Here's my name on the Wall of Participants on the side of Niketown in San Francisco.
This gives you a slightly better idea of how big the event was. Over 20,000 people - mostly women - ran the half and full marathons. All of our names are listed on that wall to the left. Across the street, Union Square was covered in tents and filled with people getting their bib numbers, goodie bags, and all kinds of sweet swag.
My support crew and I drove the route the day before, had the traditional pre-race pasta dinner, and a somewhat restless night's sleep before waking up at 5am. I was out the door and at Union Square by 6am, and the place was even busier than the day before.
This photo is from the race website from the previous year, but you get the idea. All of the tents and buildings and trees were lit in multicolored lights, a DJ was playing music, and 20,000 runners tried to find a place to warm up out of the wind. At about 6:40 I took my place in the starting grid and we all took off at 7:00 - except there were so many runners on the course I walked half a block in two minutes before finally getting across the start line, and I was near the front of the pack!
The run itself was nice, if somewhat crowded. The first two miles were very congested, but people started thinning out by the time we passed Pier 39. It was largely flat until the start of mile 6, at which point it became decidedly Not Flat. The next mile was a steep hill underneath the SF side of the Golden Gate Bridge, with the best downhill ever right after. I could be exaggerating, but that's how I remember it. A smaller but equally Not Flat hill cropped up at mile 8, but then it was all downhill along the coast to Golden Gate Park. My cheering crew was there just before the start of the park, which really was a boost in the final two and a half miles. Finally I started to hear the finish line announcer, turned a corner, and ran in through the finish with a time of 1:55:51.
And hey! Free space blankets!
One of the other cool things about this race is that it's co-sponsored by Tiffany's, so instead of the cheapy looking medals most other races hand out, we got necklaces in little blue boxes at the end - handed out by firefighters in tuxedos, of course.
So a huge thanks to everyone who helped me out with the big weekend. Thanks to Aunt Beth and Uncle Todd (and Enzo) for letting us all stay at your apartment (and the T-shirt) - on Aunt Beth's birthday, too! Thanks to Grandma for making the trip into the city to cheer me on, thanks to Mom for driving me to, from, and through San Francisco, and thanks to Dad for his flexibility in flying me to and from Santa Barbara. It was a group effort and I thank you all!
