Jig and Jog

Nike Women’s Marathon – Race Recap

To see my recap of our experience at the Nike Women’s Marathon Expo go here

The night before the race, I laid out everything I would need for the morning. Even though the race didn’t start as early as others (7am start time) we wanted to be well rested and good to go in the morning.

Camelbak, iPod, bib, Garmin, knee brace, hat, Spibelt full of Shotblocks and tylenol. We woke up at 5am to have enough time to eat and get to the race by 6am so we’d have plenty of time to use the restroom, and find our pace group. When we were up and dressed, we each ate a peanut butter sandwich, and my dad drove us to the start area.

Remember my disappointment in the organization of the Expotique? Yeah, that carries over to the start area as well. Nike set up the start area in Union Square where the Expo was held. The corrals were supposed to be easy to find along the street, but sadly, Janna and I never found our corral. We hopped in with the 11:00-11:59 group because even after walking up and down the street we never found the 12:00 group. While there were plenty of port-a-potties, the lines were insane. We didn’t check bags, so I can’t really comment on that other than the signage around the area was not sufficient as no one seemed to know where the bag check was. There was a huge amount of gridlock trying to get into the corrals, as people were simply crowding in the intersections between the potties and the bag checks. There were no volunteers helping to direct people, so everyone was just crammed against each other, not moving. When we were finally able to push our way through there was tons of space within the actual corrals. We ended up starting near the pace leader for a 5:10 marathon (the pacers were all wearing pink and had special hats as well as signs which looked really helpful) and hoped to stay with her as long as possible.

The race started on time, which was great, and getting to the starting line didn’t seem much more difficult than the other two races we’ve done, but it was at this time we started to notice, as full marathon participants, we were outnumbered. It seemed like the half marathoners took up a HUGE portion of the participants.

Once we crossed the start line, the first mile was downhill, which while nice meant that our starting pace was too fast, and it was difficult to slow down. We tried our best to avoid zig zagging around people, in order to save our energy, but of course, there was some necessary bobbing and weaving. The first water station was NOT prepared for runners. I was wearing my Camelbak so I didn’t stop, but Janna said none of the cups were ready to go when the runners got there. Granted, our group crossed the start line about 24 minutes after 7:00am but still. The first part of the course went along the Embarcadero which was really nice. The weather was perfect, a bit overcast and cool, so running along the water was refreshing. Plus, there were great views of the bay. We kept going along the Embarcadero past Fisherman’s Warf and then up the first hill which wasn’t too bad. Janna and I were able to run up the hill with no problems, this brought us around to pass just below Ghirardelli Square before turning to go up hill number two. This hill also wasn’t too terrible, and it meant there was a nice downhill into the Safeway Cheer Zone, which was by far the most energetic cheer zone on the course.

From here we went through the Marina which was gorgeous, and then past Chrissy Field which had amazing views of The Golden Gate Bridge. Here’s where things started to kind of get crowded. People were stopping to take pictures which is great for them, but a pain in the ass if you’re behind them. We had to make a potty break just before the first really big hill at Fort Mason, and we waited for a good amount of time in line which was a bummer. The next bummer comes when we tried to get up the hill at Fort Mason. Yes, it’s a HILL, but it wasn’t as terrible as we were expecting. However, I was never able to keep a good rhythm getting around all the slow ass walkers and people who decided to just stop right in the middle of the road. I get it, hills are tough, but seriously? You signed up for a race in SAN FRANCISCO. Janna was able to find a pocket and get around people, but I got stuck attempting to power walk the hill. We stopped off to the side after we got down the hill to take a picture in front of Alcatraz and then kept on trucking.

Getting through the Presidio was another challenge, since there was a hill, a plateau, then another hill followed by a super steep downhill section. The Presidio is gorgeous and everything was lush and green which was nice, but man. Steep downhill was not kind to my knees. I stopped at mile 7 to take some tylenol. I saw the first bike medic along the course here who was helping someone ace bandage an ice pack to one of her knees. I thought the idea of having medics on bikes along the route was brilliant. Too bad this guy had run out of ice packs. Around this time we came through one of the Team in Training cheer sections which was great, and also heart wrenching. The posters featuring sick kids and friends and family people had lost was both depressing and motivational at the same time. Know so much money was going to a great cause felt really good.

The course was still really crowded all through the Sea Cliff area, where we hit another pretty big hill. There were also fewer spectators, although the folks from Kaiser were handing out orange slices which was great. Once we got into Golden Gate Park we had to make another bathroom stop. Janna used one of the real park bathrooms and I stretched. We had just crossed mile 11 and were still feeling pretty good. We’d been maintaining a decent pace the entire time, so we were feeling pretty confident. I don’t really remember anything too exciting happening again until we split off from the half marathoners in Golden Gate Park. There was a HUGE cheering section as the half marathoners spilt off, and for us full marathoners?

NOTHING.

No, seriously. NOTHING at all. In fact, there was a stretch of nearly 5 miles where there were no spectators and the only reason we knew we were still on the course was because we kept seeing mile markers. Let me tell you, after running for that long, to hit that long with nothing was a HUGE downer. The volunteers seemed to be totally distracted, and most of them gave the impression that they couldn’t care less about the runners. One guy was asleep in a lawn chair. We were joined by the half marathoners again very briefly before they headed toward their finish line. Then, when we turned around and came out of the park onto The Great Highway, we began running into people crossing the street in hordes. Keep in mind, we were just about to hit mile 17, so having to wait for people to cross the street in front of us, paying no mind to the runners still trying to finish the full marathon was really annoying.

As we were passing the mile 17 marker, we looked across the median at all the people coming up on the mile 25 marker. Looking at Mile 25 from the other side of the road, just past mile 17 was kind of heartbreaking. My knee was really starting to hurt at this point, and knowing just how close and yet so far the finish was really hit me hard.

Nike had several Power Song stations set up along the course, most of which were kind of “meh” for me. You could only hear them a few yards before the station and then a few yards after but the station just before the finish line was playing “Eye of the Tiger” so Janna and I were singing as we passed that one. I had to start walk/running around mile 18 when my knee was finally starting to yell at me. In fairness to my knee, I did tell it to “STFU” around mile 7, so it held out for another 10 miles before getting really annoyed.

Miles 19-23 were especially tough for me, heading around the loop of Lake Merced nearly killed me. I knew it wasn’t THAT far really, but I also knew what landmarks we’d need to pass in order to get back to the Great Highway and onto the finish line area. Very few spectators along the last stretches of Great Highway and all around Lake Merced made this additionally challenging. We did get some chocolate at mile 21 which was nice, but at that point I had emptied my Camelbak (I was also having some chaffing issues on my shoulder blade from the Camelbak) and was thirsty and hungry, and my Shotblocks and Gus weren’t doing much to help. I started feeling a bit light headed around mile 21 and really had to walk almost all of the rest of the course.

It was around this point when grumblings started coming through the people around us that we might not finish in time to get our finisher necklaces or an official time. This did not motivate me to move faster, it simply made me feel even more defeated and miserable. We kept moving along as fast as I could go, power walking as much as possible. Eventually just around Mile 24 we hooked up with a Team in Training coach and two runners who were struggling. When a man on a motorcycle rode past and told us if we weren’t finished in 15 minutes we’d not only be pulled off the course but we would not be official finishers and we would not get our necklace.

Thankfully the TNT coach told us what was really going on. She told us to ignore the asshole, and keep going. We’d already made it so far and we should be proud of ourselves. She also told us we were ABSOLUTELY going to finish and get our necklaces and our official times. We stuck with them until almost the very end where in the last three tenths of a mile Janna and I ran our little hearts out across the finish line. Just before the finish line a TNT coach cheered us on saying “YOU’RE ABOUT TO FINISH! YOU ARE A MARATHONER!!” I was nearly in tears. Then, as we came up to the finish area I saw my parents and nearly started crying again. My dad was jumping up and down and screaming for us, and my mom was waving like crazy.

We crossed the finish line running, and with smiles on our faces, and happily took our Tiffany Finisher necklace and our finisher T-shirts.