Marathon Wknd Summary: Pre Race Hoopla

Mission accomplished! I officially went from zero to twenty six....I finished by the skin of my teeth but I finished all the same! When you see me feel free to call me Ms.Marathoner! I will give you the play by play of the event weekend. It was such an amazing experience that I want to share a detailed account…and just to keep it real, I don’t want to tell the story over and over again. If you really just care about the race then skip this post and head over to my "Race Day: Part 1 and 2" post. If you're looking to get the full experience sit back relax and keep reading.....

My Arrival

Luckily when we got to our hotel we were able to check in. There was nothing more I wanted to do than shower and regroup after catching a 650am from NYC. My good friend Nicaila (Nicki), also a race participant, was my roommate. Nicki and I signed up for TNT together and I was SO happy that I was rooming with someone I knew. I couldn't imagine going through pre race day nerves with a stranger. Although, I have made plnty of friends through TNT over the past few months, so I don't want to down play my TNT homies.


Our friend Fabiola (Fab) came out to San Fran to cheer us on. I would like to give Fab the "2010 FRIEND OF THE YEAR AWARD." Not only did she fly clear across the country to cheer us on in the race in crappy weather, but she also had a T-shirt made to show her support. Once Fab arrived we took a couple of hours to explore San Fran. I had a laundry list of things I wanted to do while I was there, none of which got accomplished, oh well you can't win ‘em all :-/


San Francisco


Now this is my kinda Cali! San Francisco is so pretty and has an urban feel that isn't overwhelming (unlike crazy ass NYC). But the hills are a bit much, I actually saw this woman wipe out walking down a hill. FYI - when someone tells you something is two or three blocks away, please note that those blocks might be straight up a steep hill. After brunch we walk completely uphill to Lombard street, which is famous for being the crookedest street in San Francisco. Once we were done taking pictures we rode the trolley from Fisherman's Warf to the Nike Expo to pick up our race packets. Side note the trolley broke down about 10 minutes after we got on, suffice to say I was slightly disappointed with one touristy thing I actually had time to do.


The Event Weekend

First of all, I would like to give a shout out to Nike for putting on such an amazing event! I felt so official when I showed up at the registration tent and expo. Quietly I felt like an Olympian  The event branding was great, they really made the runners feel special, like the city was ours for the weekend. The expo tent was in Union Square which is directly across the street from Niketown. For the weekend the name of every runner registered in the race was displayed on the side of Niketown, I was so excited when I found my name!

Back at the expo tent they had more free samples than I could count, foot messages, and all kinds of co branding stations (Nike + iPod, NWM on facebook, etc.). Side note Fab was definitely at the expo getting a foot message and posing for pictures like she was running the race on Sunday. But since she's our #1 supporter we indulged her. In Niketown I lost my mind buying official race day gear. I also managed to find time to take over for the DJ and spin for a few minutes :-)


Ok, I would also like to shout out TNT for creating by far one of the most uplifting experiences of my life. The night before the race TNT hosted an inspiration dinner. I spent most of Saturday afternoon napping and icing my feet, really trying to conserve my energy for race day. When I got up from my nap I'll be honest I wasn't hard pressed to get to the dinner on time. I was at the peak of "operation reduce stress," so Nicki and I took our time as we made our way over to the dinner. Thank God we made it because it was such a moving experience.....


When we walked into the doors there was a massive crowd cheering for us. I was so shocked and overcome with emotion. I was fighting back tears from the minute I walked in the door (mind you I only cry like maybe 3 times in a given year – and NEVER in public!). Then I turned a corner and saw the New York coaches cheering for us, I got a lump in my throat and it was becoming harder and harder not to cry. We reached a landing and looked down at an even bigger crowd cheering for us. I was amazed to see people from all over the country cheering for little old me (or little old “us” the runners)! As I walked down the stairs I looked to the right and saw a man with a sign that said "I'm a survivor because of you." I officially started to ball, I was so focused on the race that I forgot about the cause. All the funds I raised really DO have an impact on peoples lives! It was nice to see a connection to the cause. We heard many stories of survivors that night which inspired me to give my all to the race. I was pumped and ready to go!!!!.....

(proceed to Race Day: Part 1 and Part 2 post please)

Race Day Part 1: Good Times!

Most people say that you can't sleep the night before your first marathon, but I slept like a baby! I woke up on race day refreshed and ready to go. Sadly, we got to the starting line too early and stood outside for like 45 minutes waiting for the start. In the end it was fine because I basically conducted a photo shoot with my teammates while we waited. Our coaches got in on the action too! They hung out with us at the starting line and right before it was time to start they wished us luck and left. I’m not going to lie, I kinda felt like a child being dropped off at my first day of school. Quietly I was scared, the training wheels were off and we were really about to do this. I didn't really here the starting horn go off, but next thing I knew we were moving. My fear quickly turned to excitement, they don’t lie about that starting line adrenaline…I was out!

Right after the start we ran past the pointy building (or the TransAmerica building as it's officially know - not as fun) to Fisherman's Warf. We hit our first water station and I went into my run/walk intervals. The beginning of the race was actually pretty amazing, we started when it was dark out so we go to watch the sun rise as we ran the first couple of miles. The first five miles really weren’t that bad. Sure there were a few hills, but nothing unreasonable. I can’t reiterate enough how much I enjoyed the course, it was so beautiful! San Francisco is a pretty amazing city, the perfect mix of nature and concrete.


The first painful moment of the race came around mile 7. Let me take a step back and set the scene, there were literally tens of thousands of people running this race so it was just a sea of people everywhere you turned. I mentioned this because as I looked up right before we went into mile 7 and no lie in the distance it looked like ants climbing a mountain! The hill going into mile 7 was ridiculous! Every single person walked up that hill, I didn’t see one person running. At one point I thought, am I going for a hike or running a marathon? But the good news is that old saying what goes up, must come down and when I got to the top of the hill the views were insane and by the time I was on my way back down, I forgot about all huffing and puffing I did on the way up.

Around mile 8 or 9, someone had the genius idea to hand out orange slices. It was on a hill and of course after runners were done with the oranges slices they discarded the rinds on the course, which created a hot slippery mess! Sure I had an orange slice, but that’s not the point it was still a bad idea.


Going into mile 10 I was still feeling great! Before each mile marker there was a power song station playing music. The mile 10 song was Don’t Stop Believing by Journey (one of my favs). So I just sang my way into mile 10, it was starting to drizzle but I didn’t care I have to say I was truly enjoying the race at this point (because I had no idea of the torture that was to come). We were going downhill and headed towards the beach and everything seemed great.

This particular race was both a full and half marathon, both groups ran together for the majority of the first half. Remember how I mentioned that there were a sea of people running the race?...well the sea parted at the full / half split. Suddenly I felt very alone and very scared. Ironically it started raining a harder too. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to enter the dark side of this race

(proceed to Race Day: Part 2)

Race Day Part 2: The Dark Side

Now, I’m a very prideful person and rarely do I discuss falling flat on my face (metaphorically speaking) in a public forum. However, when I started this blog I promised that I would give you the good, the bad, and the ugly of this process and that includes this race so here it is...

Once the half marathoners split off I held up for a little while, but by mile 15 I felt like a scared lost little girl just trying to find her way home. This part of the course went through some wooded park which didn’t help matters. By mile 16 a little pain started to set in. The way the course was laid out mile the last 10 miles of the race were what runners call an “out and back”. This means that you end up where you started. But what this really meant in the context of the race was that while I was passing mile 16 I saw the runners on the other side of the road hitting mile 25. This was such a mind f*** for lack of a better phase. To be struggling at mile 16 and watching people who were almost at the finish, that was tough.

The great thing about this event was that it was a LLS race so there were TNT coaches all along the course, helping runners along the way. At mile 16 one of my Brooklyn coaches (Radie) spotted me and asked me how I was doing, I told her not good! She stayed with me for a little while and this was a huge help! Right before mile 18 she said “ok I’m going to leave you now and I’ll see you when you come back around the other side.” I held up for about another mile. By mile 19 I thought, you are played yourself. Where did you get off thinking that you could run a marathon? I tried to repress my negative energy by the positives of the situation were few and far between at this point.

During every marathon there are pacers to for the runners to keep up with in order to finish in a certain time. I was terrified that I would not complete the race in the required 6.5 hours and knew that if I saw the 6 hour pacer pass me I was in trouble! At this point I had seen the 5:00, 5:15, and 5:30 pacers pass me, so I still felt like I had a cushion. Then out of nowhere I see this woman with a sign that says “Course Closing Pace”!!! WTF! What happened to the 5:45, 6:00, and 6:15 pacer??? How did I miss that? Suddenly I felt like I was running for my life from this woman. I lost two of my friends (Kat and Caroline) shortly after mile 15, right after I reached mile 20 I caught them. They looked so excited to see me, but before they could say anything I yelled “run, run for your life the Course Closing Pacer is coming for us!”

I ran as fast as I could but my body had enough I was finding it hard to keep up and slowly but surely the Pacer lady was coming for me. She finally was right on my heels, I asked her what would happen if I finished behind her and she said I wouldn’t get the finishers necklace…Oh the horror!!! How could I come all this way and not get my Tiffany’s finisher’s necklace!?! But I just couldn’t keep up anymore and that’s when it happened…The great meltdown of mile 21 SMH I’m so not proud of this.

I stopped dead in my tracks and started balling, as a matter of fact I launched into a full on ugly cry and said “I can’t do this anymore!” Some man on a bike peddling next to me was rambling about how it was all mental at this point, mind over matter, etc. He’s lucky I had no energy left in my body because I might knocked him off his bike. Then out of nowhere this woman from LA grabbed me up by the shoulders and screamed in my face “DON’T YOU QUIT ON ME!” I don’t know if I was shocked or scared but for some reason I started running again. I accepted the fact that I would not get a finishers necklace because I didn’t meet the required time, but I was determined to finish all the same. I was determined to cross the finish line.

Shortly after mile 22 I had to stop again. By the grace of God a TNT coach happened to be walking by and she asked me “are you ok?” I said “no I’m in a lot of pain and I feel quesy.” I didn’t know it at the time but this was Coach Melanie from LA and she would be the person to get me to the finish line. I am forever grateful for this woman because I’m not sure I would have otherwise made it. Melanie took my fuel belt and made sure I took some time to hydrate.

Melanie said to me “this is your race and you can walk to finish line and cross it all the same but how do you feel about doing 1/1 intervals (meaning running for a minute and walking for a minute)?” This might sound easy to you but after running the majority of 23 miles I could barely put one foot in font of the other. So we did 1/1 intervals for about another mile and then I was really done! I walked pretty much for the last two miles of the race.

Right before mile 25 my Brooklyn coach Radie was there, she really did look for me! At this point it was raining and the first aid people came to give the remaining runners a finishers cover so we wouldn’t freeze. Shortly after I spotted Radie, I saw two of my other Brooklyn coaches. I was so disoriented at this point I didn’t even recognize them at first. One of the coaches Kara ran up to me and said “give me a smile” and I responded “Kara? Is that you? Oh it is you!”….yeah I was out of it. Right before mile 25 there was a power song station playing “Eye of the Tiger”. My other Brooklyn coach James said “this is it! You have the eye of the tiger!” Two seconds later they race staff turned off the music and started breaking down the power song station. James quickly cleaned it up with “you already know that song, you don’t need to hear it again.” At this point I just wanted to finish the damn race I was cold, wet, tired, and in more pain than I could ever imagine.

Then in the distance I saw the finish line. I started to tear up a little bit at the thought of finishing this race but I held it together. It was a strange feeling because I wanted to get the finish line as fast as possible but my body wouldn’t move. Then out of nowhere I started running like a granny and before I knew it I finished!!!! I thought I would be more emotional but I had a quick cry and then kept it moving (slowly of course). But the best part of the finish was despite finishing after the required time, I got a finishers necklace and shirt! Proof that I was actually there and I actually completed the race.

People always say that you walk up to the starting line of a marathon as one person and cross the finish line as another. Truthfully I didn’t believe that until I wrote this post and reflected on my experience. When I finished the race I felt numb, I expected this big outpour of emotion and this huge transformation, but it just wasn’t there. I was embarrassed that I didn’t finish in the required time, but when I think about that day now I’m proud of what I did. I chose to do this race because I wanted to challenge myself. The race wasn’t easy and that’s what makes me proud. It broke me and I still managed to pull it together to finish. It took me four and a half months but I went from zero to twenty six!

When I finished the race I declared that I would never run another marathon. Well my exact words were “I’m never putting my body through this bullsh*t again.” I wasn’t exactly in a happy place after the finish. I then got on the bus back to the hotel and one of my teammates said I think this is more painful than giving birth. I don’t have children so I can’t compare the two. However, I’ve heard many Mothers say that the further away you get away from the labor the more you forget about the pain. Why else would women keep putting themselves through the agony of childbirth? This weekend I cheered on my teammates running in the NYC marathon and I decided...I think I want another baby, stay tuned :-)