NWM 2011

That's Nike Women's Marathon for the laypeople. ;)

Oh man, this race is glorious!

Running through San Francisco, with tons of other WOmen, great race support, fun expo, and the finisher's medal is a TIFFANY'S NECKLACE!!

And of course, the wall of runners. Right there is my little "Kristin McPhie" on the wall of Nike Town!

And so the night before the race. I always lay out what I'm going to wear the next day, and I wasn't sure what I'd wear. That meant a fashion show to get other opinions to help me choose. We settled on a fluorescent yellow shirt, black running skirt and hot pink compression socks for the purpose of me standing out. That way when my awesome cheering squad is waiting for me to run by, I'll be easy to spot. I'd totally stand out from the masses of other runners, right?

Well how about this?

I get to the race, and call my friend Jannah so we could meet up, and she says, "I'm in front of Swarvoski wearing a fluorescent yellow shirt, black running skirt and hot pink knee highs." Seriously?! The only other runner I know out of the ~23,000 runners is wearing the EXACT same outfit as me? So much for thinking that my outfit would be unique.

See, just look at this chaos!

And slowly herding our way to the start. I had lost Jannah by now. I crossed the start approximately 20 minutes after the start. Unfortunately, that meant that I was far enough back to be stuck amongst slower runners/walkers that I had to struggle to fight my way through. This really slowed my first two miles.

And check out my cool little Buster Brown shortly after the start.

I love this because I always wonder what they're doing while I'm running.

Without having to go into too many details, let's just say around mile four I started having some serious tummy issues that had me squatting behind a tree and thankful I had kleenex in my fanny pack. Seriously??? After my slow start, I was hoping to make up for loss time and this wasn't helping. Add in a couple more potty breaks over the next ten miles, and I gave up all hopes of having a decent time.

That is until I got a text from Ryan letting me know that him and the kids were waiting for me in the big park that we run through. I was so excited to see them, I picked up my pace. I was feeling better and finally felt like I could move! It helped that all the half-marathon runners split off from us in the park. Finally, just before mile 16, I got to see my cute kids screaming and shaking cow bells.

Here I am, mile 16. So happy, feeling good.

That good feeling didn't last long. 17-18 didn't feel so hot, but from 19 on, I felt much better. In fact the best I've felt at the end of any marathon! This was shocking to me since my training was poor. My highest mileage in my training was 17 miles, and I only had a few long runs in preparation. So I knew that my legs weren't prepared to keep running on tired legs. But I really think that my slow start helped to save my legs at the end, and for that I was grateful! I never felt like I hit a wall, so while my pace was slower, it wasn't nearly as slow as I've typically been the last few miles of a marathon.

My awesome family/cheerleaders.

(and Tara behind the camera)

I apologize for the swears on my blog.

Clearly I ran under the yellow side. ;)

Passing the fam around mile 26, heading towards the finish. Oh, that glorious finish line!!

And this is what awaits you at the finish.

Firemen dressed in tuxedos to give you a Tiffany's necklace.

Silly I know, but is this a girls race or what?!

Finally finished.

4:17:24

New PR.

Almost 11 minutes of it was time spent "not running", but I'll take the PR nonetheless!

Thank you to my amazing family for coming into the city to battle the crowds and sit around and wait to cheer me on.

I felt so loved!