration for marathoners, no matter how quickly or slowly they go. Their feat is simply astounding. Maybe, just maybe I'll do one again, but for now, I'll stick with the half. :-)
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