Yes I did it! A week ago I did it!
Let me describe the day for you, if you don't mind me indulging myself.
First of all thank you to all of my friends and family who sent me encouragement and prayers before the big day! I really did need it!
So we flew to San Francisco after driving really fast from work to the airport on Friday afternoon. Actually, let me rephrase that, I flew to San Fransciso, but Nate was left behind because he was parking the car and the United Gate personnel were total jerks about letting him on the plan, even though we were just sitting there and even the flight attendants wanted to get him on the plane. Note to all - United stinks!
So Nate and I didn't get the romantic Friday night in San Francisco together we had planned. Instead I struggled to get to sleep in my lonely hotel room until Nate arrived at 2am Pacific time and we drifted to sleep together.
Saturday was spent at the Niketown marathon expo buying exercise clothes, picking up my bib, and meeting with my Team and Training team for a Pasta Party. At the party all the coaches cheered for us as we entered a giant hall filled with tables. Over 4,000 runners in this race had raised money throught Team and Training for the Luekemia and Lymphoma Society. They had several very famous runners and motivation speakers there (one of my favorite being John Bingham, see his website, www.waddleon.com). Pictures of lymphoma and luekemia victims flashed on a big screen thoughout the meal, and many family members of victims told heart-wrenching stories about the effects of these horrible diseases. It made me long for my Dad, and strengthed my resolve for the race the next day.
Marathon Day:
Awoke at 4am, put on my purple running clothes, pinned picture of Dad on my back along with letters from supporters.
Walked in the dark with my team to the race start. Met up with my brother Eddie, peed about 4 times, and found his Team in Training team in the 12 min to 15 min pace group.
Over 15,000 runners were standing in line to cross the start line.
7am - Right before the race started my Mom found us and she was just crying with pride for Eddie and I. She saw the pictures of our Dad pinned to our jerseys and she just cried.
We ran through Fishermans Wharf and up Cliffside right next to the Golden Gate Bridge.
We were passing many walkers up the hill and felt great. At the top we were surprised to see picutres of our Dad on a poster. We were so jazzed we just sped down the hill.
From mile 11-15 I struggled with to much caffeine in my system and not enough salt. Ran like a zombie for awhile and had to use my will power to take the full marathon split instead of the half.
After I ate a banana and some salt I felt much better and we chugged through mile 16 to 23 on our own, some near the ocean, the rest down and around a lake with lots of car traffic.
We were faithful to our 4 minute run to 1 minute walk ratio the entire race (which is saying something).
At mile 23 we turned back to the ocean. There was still a dense fog on the city so we couldn't see the finish line. Right then we say a sign that said, "You are one step closer to finishing what you started," I started to cry. We ran past our family, Eddie and I entered the shoot together and crossed the finish line holding hands (I'll post pictures soon). We finished in over 6 hours. The entire time we thought of Dad and how much we loved and missed him.
I am so glad I trained for this and did it.
I will definately do it again, just give me some recovery time.
