Last weekend we drove Friday afternoon up to San Francisco for my long awaited marathon. Once we arrived my sister Megan and brother in law Kevin showed up at our hotel ready to play. They had been in the area for over a week already on vacation.
Saturday morning we went to the Nike Expo to pick up my race packet and bib number. Later in the day we met up with Megan and Kevin again to go check out Fisherman's Wharf and hit up the famous Ghiradelli factory. Y-U-M.
Sawyer konked out in his stroller so we figured that was the best time to get some lunch!
(Obviously we are sisters since weirdness seems to be a genetic trait)
That's Kevin in the background enjoying a delicious chocolate shake from the factory. We had been walking around for a few hours and hiking up hills which probably wasn't the best idea before my race since my right knee had been bothering me for a couple weeks. Mat, being the nice man he is, went back and fetched the car for us so I didn't have to make the trek back to the parking garage.
My whole TNT team stayed at the Hilton and the night before we drove up we found out the union workers there were on strike and would be picketing outside the hotel all weekend long 24 hours straight. Oh joy. It ended up not being that bad, just incredibly loud and annoying every time we had to go out or in the front doors. We were up on the 16th floor and could still hear them chanting. The hotel handed out ear plugs for everyone though. How thoughtful.
Saturday night Meg and Kev babysat for us so we could attend the pasta dinner the night before the race. We met up with two of the girls on my team (Rachel and Christine) and their husbands. Rachel and her husband Wes lost their little boy Malachi a year ago to Leukemia. They both wore shirts with his name on it while running. Now being a mom, I cannot fathom losing a child and to see their strength and faith even amidst their loss is inspiring.
Walking into the dinner was quite the experience! There were hundreds of people cheering and whistling so loud it was deafening. I was trying to keep it together and not get emotional, but it was really hard especially seeing signs like this one. All the hard work and stress of fundraising was so worth it at that moment.
Then bright and early Sunday morning (as in 4 am) Matt, Sawyer and I all headed down to the hotel lobby to get ready for the 5:30 early start. You had to finish the race in under 7 hours to get your metal which was a Tiffany necklace and with my knee hurting I wanted to give myself plenty of time.
The three of us below would have taken off running once the shotgun was fired, but the stipulation of the early start was that you HAD to stay behind the pace car which was moving along at a slow rate of 15 minutes a mile. If you passed the car you would be disqualified so at times we were literally walking right next to it!
As you can see we were bundled up pretty well. We all put our ponchos on only to have one of our coaches tell us not to be silly because it wasn't going to rain! Well she was probably wishing she'd had one when it started to downpour around 10 am!
Sawyer and Matt patiently waited for me at a bunch of the stops. Matt and Christine's husband both got spectator bus tickets that took them around to different miles to cheer for us. Luckily for Matt, Sawyer fell asleep for a few good hours during the rain.
He even got a cowbell to ring and ring and ring for me. It's still his favorite toy at the moment.
And he held this sign for me at mile 15.
This was around mile 10. It had finally gotten light outside and the fastest runners who started at 7 am were just about to fly past us.
And then again at mile 15ish. I was stilling feeling really good at this point. I was carrying my phone the whole way and taking photos with it to send to Facebook. I thought I was updating the whole race to my profile, but it turns out none of the photos made it for some reason. Now I'm wondering if I hadn't been stopping to take pictures how much faster I could have finished. Uh oh, I've been bitten by the marathon bug if I'm already thinking of doing another!
If you go to my running blog here you can see the updates along the race.
Mile 18 is when is started getting difficult. I don't know if I ever hit the "wall" as in mentally not thinking I could finish. I was confident I would get to that finish line no matter what, but my body was definitely trying to tell me slow down. I started walking around mile 19 and ran off and on the rest of the race, but picked up my pace to fly through that last mile. Matt was holding Sawyer up to see me right before the finish line and Megan and Kevin were there too holding signs for me.
I had made it! Wahoo! 5 months of training and fundraising and I could check that momentous goal off the my list. That was a good feeling.
Matt greeted me with a Nike Dri-Fit jacket that said the Nike Womens 2010 Marathon on it that matched my hat. It was the best reward ever for finishing my goal and because I was freezing and wet! Thanks hubby. All the spectators were such champs for braving the cold rain just to cheer us on.
This is one of the professional photos that were taken as I crossed the finish line. I'm such a nerd holding my phone like it's my most prized possession, but like I said I thought I was updating to my facebook the whole way! Oh well :)
I finished the race in 6 hours and 23 minutes.
The rest of Sunday was spent recuperating in our hotel room. We were all exhausted and after a hot shower, a 2 hour nap and a delicious dinner at Cheesecake Factory (with a celebratory slice of cheesecake of course) I felt like a new woman. A new, yet very sore woman that is.
Monday morning we said our goodbyes after eating breakfast at IHOP. Sawyer definitely enjoyed his time with his Aunt and Uncle as did we. Like Megan said, it felt very grown up'ish to be hanging out as married adults.
The drive back home we decided to take the scenic route on the 1 freeway which is right along the coast. We stopped along the way at a farmers stand to get ridiculously cheap produce and in Santa Cruz at a park to stretch our legs.
One final stop along the way to take photos of the seals playing in the ocean and then a few hours later we were home.
Thanks to all my family and friends who supported me along the way. I couldn't have done it without your encouragement and generosity in donating to my fundraising.
Thank you a million and 1!
