{4:58:58}

Message from Nike:

… Even with a new course for 2008 and a few additional hills, you rocked it out there! … In total, over 20,000 runners toed the start line and included participants from all 50 states, 25 countries, 5,000 Team in Training runners, 1,089 brave (and brilliant) men and 400 5-time or “legacy” runners. … You and thousands of others ran not only conquered the Nike Women’s Marathon, but also helped raise over $18 million to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!


Isn’t that incredible! My little Utah team raised over $89,000. I just think it’s amazing.

Let’s talk about this course. From the beginning, everyone has said you will not get a PR at this course. When I found my coach, with 1.5 miles left, he said that for this race he always suggests that people run the half marathon. Now he tells me! Did you notice the little blurb from Nike - “a few additional hills”? Sea level, whatever! This course kicked my butt. The hills were killer, but for me, the worst part was going around Lake Merced. That lake went on and on what seemed like forever. Even though you were going around in a big circle it was nearly all uphill. This was also the part of the race where the “Bite Me” stage sets in. Some guy was out there on the sidelines eating a hamburger and fries, which I could smell. I wanted to kick him! I was so starving. Once around the lake and up the hill you have several miles back up the Great Highway to the finish. I was really cold at this point. You have the ocean wind blowing on you and spraying the water. It seemed like it was raining. Then the finish line you can’t even see until you are almost right on it. There is a small (very small) hill that is right before it, but it’s just enough that from a distance you can’t tell where it is.

However, I had such a great time. I made my goal of under 5 hours, although I really thought it would be possible to run it in 4:48. I was only 10 minutes off though. I had many 13 minutes miles (2 at the beginning and several on the hills and around the lake), so that kind of put a damper on it!

The start was crazy. They had us get a pace band and line up in the street that that pace was assigned. There wasn’t a gun or anything that we could hear that marked the start of the race, although we were at the intersection diagonally across from the start. It took 13 minutes to even get to the start. We’d walk, then stop, then wait, then walk, and so on.

There were so many people. We probably ran an extra mile laterally just trying to get around people. I thought it was weird to be passing people when you weren’t even a mile into the race. Oh well. I couldn’t believe how many articles of clothing were just tossed aside. I’m sure they had truck loads when they went to gather them all up.

The hills were killer, like I said before. I’m actually really good at running up hills. The problem here was that you could only go as fast as the people in front of you. There wasn’t a lot of weaving through people on the hills. That made it harder for me.

I was so happy that at the last minute I decided to put my name on my shirt. Most of my team had puffy painted their names on their shirt. I just couldn’t bring myself to do. I knew I would mess it up. My teammate, Tammy, showed me her shirt and she had ribbons hanging on it with names on it and I thought I could just write my name on some ribbon and pin it on. It worked great. It was incredible having people cheer for you by name. They’d give you advice and say things to make you smile. It really was worth doing.

Another hard part for me was coming out of Golden Gate Park. I knew I wouldn’t see my family again until the end and I had 10 miles left to go. I knew that the half marathoners were within a mile of their finish. And to top it all off I could see runners coming back with only a few miles until their finish and they would be done 1.5 – 2 hours before me! Grrr….

I have to admit that I don’t feel any desire to run another marathon, but I wouldn’t rule one out. I just need to convince my family (siblings, husband, Keyan) to all run one together. They should all like that, at least they wouldn’t be the last one in, I think I’ve got that spot covered!

They will have to wait awhile though. I’m on a month long hiatus. I was told you need 1 day to recover for each mile, so I’m nicely rounding it up to a month!

(The time in the picture is the clock time. My official chip time was 4:58:58)