Sunday, 16 October 2011, was the 8th running of the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco.
You know from an earlier post that I was a Nike Women’s Marathon (NWM) lottery winner. As with the San Jose Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon, my health issues and life in general made me set of goal of just finishing. Based on my SJRnR experience, I was secretly hoping for a 5 hour and 30 minutes finish. Ha!
What’s important to understand here is that I didn’t train for a marathon. I didn’t train for a half-marathon. Before the SJRnR, my longest run was a 9 mile training run. Before the NWM, my longest run was the SJRnR.
I arrived in San Francisco on Friday afternoon. After checking into the Nob Hill Motor Inn, I settled in, checked the map, and then headed off to Union Square for packet pick-up and the expo. I made my hotel reservations too late and all the hotels around Union Square were full. But the Nob Hill Motor Inn is a cute little spot with free parking in a nice little neighborhood. So even though it was 1-1/4 miles from the expo and the race start, I would consider staying there again.
In general, this race was the most disorganized race that I have participated in and I’ve participated in a few over the years. The signage at packet pick-up was limited. Volunteers weren’t at their stations. The ones that were at their stations were distracted and not focused.
Could it be that the loud music and the darkly-lit tent played a role in that? Perhaps.
I was disappointed that there wasn’t an expo. I was especially disappointed because when I had unpacked at the hotel, I discovered that I hadn’t packed a shirt for the race. It was probably because I couldn’t decide whether to run in a long-sleeve shirt or a short-sleeve shirt, figured that it would be a departure-time decision, and then forgot to pack the long-sleeve shirt I decided on. I asked about the expo and was pointed to the Niketown store across the street. Duh!
Niketown was also loud, crowded, and disorganized. But a very helpful young man showed me where the women’s shirts were and I was cooking with gas. Even though it would feel odd to race in a shirt that said, “NWM11,” I was set. I ended up finding another sporting good store just around the corner from my hotel and bought a plain shirt to run in so I didn’t have to wear the NWM11 shirt and feel weird on race day.
On race morning, I left the hotel at 0545 and walked in the darkness to Union Square. As I got closer to Union Square, other runners began to join me on the street and the energy level began to rise with the chatter of family members and runners.
At Union Square, it was electric. The big screen broadcast, the crowds, the music – great atmosphere. Except it was once again lacking signage or volunteers to help direct people. It took me forever to find the gear check station and when I finally reached the gear check, I walked into my worst nightmare. Being pinned in a crowd of people, unable to move, unable to see, unable to figure out what was going on…definitely a scary situation. And it turns out, it didn’t need to be that way. I finally got out by grabbing onto the shirt of a lady who was just pushing her way through the mass of people and thank goodness for that.
I checked my gear bag and walked into a nearby hotel to use the bathroom because I had no idea where the port-a-pottie lineup was and had no desire to fight my way back through the gear check scrum. The hotel employees were very kind – I was not the only runner taking advantage of proper toilets! – and I was soon back on the street, just in time for the starting ceremonies.
I checked my Garmin to make sure that it was set to go and then looked at the other wrist to check my Nike+ Sportband. That’s when I discovered that I had lost my Sportband in the gear check scrum. Boo, hiss. I wasn’t going to go back to look for it so I just settled in to wait for the start.
I felt great for the first 11 miles. I stopped to take pictures, tweeting and posting them to Facebook, and just generally enjoyed the energy of the crowd. Although the water stops were disorganized and poorly staffed, they served as a good walk break for me.
When the half-marathoners split off from the marathoners, I suddenly found myself in a smaller group. I liked that I wasn’t having to run around Team-in-Training groups walking 4 or 5 across. I liked that it seemed quieter and calmer and I could concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. But that was also when I started questioning my decision to run the marathon!
The remaining 14 miles were a long slog. The chocolate mile is a misnomer because it’s not a mile of chocolate, it’s just the point in the race where volunteers hand out squares of Ghiradelli chocolate. The Team-in-Training cheer teams were pretty demotivating if you weren’t a Team-in-Training member because they would cheer for Team-in-Training members and then go silent as non-Team-in-Training members passed. I realize that Team-in-Training runners and walkers “pay” for this motivation by raising money for leukemia research but it seems a little tacky for the cheer teams to just stop cheering for people who aren’t in the purple singlets.
I crossed the finish line – upright and smiling. I got my Tiffany box with my Tiffany finisher’s medal from the tuxedo’ed San Francisco Fire Department fireman, got my neon yellow Finisher t-shirt, and then moved on to get my finishing photo taken with a pair of SFFD firemen in tuxedos. I have to say these guys were good sports to put their arms around the waists of sweaty women!
Then it was on the bus back to Union Square and then the trek back to the Nob Hill Motor Inn. All in all, it was a good weekend. I was proud to finish even though it took forever. Would I run this race again? Now that I know what I’d be getting into, yes but I would prefer to actually train for the race this time.
Happy Running!
Confessions of a Treadmill Runner 