I Ran Like a Girl!

Less than 24 hours back from my first destination half marathon, and already working on the next! San Francisco is an unbelievable city, so much history, so much beauty, so many hills, and so much shopping!

Arrived on Friday, picked up our race packages, this event was so well organized. Visited Nike Town, on the side of the building are all 20,000 names of the runners of the half and full marathon, it took a few minutes, but I did manage to find my name!

Visited Macy’s, had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, then went on the hunt for Lululemon which lead us up Nobb Hill and thru China Town and back to where we started! Met the whole team for dinner and had some good laughs.

Saturday we took a city tour, went to Alcatraz and thanks to Conny’s great eye, found a wonderful restaurant to carb us up for our race.

5am Sunday came very quickly, got myself coffee’d, fed and ready to go. I don’t think that I have ever been this nervous before a race, I guess the six month build up hadn’t helped! Met the team outside the hotel, took some pictures and made our way down to Union Square at 6:30am. I cannot describe the energy, it was crazy, it was still dark out, but Union Square was lit up, the music was pumping, so many ladies, everyone smiling, it was very overwhelming. Conny, D and I shared a moment during the national anthem (what was that??), and at 7:00am precisely the race started. We went out in the third wave, hitting the start line about 7:05am.

Although we started in waves according to predicted finishing times and paces, I found the first 4km slow, and very hard to pass. As we made our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf the crowd thinned out and the pace quickened. The sun was up and it was a beautiful morning. There were bands playing, people cheering, so much support. I could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance and I knew the hills were coming!!! A couple of baby ones to start, and then under the bridge and up we went…I have been nursing my left foot since spring and fully expected that to be my only ache, but by the time we hit 10km, my right hamstring started to cramp up, this was new one. Not wanting to aggravate my hamstring I walked a good chunk of the next two big hills giving me plenty of time to look at and read the signs and posters of inspiration at the side of the road, it was very moving. As I struggled to make my way past the 15km mark I saw some familiar faces, Bill, Brian, Colin and my Super Fan Rylee spotted me, I stopped for a quick hug and kiss, and that was all I needed to get me to the finish line, the next 6km were spectacular, we made our way down to the coastline, the waves were crashing in against the shore, it was like something out of a movie. When I approached the finish line I remembered the the slogan from one of the racer’s shirts that I had seen earlier in the race, it said “The woman who started this race is not the same woman that will finish this race”, it was so true! Although I had struggled and not finished in the sub 2 I had hoped for, I finished the race in a respectable 2:01:58, and it was time for me to get my Tiffany “Run Like A Girl” necklace!

We finished the day with shopping and dinner and I wore heels!!!!

Monday we said goodbye to San Francisco, but we will be back.

Thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers that made this event happen, thank you to the city of San Francisco for having us, thank you to our wonderful support crew, both in Maple Ridge and San Francisco, and thank you ladies (Conny, D, Verle, Kath, Jody, Liz, Bev, Kelly and Connie) for the laughs, tears and memories xoxo