Nike Women's Marathon: I did it!

Yes! As you know, I did it! I told Dad, I'm feeling much more nostalgic and much less head shake-y today!

How this happened: I realized that not everyone may know this story! When I was training for the 2011 Grandma's Marathon, I got the Nike Sports Watch. And it did not work. It did calculate distance. But it did not accurately calculate pace.

Witness:

Now, listen. I'm a decent runner. But I am no sub-7 minute mile runner. Know thyself. And I do. And that pace is wrong. So I got in touch with Nike and we had much back and forth with culminated in me returning the watch and emailing them a concise "this has been my product and support experience and I'm unhappy with both" email. And that's how I got to know Clover. She emailed me and said, "Your email has been shared throughout our company. We've had many meetings and many conversations while running about your experience. We appreciate the time you took to put that together. Do you want to run the NWM - on us? You can choose the full or the half."

And, like a wide eyed idealist, I signed up for the full.

Much training ensued. A few injuries occurred. A multitude of hills were run. Clover and I became email pen pals. Then veered toward email friendship. Then decided we really had to meet during the marathon weekend.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I looked this up:

And then I read this:

http://meredithrunningworld.blogspot.com/2009/10/nike-womens-marathon-2009.html?m=1

And then Bart said, "Quit looking those things up!!!" So I did. But I also decided that I was going to do this for fun and not worry about my pace.

Pre-Trip: Bart, because he is totally awesome, changed our hotel so it was about 4 blocks from the start. Let me tell you, that took a lot of the logistical stress out of this entire event. I was remarkably unstressed about the whole getting there aspect and I think it's because I just had to wake up and walk. No buses, not 1 hour transport. It was easy!

Friday: I worked from home Friday (and wrote 3 reviews! It was great!) and then we flew to SF at 5:40 pm. Flight was only 1h 20min. Funniest part was getting on and seeing Bart acting like he was totally sick so he could save me a seat! It still makes me laugh!

We flew into Oakland, waited approximately 5 hours for our bags, got our car and when to our hotel. And then we walked down the hill to get dinner at Grab and Go Thai. And it was soooo good. I will forever regret not getting the pudding. Alas. And then we walked all around the Expo venue. It took up all of the square. But, I was telling Dad, the Grandma's expo venue is sooo much bigger. Here is a night pic:

Saturday: The hotel alarm clock went off at 4 am! Someone set it! So Bart got it unplugged. Then, I got up at 5 am so I could meet Clover for breakfast at 6:30. Yes, I require pre-coffee coffee! We met at Sears Fine Food, which was just a few blocks away from the hotel. Down the hill. Meaning I had to come back up the hill after! But we had a great time and it was really fun to meet her in person. We had no idea what the other looked like and, when I walked down the hill, I saw two women standing outside of Sears. One was looking right at me and the other was looking across the street. So I walked up to the one looking at me and said, "Clover?" and the other woman turned around and said, "I'm clover!" Funny! Anyway, it was neat and then I walked her to work at the expo.

Then I walked back up the hill and we later walked down the hill for Bart's breakfast (and I had bacon!) and then back up the hill then back down to get my packet. Bart heard someone say that, after lunch last year, packet pickup took 2 hours. We had better timing! And, actually, I think they did a better job at organization. I read some horror stories (well, bitchy complaining) online and I didn't notice the problems mentioned.

After packet pickup we wandered around a bit and also walked to my start corral.

Yes, I was number 25,908. Clover says there were about 28K registered runners!

Then we went to Baccolone at the warf:

http://www.boccalone.com/

And, wow, it was delicious! And we had some ice cream, too. It's a really neat little public market with a bunch of different vendors. Veggies, food, some goods.

The market also had a vendor wholly dedicated to mushrooms! Creepy.

Then we went back to the hotel and I obsessively prepared! I got my clothing all set for the morning. I set my alarm and got a wake up call. I got coffee and breakfast ready to make. I filled my CamelBak bladder with coconut water and got that on ice. I pre-cut my honey packets and loaded them in my pak. And then I could think of nothing else to fret on so I went to bed. At 7:25! I was really tired. And I did really sleep.

Sunday: I was up a few times but I slept till my alarm went off. And until the dumb hotel alarm clock went off again! It had a battery backup! That's fine because my own alarm was going off at 4 am. And I got up and drank a ton of coffee and ate oatmeal and drank water. And then, at 6:15, Bart walked me to my start!

Here I am before we left. Caffeinated much?!

We were going to walk some other ladies to the start (they had the same pace) but one of them forgot something in her room. Hope they made it!

Here I am getting dropped off:

So, note about the corrals. One of the things I read about last year is that the start was just a totally disorganized mess. That people could not run at pace because walkers started in front of them, that there were no start shoots, that it was hard to find out where to drop your bag. I did not read anything about the port-a-potty situation so I just prayed that was OK!

When I signed up, I had to indicate my pace. And when I got my packet I got a red wristband, the color of my pace. And I was told that I HAD to start there and would not be allowed into a different corral. Next to me a lady was trying to get into a different start time and was totally refused. So it sounds like they took that really seriously this year. In addition, someone with a different color band was trying to get into my red corral Sunday morning and she was totally denied!

And, glory be, a bunch of port-a-potties! So I got in line right away. And the ladies behind me were saying how much better this year was because, last year, there were not enough bathrooms!

And then the race started. And I waited. And waited. And waited. It was 20 to 30 minutes before I crossed the start! 28K people is no joke!

This picture doesn't even do justice to the mass of humanity! And I am so glad that I did not go into this dreaming of a PR. It was really difficult to navigate the course. If someone slower was in front of me, I just had to deal with that!

We ran through the city, down to the wharf (hello tasty salted pig parts!!!), and then.....where? Into hills. Just approximately a billion hills. Giant hills. Steep hills. Unending hills. Yes, San Francisco hills! And going up was not the only really challenging part. Down was difficult and gave more more opportunity for injury. It was very foggy and even raining a bit. So it was darn slippery. And, with that many people, there was a lot of potential to end someone's race with a ill placed foot! But I made it ok and didn't see anyone get hurt. But I've also never witnessed someone poo themselves, and I guess that happens! So who knows what I missed.

So, basically, at mile 7 I started praying to be put out of my misery!

The single more difficult point of the race came at mile 11. That's where the half marathoners broke off to from the full. And I just thought, "Would they care? The won't care if I finish with the half. Will they? Will they?" And then I thought of Bart waiting for me at the end and that I didn't want to quit. So I kept on. And I was so happy when I ran by the windmills we drove by the day before. It was great to recognize something.

At this point, I just kept praying for that finish line to magically move up to me. The hills were substantially smaller in the second half, but there were numerous. And I was blown on the first half so, at this point, any hill was a mountain!

But, finally, I had one mile left. And I ran and I was soooo glad! And I was almost to the finish and I heard Bart calling my name!! That was the BEST part! I was super super thrilled to see him! Then I finished and a San Francisco fire fighter wearing a tuxedo handed me my little blue Tiffany's box!

Bart and I met up and he hugged me and told me he was so proud of me and that was the new best part. And then we walked to the car and looked at all those poor people waiting for the shuttle! I can't even tell you - the line seemed like it would take hours. But Bart found an awesome parking spot and we shot right back to the hotel. And I took a shower (zero hot spots - a first!!!) and then we went back to Boccalone and also stopped for a creme freiche / graham cracker ice cream sandwich (excellent) and then went to the airport.

Where we were so late we had to run for our plane! And I seriously didn't think I could run a single more step!

Soon to be edited with a video of me crossing the finish line!

I went to bed at 10 (I think!) and slept till 7. Like a rock. Work at 9 and it's a giant filing deadline so I'm here till 9.

Weird things:

1. There were a lot of Team in Training people walking/running this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_in_Training

Very interesting, especially the "criticism" part. Just interesting, I'm not saying it's right or wrong.

What I did notice on the course: TNT had a lot of "coaches" out to entourage and help their members. But I never saw/heard them cheer on non TNT people! If you were not one of theirs, they were silent! Very strange.

2. TNT did have some etiquette issues - mainly stopping in the middle of the course to take pictures. Like coming to a dead stop! But, otherwise, they were not as bad as I read about. Maybe they provided them a course etiquette lesson or something.

3. I bet that 3/4 of the people did the half. I've asked Clover. But the course got mighty lonely after the 1/2 split.

4. Not only does Grandma's have a larger expo venue, they have way more cheerers along the course!

5. This was 5 times more difficult than Grandma's course. And they are both Boston qualifiers!

6. This conversation happened in the car after the race:

Bart: So, will you do it again?

Me: No, never.

Bart: Wow! Well, you say that today.

Guess what? It's tomorrow and the answer is the same!

I'm super glad I did it. It was really really challenging. Way more than I even anticipated. And I did it! But that doesn't mean I want to do it again!

7. Nike didn't have a website for this event! Rather, that had a FaceBook page. I get that they're trying to partner with FB and do the social media thing but, man, websites are awesome.

8. I'm going to get shoes 1/2 size bigger. Ever since I got those insoles, mine are just too snug. I'm concerned about my toenail well being! I think I'll be OK, but I don't want to push it too far!

9. Here's a link to a 2010 video on the course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8fCZAnoeQ

It's a little irritating, but you get a feel for the course. It was beautiful!