This was the main attraction for the first half of the San Francisco Marathon.  Beautiful, isn’t it?

One of the best things about participating in a marathon is the health expo.  A lot of cool vendors come out and give out free stuff.  My friends and I love coming to expos and checking out what we can pocket for free….free pens, drinks, cliff bars, granola bars, raffles,   I just learned recently that it is better to sign up for future events at expos because they don’t charge you processing fees that they do online, and sometimes they have “$10-20 off” coupons.  Erin signed up for the San Jose Half Marathon, got $10 off, and a FREE T-shirt!  I was jealous.

We found the California Dreamin’ booth and found out that the series will end in February 2011.  With this series, if you complete any 3 events between San Francisco, Long Beach, and Huntington Beach, you get a special California medal AND a cool running jacket.  Before  I thought we still had 2 years to complete the series, but good thing these girls told us that the last race is Huntington Beach.  Michael and I were already signed up for the Bike Tour for Long Beach in October, but we upgraded our registration to the half marathon so we can get this series.  Heck, we were already doing San Francisco, so why not do the other 2?  We even got to try on the actual jacket and I must say, the jacket is NICE.  I can’t wait!  More runs to look forward to.  :)

This was Michael’s FIRST half marathon, EVER!!!  He started to train with my friends and I about 2-3 months ago.  At first, we was very against running, but my friends and I were very persistent in getting him to join.  I told him that I will bike with him if he runs with me.  It was a good compromise.  I’m glad he’s running now.  He thought his knees would give him too many problems after running, but surprisingly they are getting better and stronger.  He has to ice them from time to time and take aleve, but even I need icing and pills.

Through all the training we have done as a group, I learned that training and running is more than that, especially when you run with other people.    You get into talking and discussing interesting topics.  You really learn a lot during those runs.  I know I did!  Sometimes you get so engrossed in talking that you finish running before you finish talking about a subject.  From my own experience, I know I have gotten a lot closer to my friends JUST from running.  Exercising and bonding?!?  Who wouldn’t want that?

Overall, it was a nice first marathon for Michael.  The experience was GREAT!  Now, he is signed up for 3 more half marathons!  I’m telling you, it’s ADDICTING!

Waiting for the race to start always leave me anxious.  To see thousands of people up at 5:30 AM, dressed lightly with trash bags covering them is truly inspiring.  I overhear a lot of conversations while stretching and people are always amazed at how crazy they must be for getting out of bed SO early to RUN 13.1 miles in 60 degree weather.  I agree!  We are crazy!  But the accomplished feeling you get when you cross that finish line is definitely “worth the hurt.”  Trying to describe the feeling and experience doesn’t do justice.  You have to experience it yourself to know what we are talking about.

I love trying to recruit people to participate in events like this.  Now I know why my friends recruited me!  The registration fees add up, and it starts to get pricey, but eventually your priorities start to line up and you find yourself wanting to run more and spend money on that instead of blowing it on a drunken night in Los Angeles.

Running on the golden gate bridge wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be.  But I’m sure if you weren’t already warmed up from the first 5 miles, you would be freezing.  It was a little foggy, but not so much that I couldn’t see across the bridge.  It was just the tops of the bridge that were covered with thick fog.  The bridge felt like the longest part of the run.  I think it was about 2.5 miles back and forth?  It was pretty crowded and was hard to cut in and out through other runners.  On the run back to get off the bridge, I slowed down a little bit.  My GU was slowly wearing off and I didn’t have anymore to keep my going.  I was hoping to stock up on more GU packets at the turn of the bridge but they RAN OUT!  My friends and I were SO BUMMED.  The slower I ran, the colder I got.  My body was slowly running out of energy.  GU!  Must. Eat. GU!  Luckily Erin  had an extra one to spare, and I took that a mile after I got off the bridge.

After the bridge was nothing but rolling hills.  Oh boy it was tough.  I TRIED to push myself to run up some hills, but the burn was too much and I felt my heartbeat increase and body starting to overheat.  The good thing about uphills is that after the hill, there’s always a downhill.  I love to bolt down the hill to make up for the lost time I accumulated on the uphill.  Ahhhhhh!  I love it when gravity helps you out.  It helped a lot of have Erin, Creese, and Michael to push me.  “C’mon Grace, you can do it!  Take it easy, small steps, let’s go!”  I would try for a couple steps, then stop.  Haha.  Hey, I tried, right?

Ahhhh, mile 12!!!!  Almost there, but not quite.  Mile 12 ALWAYS kicks my ass.  Mile 11 I’m feeling some pains, and mile 12 is when it hits me most.  Mile 12 was a really steep hill, hence me bent over and catching my breath.  It’s like a weird psychological thing that my mind likes to torture me with.  I see mile 12 and think I am close and for some odd reason, it feels like the longest mile EVER!  Tony was telling us that the finish line was just over that hill.  No it wasn’t.  It was over the hill, curve to the left, go straight for a little longer, and THEN it was the finish line.  Haha.  Pain pain pain, from my hips down.  Oh mile 12, so bittersweet.

Annnnddddd….we finally crossed the finish line.  As soon as I stopped running, I felt so much pain in my hips, legs, and feet.  Ouch.  It still felt GREAT.  I beat all my other times and crossed the line at 2 hours, 48 minutes.  WOW!  PR baby!  I’m very happy with the time I got, especially with all the hills.  It wasn’t an easy course, but it didn’t feel like it was too much for me to handle.

Thank you, San Francisco for a very memorable run.  I definitely won’t forget how much fun I had running through “the city.”  And even though the medals looked rinkydink (hehe, I love that word), I’m still happy our tech shirts were very nice and our goodie bags are reusable!

Next up on deck is Long Beach in October.

July 25, 2010, San Francisco CA