Nike Women's Marathon Race Report 3

Lining up at the Start Corrals

Yay! WOMEN'S marathon! There were a million port-o-lets so I only had to wait in a line 2 people deep pre-race. I then headed over to my corral. I was in a pretty intimidating corral. It was the third one and the pace on my wrist band said 7:59-8:59. That seemed like a HUGE window to me. So I stayed way in the back :) I found Bill (or I guess he found me) and he gave me my Garmin with 60% power. Good deal. It wouldn't last me the whole race, but by the time it pooped out I wouldn't need it for pace anymore.

I was MUCH happier after I saw Bill and got my Garmin

My big thing? I was going to run this race correctly, which involved me holding back at the start. I am notoriously bad at doing this. But I kept repeating Ramon's mantra "BEHAVE" in my head. For some reason? I already had to pee again. I JUST went! Geezle. I figured it was just nerves.

I was so good at behaving. So, so good!

My first mile was a 9:21. Second mile 9:20. (So awesome!!! I was shooting for 9:20 pace up to mile 6.) The scenery was great and the weather was perfect. And the coolest thing? At mile 2.3 there was a coat check. There were a bunch of volunteers standing there with bags for you with tags on them. As you ran by, you shoved your sweats or whatever in the bag and they stuck a sticker on you with the corresponding number. Genius!

Unfortunately I still had to go to the bathroom. Fortunately there was a long line of port-o-lets and enough of them that there was no line. I could not BELIEVE I was stopping to pee before 3 miles. But crazily enough, I felt so much better afterwards. Guess it wasn't just nerves.

I was on the lookout for mile 3, which Ramon said was a big hill. Not big on the elevation chart, but it would seem big because it was a quick rise over a small distance. When I got to it, I was glad he pointed it out to us the day before. It was kind of like a Queens Half Marathon hill...no big deal, but a huge deal if you weren't expecting hills until mile 6.

I really felt GREAT.

I kept maintaining my pace and the miles were flying by. Unfortunately it was a super foggy day, so when everyone was yelling for us to get our cameras out (who runs with a camera) to take a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, all I saw was gray.

Here it comes, here it comes...Ft. Mason. The dreaded hill. (I am not making this up. It is actually called Ft. Mason.) Now, Ramon said that it took him 9 minutes to climb this hill. This is not cool, because he is super speedy. The hill is over a mile long and super steep. And it is one of those hills that goes up, turns a corner, goes up some more, turns a corner and then goes up some more. It totally drained me.

I understand why, in Ramon's plan, there was such a gap. He had suggested paces for miles 1-6, and then 10-17 and 17-the end. This is because we were not supposed to keep track of pace on the hills between 6 and 10. If we did we would be all thrown off.

This hill took me 11:30 to climb. Yuck. And it was a little less than a mile (0.9).

What was cool though, is that they had these progressive signs along the hill that said things like:

Run like a girl
Laugh like a girl
Kiss like a girl
Achieve like a girl
Love like a girl

etc etc etc.

When I am running I am totally a basket case emotionally, so this got to me. I was almost teary and thinking stupid things like Yeah. They're right. It is so cool to be a girl. I do not understand myself when I am running. :)

The OTHER cool thing is that when you ran DOWN the hill there was this camera recording the whole thing and projecting it onto a huge screen, so you could see yourself. Fun!

I was very careful to run the downhills smart. I was so afraid I was going to hammer my quads and pay for it in the end.

These stupid guys by me would NOT shut up about the hills. I guess the one guy had run it before and he was saying that we got to do hill 6 all over again in a little bit. Now, I KNEW this, but in my head, it wasn't so bad the second time. So these guys were almost psyching me out and I was like "Lalalalalalalalala I can't hear you!" (No, I didn't actually say this out loud, just in my head).

I saw Ramon and heard about every three words of what he was yelling at me. "Way to...Em...just...Em...too...soon...Em...OK!" OK?

While I felt like I was going to die on these hills, afterwards I actually felt ok. In fact, I felt FAST. So I knew I was going to be okay.

I hit the second hill and it was really really tiring me out. Luckily, I saw Rob and Erin from the NYC LLS office and they were cheering like crazy!

When I was almost up the hill I also saw Coach Pete (he coaches the Advanced Group with Coach Steve all the time). I was SO HAPPY to see him. I asked him "This is the last of the BIG hills, right?" He kind of avoided my question. But he did tell me that I looked good, I was right on track, and that I was the 2nd runner from the NYC team. (Awesome!) He also told me that I should enjoy the run now because when I got to the pond (mile 18ish-24) it was going to suck and that I needed to mentally prepare for it, but that he would be there at the entrance. Ok. Good to know.

I was still flying high on the fact that I was doing so well.

I just kept thinking that when I saw Ramon again I was going to tell him how I was behaving.