I Came. I Saw. I Conquered.

I have officially popped my half marathon cherry. Yeah-Uhh!! Can I get a what, what?

Now, for my "official" post race report. {smiles} But, FYI, this may be a bit too lengthy and wordy and probably boring. So, if you actually read this word for word until the end, props to you my friend.

Saturday morning, the hubs and I head down to San Francisco to attend the expo and pick up my race bib. I knew it was going to be chaotic since it was the last day of the expo.


Once we stepped foot into the tent, my suspicions were right. It was a chaotic hot mess! Literally. There was so many people in there that it felt like a hot sauna.

I did think it was pretty cool that Nike used volunteers who were young teens checking us in, handing out water at the various stations and even cheering us on and holding up their hands to receive high five's!

I wanted to get my gait analyzed and after the hubby coming back with two food freebies and not moving an inch, I just left.

Also, wanted to get a manicure. I mean, I needed my hands to be all stylin' while running, right? But, it was a 90 minute wait. Dam. So, with that, we headed off to Niketown to check out the shiny red wall to see my name.


But first, had to take some pictures in front of this sign!





It was a big ole cluster F at the wall. Thank goodness I'm a "dubyah!". My name was at the bottom and much much easier to find. Once you find your name, I swear it was like a big halo surrounded it making it seem it was the only name there.

We headed on into Niketown to check out the NWM paraphanlia. I knew that I could have waited until all the hype went down and purchased them at a much lower price at the Nike outlets, but it was my first half. I needed to make a splurge, right?

I got me a orangey-red sweatshirt. Ain't she pretty? By this time, we were hungry and plus the hubs wanted to watch his Cal Bears kick UCLA's ass. Go Bears!






While he watched, I looked to see what was in my goody bag. Goody bag was a straight joke. Really, Nike? It contained nothing but coupons! Ok, wait, yes there was a bag of Luna Moons and a fruit strip, but dude! Come On! You can at least make it worthy and put either a water bottle in it or a pair of running socks. Hah! That bag was so light. It felt like nothing was in it.

I also laid out my running attire which I learned to do from reading all the running blogs. I swear, sometimes, reading the blogs are making me OCD. Its fun though! I really thought I didn't forget anything and was so proud of myself. Really proud. Am I thinking too soon? Why, yes! I am. The morning of, about 30 minutes to meeting up with a friend, I find out that I forget my freakin' headphones. Noooooooooo!!!!! I started to panic and aimlessly began to do a websearch of the nearest 24 hour Walgreens. Thankfully, my friend whom I was meeting had an extra pair and I was able to use them. Phew!!!! Thank the Sweet Baby Jesus!!!

Ofcourse, I had a pasta dinner with fellow running friends. Some came from Los Angeles to NYC. The NYC people arrived on Saturday and left Sunday afternoon. Talk about in and out.

I left so stuffed and was scared that I wouldn't be able to sleep right away. We got home around 9'ish and luckily I fell asleep around 1030'ish. But, I did wake up around midnight and managed to fall right back to sleep. Then, I woke up around 330 and tried to get 30 minutes more of shuteye since my alarm clock was scheduled to buzz at 0400. I pretty much just laid there and at 0350, said screw it and began my day. It was race day, folks. Woohooo!!! I was stoked.

We got to the race area about 0645. Pushing it yes, but I was in the 10:00-11:59 pace group and knew we weren't going to start at exactly 0700. It was such a great feeling to be in a race with 20,000 people. Everywhere you looked, you saw nothing but smiles. Loved it!

Finally, it was our turn to start and as we made our way to the starting line, the music was blaring getting me all hyped, crowds aligned the sidewalks cheering us on making me near tears, and everyone around me was just ecstatic that we were finally moving.

When the gun went off, I bid my friend an adieu, wished each other good luck and see you at the finish line! Plus, I kept telling myself, do not gun it. Do not gun it. I didn't and kept a steady pace of 11:30, sometimes 10:30 and felt pretty comfortable. It was really hard to weave myself through the walkers. It was like blind spot running. I always had to look to my left or right before I passed. The last thing I wanted to do was trip and fall or have someone trip and fall.

Mile 1-3. Flat course and loving it. I've always wanted to run along the pier. So, I made sure to fully enjoy the run once we got to the piers. I was smiling and watching runners pull aside and take pictures of the bay behind them. Passed by the gospel singers that were wearing Nike shoes. They started to sing just as I was passing them by. Dam.

At mile 4, I had the feeling of needing to go pee. Dam. Why?? Why now? I never had the urge to suddenly go pee on my long runs or for that matter, short runs. F. I decide to skip the porta potties at mile 4 and just suck it up. But, by the time Mile 6 came along, I really had to go. Only, there was only ONE FREAKIN' porta potty. Say what? Why would you do that??? I got in line and called the hubby and told him where I was at. Then, I just said, "screw it." " I'm gonna suck it up until I see more than one porta potty." I didn't want my time to be all screwed up because I had to go pee. To hell with my kidneys.

So, I go up the big ass hill. Saw a slew of old men dressed in speedo's. I guess they were swimming in the bay. But dang, why you gotta sport yourself like that? Put on a towel! I wanted to take a picture so badly, but didn't want to make it so obvious. Oh, but my friend got one! Hah! Seee!! They didn't give a F!

Ok, as I digress.....

Man, that was quite a hill. Never did any hill training and man, was I short of breathe. But guess what! When I got to the top of the hill, I saw a row of porta potties. Ran in and pee'd and bam I was out there. Loved all the downhills. They were like a relief to me. But, man those hills. It felt like they were never ending.

Going up another hill at I think is about Mile 8. Saw all these " Blah blah like a girl" signs along the way. I think I was getting delirious because at one point, I think one sign said, " Trach like a girl." Did a double take and it said, " Teach like a girl."

At Mile 9, I started to feel my toes cramp on BOTH feet and my right achilles tendon cramp. Had to pull aside to stretch it out. I kept telling myself, " come on, relax toes!!!"

Mile 10, I hardly remember. I think there was another hill at this time. Dam, those hills.

Mile 11 I started to cramp again and was getting pissed because I only had 3 more miles to go and was bothered that my muscles decide to cramp on my then. Ugh. So stretch it out again it was! By the way, there was another hill here, too!

Mile 12 I was cruising in Golden Gate Park and saw a few of my friends there. That was a great site to see as I have been running alone throughout the course. I envied the TNT runners with all their support, coaches, and mentors. Cramps were coming and going a little bit and I had to walk a bit as I didn't want to fall or do something embarrassing. Yeah, the last thing that was on my mind was embarrassing myself. I'm so vain. I swear.

Anyways, I can hear the crowds getting louder and I began to run once I did. It was cool to finally see support and cheer us on. Once I saw the finish line, I began to gun it because I wanted to get this done already.

I was so tired by the time I crossed the finish line that I didn't even look at the SF firefighter who was handing me my blue box. So embarrassing and how rude of me. I cringe when I look at this picture. I mean, the dude is smiling as he's giving me the blue box and I'm just like just hand me the box.

Final time 3:20. I really really wanted to make my PR of under 3 hours. I blame it on my lack of hill training to which I decided to walk up the hills and run down the hills. I guess, you can say that I've learned my lesson and will begin hill training more now. But, I finished my first half and am so happy that its over and done with. Next up is Turkey 10K trot in Davis, CA and Las Vegas Rock n' Roll Half in December.

p.s. Here's my Tiffany necklace.