Yay! I'm back from San Francisco!Since I have soooooooooo much to say and a super busy week ahead, I am going to parcel out my race reports over the week. So this will be the first installment.
I do have to say:
• Although I was well prepared for the hills, they still sucked the life out of me
• This course was the HARDEST course I've ever run (10x worse than the Pig)
• I finally ran a marathon I was happy with, EVEN THOUGH I was no where near my goal of breaking 4 hours
• All the little touches that made this a "women's" marathon were very very cool
• I'm going to have to run with TNT again. I was sort of ready for "retirement" but running with them is just too much fun
Anyway, I will start with the expotique.
It was VERY VERY small. I mean, it took me like 15 minutes to go through, tops. Then I realized why: Nike was sponsoring it. Why would they allow other vendors there? Duh. So the expotique basically consisted of a tent (pictured above) where you pick up your number and chip (no t-shirt until you finish the race). You could also get a free pedicure (Ramon would have had a fit if any of his runners did this, though) and taste some flavored oxygen. If you walked around the corner there were free samples of Kashi. But that was truly it.
Across the street though, was the Nike store. I had already checked out all of the merchandise online, so I knew exactly what I wanted! The other good thing about a women's marathon? No bulky sweats or tees! Everything is tailored towards women (and over the top cute).
How cool is this? All of the participants names were on the outside of Niketown!
Lauren, me and Rebecca in our cute Nike Women's Marathon HoodiesAcross the street at Macy's they had a runner's lounge, which basically consisted of a couch in the juniors section and free Italian sodas.
Macy's on Union SquareThe night before the race, we had the famous TNT Pasta Dinner!
All of the New York team had to be obnoxious again, and let everyone know who we were. Strangely enough, we ran into a couple of girls who decided to wear "I Heart SF" shirts from another team. They wanted to have their picture taken with us :)
The dinner was like a million times bigger than the one for Marine Corps. There were 5,000 runners there! It took about 5 minutes to walk through the throngs of coaches and staff members cheering for us. IT WAS SO COOL!
There's Ramon (in the blue) cheering like crazy for us!
All of the New York team had to be obnoxious again, and let everyone know who we were. Strangely enough, we ran into a couple of girls who decided to wear "I Heart SF" shirts from another team. They wanted to have their picture taken with us :)The dinner was like a million times bigger than the one for Marine Corps. There were 5,000 runners there! It took about 5 minutes to walk through the throngs of coaches and staff members cheering for us. IT WAS SO COOL!
There's Ramon (in the blue) cheering like crazy for us!
Walking through the Cheer TunnelIt was very inspirational. Joan Benoit Samuelson spoke (which was so cool!) as well as the Penguin. He, of course, made everyone laugh and feel inspired all at once.
About 30 seconds to the end of his speech he said something like "When you are running those 26.2 miles tomorrow..." which is pretty much the last thing I heard because all of the sudden my stomach dropped and I was like 'No. No. Not tomorrow. I do NOT want to run 26.2 miles tomorrow.'
I had never felt that way before. Weird.
About 30 seconds to the end of his speech he said something like "When you are running those 26.2 miles tomorrow..." which is pretty much the last thing I heard because all of the sudden my stomach dropped and I was like 'No. No. Not tomorrow. I do NOT want to run 26.2 miles tomorrow.'
I had never felt that way before. Weird.
3 comments:
Wtf is an "expotique"? I don't like that. But I do like your cute girl zippy sweatshirt.
Agreed about the hills. I freaking gunned it up them and then was totally wiped out for the second half. Ugh. But for my pretty bowed box at the end - it was all worth it.
How are your legs feeling?
My legs are actually fine! Well, except for when I walk DOWN subway steps. Then I look like an old man.
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