Eat Drink Run Woman

I’m no girly-girl, yet when one of my Maniac friends asked if I wanted to put my name in the Nike Women’s Marathon lottery hat, I jumped at the chance.  After all, who can pass up the opportunity to get a Tiffany necklace handed out by a hunky firefighter?  My darling also needed little convincing; while the necklace held no sway, the chance to run with 25,000 women was trés appealing (he’ll give his necklace to his mom).

In an “all for one, one for all” move, we registered as a group under a friend’s email address.  If that got chosen, we were all in (there were at least six of us in our group).  As with my Boston registration, I started checking my online credit card statement daily to see if it had been charged, and sure enough, on March 21 I saw it go through.  Woo hoo!

While this would be yet another big-ticket item (we already had the Goofy Challenge and Boston scheduled for the year), since it’s a west coast race we figured we could make do with a whirlwind trip — fly down Saturday morning, fly out Sunday evening after the race.  I found an extremely cheap hotel just blocks from the start in Union Square through Hotels.com; while I would never want to stay there on vacation, it was fine for a basic place to crash.

Given my time goal for Portland, I was quite regimented with my nutrition.  I laid off the hooch and made sure I ate healthy lean protein and carbs in the days leading up to the race.  But with Nike?  Hell — I was running for fun!  There was no way I was going to miss out on the culinary delights San Francisco has to offer.

After dropping our bags off at our hotel we ducked into a Thai restaurant for lunch before heading to the expo where we shared some spicy larb gai and shrimp pad thai.  I knew not to expect much from the expo, and it lived up to its reputation.  If the lines weren’t horrendously long I might have gone for the free manicure, but I just couldn’t be bothered.  Since this is a Nike race there wasn’t any race gear at the expo; rather you had to wait in yet another horrendously long line at Niketown a block away.  However, we were tipped off to the fact Macy’s carries SOME items, but nothing caught my eye.  I begrudgingly made my way to Niketown, yet became discouraged when I saw what a zoo it was.  All for the best, given my vow not to buy any new gear (a vow I’ve already broken numerous times).

After the expo we popped into a tavern for a couple of beers, then headed back to our hotel for a quick nap before dinner.  Our friends had chosen a cute little place in the heart of San Francisco’s Italian neighborhood, which is just on the fringe of Chinatown.  It was a little over a mile away, so we figured we’d hoof it rather than figure out public transportation (again, since we were running for fun we didn’t care as much about saving our legs).

Chinatown was yet another disappointment as it appeared to be comprised only of small shops carrying tacky and cheap Asian artifacts.  Still, it was fun to roam around.  We got to the restaurant an hour early, so we decided to have a cocktail and some munchies at a nearby place.  Mojitos were their specialty, so we figured we’d have to give ’em a try.  (Hey — lime & mint are healthy for you!)  The first ones went down WAY too easy, and the buzz they provided stifled our inhibitions.  “Another round please!”

We teetered over to the restaurant and met up with our friends.  Since we were a group of 15 we couldn’t all sit together, so my darling and I grabbed the last two spots at the bar.  I couldn’t pass up the beef carpaccio with arugula, even though raw beef might not be the best pre-marathon meal.  (It was delicious).  I then ordered the spicy penne arrabiata with chicken as a main course; heartburn be damned!

Despite hearing the clanging and banging of pots & pans from the restaurant below us, we got a rather good sleep.  But since we’d be checking out before the race, we had to give ourselves enough time to hoof it to the Marriott where we’d be storing our bags.  Fortunately it was only a block and a half away.  Our friend was staying on the 14th floor, however, when we got into the elevator we saw there were only 10 floors.  D’oh!  Turns out there are TWO Marriotts in Union Square.  After a frantic call to our friend we figured out where we needed to be — about 7 blocks away.

We had just enough time to store our bags and hit the port-o-potty line when it was time to line up.  Although I’d be taking it slow I had hoped to line up in the 4:15 group.  But by now the streets were completely packed and it was difficult to maneuver toward the front.  Not sure where we ended up, but I believe it was in the 4:30 group.

Nike is a major Team-in-Training race, so the wave of purple was in full force.  I have a love/hate relationship with the group; on one hand I admire the amount of money they raise for leukemia research, plus they got a lot of runners running their first races.  I have several friends who have raced with TnT, including a personal chef colleague who was running Nike.  But since many TnT’ers are new racers, they aren’t as familiar with proper race etiquette, such as not walking 5 or 6 abreast and not moving over when politely asked.  Normally this has only been an issue when the full marathoners catch up to the slower half marathoners, but at Nike we had to dodge the purple wall from the get-go.

It took at least 10 minutes before we crossed the start line, and given the crowds it was still a slow go when we finally got to running.  But again, I wasn’t concerned as I knew taking it slow in the beginning simply meant I’d be passing people in the end.  Although my darling was still nursing a sore ankle he ran with me for the first couple of miles.  But nature called and I ducked into a port-o-potty just after mile 2 (that would be my slowest mile at 11:54).  Despite running a fast race two weeks earlier I felt really good.  I cruised along, passing many people.  The true test of my mettle came at the hills; I had also been training for a particularly tough 50K at the end of October that included a lot of hill work.  While I cursed those hills during training, it immediately became clear how much they benefited me as I sailed up the hills at Nike.

Just after mile 6 we got to the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge.  However, it was a very foggy morning so all you could see WAS the approach 🙁  In fact, I never did get to see the bridge the entire weekend.  Mile 8 was a nice long downhill, however, the fact you could see the finish line — yet were no where near finishing — was a bit of a mind f@#k.  Just before mile 11 we headed up JFK Drive toward the Rose Garden, where a little over a mile later it got eerily quiet as the half marathoners turned off (of the 20,000 participants, roughly 2/3 are half marathoners).  I saw my darling and several of my Maniac friends at the out & back from miles 12.5 to 14; everyone was looking good (and I was feeling great!), but miles 14-19 got a bit rough for me.  The pavement along the Great Highway from miles 16-18 was knobby and rough, and it seemed to aggravate every pain I was feeling.  Plus it was tough to see the front runners so close to finishing.

I saw my Maniac friend Tory ahead of me just as we were to hit the 30K timing mat.  I yelled out to her, “Tory — you cross that mat first!”  While I passed her soon after she flew by me on the downhill as we headed toward Lake Merced.  But something funny happened to me as I hit mile 20 and started the uphill climb around the lake — I actually picked up steam!  Whereas my mile splits were ranging 9:30-9:55 in the previous miles, miles 21-25 were in the 9:00-9:15 range!  In the beginning of the race I had hoped to finish in under 4:30, but it was now clear I could finish in far less.  By then I decided I wanted to beat my Capital City Marathon finish of 4:20.  By mile 26 I was flying; I ran that in 8:41.  As with most courses Garmin registered long, and the final split was .65, which I ran in 5:24 (an 8:17 pace!)  My final time was 4:18:53.

I collected my necklace from the firefighter and made my way toward the goodie bag tent to get my finisher’s shirt.  I also grabbed a chocolate milk and a space blanket and started heading toward the tables where the finishers were gathering.  I soon spied my darling and plopped down on a seat; I was done!  Tory soon joined us (she ran a PR that day in just over 4:30) and we shared out marathon stories.  But as the wind started to pick up I knew I’d better collect my drop bag with my warm clothes.  Wouldn’t you know it — our bus was the furthest out.  (I’m sure the walk did us good).

My only complaint with the race was getting back to the start.  You either had the option of paying $10 for a bus ride back (the lines were literally a mile long), or you could pay $2 for public transportation.  We chose the latter, but still had to wait almost an hour before one came.  But thankfully we had a hot shower waiting for us back at our friend’s hotel room, and even better — burgers & beer at the pub across the street!

Next up: the Carkeek 12-hour race report.