My First Marathon - the good, the bad, and the ugly

It's hard to believe it was only a week ago today. A week ago today I ran my first marathon! I'm not officially a marathoner!! Not to be a major cheese ball, but it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.

The Good - The course was absolutely stunning. San Francisco is a beautiful city! After making our way out of Union Square, we ran up to the waterfront where we were greeted by a gospel choir and cheerleaders. Past the Embarcadero we made our way up to Fishermans Wharf. After this the hills began. First small, and steep. Then LONG and STEEP. No amount of hill training could have fully prepared me for how tough these hills were. But the views along the way were incredible. At the top of the hill we could see the Golden Gate Bridge. Golden Gate Park soon turned into beautiful residential neighbourhoods. And more hills. But now we had views of the ocean, the beach, waves crashing into the shoreline. Amazing. I began wishing I'd brought my camera along for the run. Never before had I seen such inspiring scenery.

The Bad - Things remained good until about the half way mark. The weather had been good. Cool and overcast. But somewhere around mile 12, it started raining. At first only lightly. It was actually nice, helping to cool us off a little. It was also around this point that the half marathoners separated from us full marathoners. We went from being surrounded by tons and tons of people to only a few dozen. It was a little hard. Knowing that they were almost done, while we still had 14 more miles to go. At mile 16 we started making our way along the Great Highway. From here it was about an 10 mile out and back. It was also at this point that the rain and wind picked up. Mental fatigue was also starting to set in. We had been running for a LONG time. I really just wanted to be done! Slowly the mile markers continued to pass us by.

The Ugly - We'd been running for hours. Several bathroom breaks and a tougher then expected course had squashed any hope of finishing in our predicted time. (After the first 6 miles we decided to ignore of watches and just run for fun) The rain and wind were now coming in fast and cold. While the ocean view was gorgeous it seemed never ending. I just wanted to get to the finish line! Then finally... there it was... Like a mirage... The Finish! I forced my now very tired body to push itself over the finish line. Now the fun stuff! The tuxedo wearing firemen handing out the Tiffany necklaces. I was close to tears as a very cute fireman handed me my little blue box. Then my bubble was burst. An event coordinator came up to me "honey, we've run out of the necklaces for this year. This one is from another year. We'll mail yours to you". I stood there in shock for a minute. WTF!? They RAN OUT?! How is that possible? The race had been sold out for months! They knew how many people would be running. I was now upset and freezing cold. I asked a volunteer where the heat blankets were, and was informed that they had run out of those as well. Meanwhile, volunteers were walking about with 2 of them wrapped around themselves. WTF!? Now I was just shocked. Frozen. Shivering. I managed to stumble over to the bag check pick up, throw on my dry sweat shirt and quickly get on the shuttle bus. It was on the bus that I discovered my necklace was not only from the wrong year (2008) it was also slightly tarnished. Great. Thankfully after a very long hot shower back at the hotel I was able to polish the necklace back to an acceptable state. A couple days after the race I received an email from Nike letting me know that my necklace would be mailed to be in 10-12 weeks. 10-12 weeks! Grrr....

The Conclusion - It took a couple of days to process that days events. Yes, I was disappointed by the finish line issues. But I decided not to let that take away from what I was able to accomplish. I ran a freakin' marathon!! My first! And while my finish time wasn't the greatest, the point was that I finished! I ran 42.2km of a very tough course. And better still, I'd consider running one again (not any time soon mind you!)

And I can't finish this tale without giving a BIG shout out to Kathleen and Sonia (the "we" I've been referring to). We travelled down to San Francisco together, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without them! Love you girls!!