Nike Womens Marathon - RunMarathon

Started out a bit fast, but maintained a fairly steady pace. I didn't really have any big goals going in, sub 5 would be nice, but since I didn't train for this very much I figured I'd just have fun. It was pretty chilly out that morning, but I warmed up quick. The trail runs have really been helping me with the hills and I knew this would be a good course for me. It was a big TnT race (big props to them for raising $18 mil on this race alone), but they were all complaining about the hills and I just grinned and ran up them. I decided that regardless of what the interval watch said I would run up and down all the hills, up because I could, and down to take advantage of as much of the course as possible.

Anyways, loved the hills, even the big one wasn't bad, got a little crowded though and was hard to keep up a good speed while trying to zig zag through the people walking. The course stayed around the coast most of the way and made for a pretty view of the Golden Gate Bridge. First few miles went by pretty fast, I drank at most the water stations, but only had gatorade every two or three. Volunteers were great and there were lots of people out cheering.

Noticed around mile 10 that my fingers were quickly becoming gigantic sausages. Took a salt tablet but it didn't seem to do much, tried to cut back on the water so I didn't overhydrate. Had a gu and another salt tablet around the half marathon mark. Also, around mile 9 I ran into a friend of mine from college doing the half, talked with her for a bit but she was slower than me so I went off just after the orange station.

Sidebar: support on the course was great, there was an orange station, banana station, two luna moon stations, a luna bar station around mile 21 or so, and a ghiradelli station (mmmm chocolate squares). Two "pedi-care" stations with lotions and stuff. Entertainment on the course was kind of random (gospel choir, bagpipe band, a couple of ragtime bands, some woman doing a waaaaaaay too fast version of "girls just want to have fun", etc.), dj's were ok though. Also, there was a girl dressed as a hot dog running the race, which was awesome.

Kind of hit the wall around the half marathon mark, which seems to happen to me. Fingers were still sausage-y, which worried me a bit. Then around mile 14-15 I picked it up a bit and figured I go at that pace as long as I could. Also realized that if I could average 11 minute miles the rest of the way I should make sub-5.

Kept feeling good until the end and was able to mostly average sub 11 minute miles for the rest of the race, which I was really happy about. Finally saw an aid station with salt around mile 22 and just poured it on my hand and licked it off. Don't know if it did any good at that point, but mentally it helped. Don't remember a lot of specifics about each mile but I kept picking people off, which was fun.

Mile 19 or so was hard because we came up on the lake and you could see the whole lake and I knew I had to run around the whole thing and was like "damn, I still gotta do all that" but what can you do. It went surprisingly fast and I was still feeling good so I just kept up my pace. It wasn't until the last mile that I really started to hurt and it was difficult to keep running after the walks and I wanted to throw my stupid watch into the ocean. I started kind of speedwalking on the walk breaks since it felt better and it felt like my runs were slowing down a bit and I figured I could make up some time on the walks. I was literally doing the old lady speed walk with the arms swinging but at that point I didn't care.

Once I hit 26 miles I just kept running because I could see the finish, and there were tons of people lining the end. I picked up the pace into the finish and passed a couple more people, then stopped and grinned like a total goof as I realized there were a bunch of HOT FIREMAN surrounding me, all holding out the little blue box. Heaven! Too bad I was too zonked by the marathon to really appreciate it.

Grabbed all the food I could get at the end, and that foil thermal wrap thing. They even give you a tiffany's bag to go with the tiffany's box.

Dressed like Elvis? Brought salt packets, the tablets didn't do anything. I had to keep grabbing the side of my shorts to flex my fingers because they got frozen in the run position when they were all sausage-y.

Collapsed on a curb, stuffed my face with a banana, bagel, oatmeal with blueberries and a couple of jamba juices until I felt human again. Checked my time, grabbed my gear bag and headed back to the hotel with my parents.


General fitness. I think I ran a pretty good race for me, and as long as I keep improving on the last one I'm happy.


I highly recommend this race. Other than the start the race was well organized, lots of schwag (kind of women-focused obviously, but still good), volunteers were great and there were lots of aid stations, and you really can't beat a tiffany's necklace.