My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

Just got back from the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco.  The weather was perfect on Sunday and it was a beautiful, scenic run.  If it wasn’t for all the hills, it would have been perfect marathon conditions.  There’s a tradition in the L.A. Leggers to post a race report following a race, so here’s mine:

Woke up at 4:30am.  Arrived at SBC Park at 5am and took a free shuttle to Union Square, where the race started.  The race didn’t start until 7am, but I was meeting a friend at her hotel so we could walk over together.  We hung out in her room for awhile before venturing out at 6:15am.  I’d forgotten to pack my jacket but fortunately it was an amazingly mild morning.  Union Square was packed with women.  We all cheered and made enough noise to raise the dead…or at least those poor unfortunate souls who had rooms in Union Square this particular weekend.  

I crossed the start line approximately 6 minutes after the start time, at 7:06am.  The sun started rising as we approached the Embarcadaro and the first six miles brought us a beautiful view of Golden Gate Bridge swathed in fog (and a surprisingly familiar face – Miss C., it was such a nice surprise to see you out there!).  The next couple of miles were spent climbing a hill up to an elevation of 295 feet.  Much of the run was on asphalt cutting through forests of fog covered trees.  At mile 10 or so, we hit Golden Gate Park and a stretch of sunshine.  We ran past the Bison fields in the Park and looped back out to run along the Bay, circled Lake Merced and came back up the Bay to finish at Ocean Beach.  Finishers got cute necklaces and baby blue dri-fit shirts.   

Along the way, I downed a few packets of GU Energy Gel, half a banana, several Clif Shot Bloks (which are my new favorite running treat) and a Red Vine.  My friend and I lost track of each other around mile 9 but found each other again at mile 25.  Another friend of mine showed up to cheer me on at mile 25 and ran alongside us  for the last mile (thank you thank you thank you).  Runners call it “towing” someone in a race. 

Aside from a weird quiver in my right leg which developed at mile 24 and general exhaustion which started to set in at mile 20, I felt pretty good crossing the finish line.  I finished this marathon in 05:03:56, about 13 minutes slower than the LA marathon.  I missed my goal time of under 5 hours by almost 4 minutes, but overall it was fun race and I’m already looking forward to the next one (having conveniently forgotten the pain and agony of the last six miles of the marathon)!

[Update:  I forgot to add the funniest sign I saw while running.  Four guys held up a sign that read, “You’re beautiful.  We’re lonely.  Please call (###) ###-####.”]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.