Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

thelittlegrownup:

Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 4 and I hauled myself out of bed, got dressed, ate an English muffin with peanut butter and sliced banana, and left the house. I drove to San Francisco, parked at Fifth and Mission, and walked to Union Square. I joined 22,500 other runners for the Nike Women’s Marathon (although I was only running the half-marathon). Of those 22,500 runners, only 2,000 were men.
I did not feel prepared for this race at all; I hadn’t trained like I should have, and I was terrified of the hills I knew we’d be running on the course. I had told myself that I’d run as far as I could, and then be content to walk the rest. I wasn’t expecting great results, but I was planning to have fun.
About 40 minutes before the 7 am start, I lined up in the crowd of other runners. That’s when the adrenaline started to kick in; I LOVE running races! The energy of the crowd right before the start is incredible. 3 minutes before the starting gun went off, a young lady sang the National Anthem from the podium. I got chills and almost teared up as, all around me, women put their hands over their hearts and faced the flag. It was amazing.
The first mile or so of the race was torture, as they always are: everyone is trying to find their proper pace, and a lot of newbies are acting just plain crazy. There’s a lot of dodging and weaving and jumping from the street to the sidewalk to avoid plowing into other runners. But by the time we turned to run down the Embarcedero, I had hit my normal race pace and didn’t feel so claustrophobic.
The first hour of the race was a Paramore concert on my iPod. Yes, Paramore is my favorite band, but I honestly don’t listen to them that often unless I’m working out (or just in a “Paramore mood”). On race days, it’s usually Paramore for 80% of the race. Yesterday I put on the playlist I created after the Honda Civic tour—a playlist that replicated the entire concert I went to in Maryland—and for an hour, I pretended I was back at that concert. I was jamming out. Then, when the hills got tough around mile 6 or 7, I switched to Renegade, their latest song. It’s hard to walk when Hayley Williams is screaming in your ear to “keep runnnnnnninggggggg!”.
By mile 10, I started to realize that I was going to finish the race in a much shorter time than I’d anticipated. I also realized that I’d only had to walk about a mile so far, interspersed during the worst portions of the hills, which was SO unexpected. I had fully expected to have to walk at least 4 miles of the course, if not more.
After a torturous hill around the 10-mile mark (which I walked part of), we suddenly turned a corner and went downhill for probably half a mile. I felt like I was flying, even though the grade of the hill was absolutely shredding my quads. There weren’t any major hills after that, but by mile 12, I was hurting so badly. My quads and hamstrings felt like they were on fire, but I refused to quit running. I was not about to WALK across the finish line. Hell to the no.
So when we turned a corner and saw the finish line—maybe an eighth of a mile ahead—I blasted Party in the USA and went into a flat-out sprint. I was running as hard as I could; I probably hit a 6:30 pace for that last minute or so. I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:08:57—only about 10 minutes slower than my PR. I was astounded. I had expected it to take at least 3.5 hours to finish, given all the walking I planned to have to do. I practically danced over to the tent where the finisher’s t-shirts and Tiffany necklaces were (yes, we received Tiffany necklaces instead of finisher’s medals for this race. Why else do you think I ran it?).
The picture above is actually from last year’s Nike Women’s Marathon, but I think it captures the energy of the day so well. There’s something so empowering about standing in a crowd of (mostly) women who are all about to tackle the same challenge; you get the sense that you’re all in it together, and after the race, people you’ve never met before in your life are hugging you and congratulating you and asking about your time and if you set a PR. That type of bonding is one of the things I love most about running races, although it surprised me quite a bit when I ran my first race.
I finished the race yesterday feeling like an absolute rockstar. I had beaten every goal I set for myself that day—beaten them by a mile (pardon the pun). Along the way, I’d jammed out to some great music and witnessed amazing, breathtaking scenery. Yesterday taught me that I can push my own limits further and harder than I would’ve thought, and that I’m stronger than I believed I was.
I can’t wait for the Nike Women’s Marathon 2012:)

So impressed with how awesome you did this weekend! Congrats!!And Hayley - read this :)

Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 4 and I hauled myself out of bed, got dressed, ate an English muffin with peanut butter and sliced banana, and left the house. I drove to San Francisco, parked at Fifth and Mission, and walked to Union Square. I joined 22,500 other runners for the Nike Women’s Marathon (although I was only running the half-marathon). Of those 22,500 runners, only 2,000 were men.

I did not feel prepared for this race at all; I hadn’t trained like I should have, and I was terrified of the hills I knew we’d be running on the course. I had told myself that I’d run as far as I could, and then be content to walk the rest. I wasn’t expecting great results, but I was planning to have fun.

About 40 minutes before the 7 am start, I lined up in the crowd of other runners. That’s when the adrenaline started to kick in; I LOVE running races! The energy of the crowd right before the start is incredible. 3 minutes before the starting gun went off, a young lady sang the National Anthem from the podium. I got chills and almost teared up as, all around me, women put their hands over their hearts and faced the flag. It was amazing.

The first mile or so of the race was torture, as they always are: everyone is trying to find their proper pace, and a lot of newbies are acting just plain crazy. There’s a lot of dodging and weaving and jumping from the street to the sidewalk to avoid plowing into other runners. But by the time we turned to run down the Embarcedero, I had hit my normal race pace and didn’t feel so claustrophobic.

The first hour of the race was a Paramore concert on my iPod. Yes, Paramore is my favorite band, but I honestly don’t listen to them that often unless I’m working out (or just in a “Paramore mood”). On race days, it’s usually Paramore for 80% of the race. Yesterday I put on the playlist I created after the Honda Civic tour—a playlist that replicated the entire concert I went to in Maryland—and for an hour, I pretended I was back at that concert. I was jamming out. Then, when the hills got tough around mile 6 or 7, I switched to Renegade, their latest song. It’s hard to walk when Hayley Williams is screaming in your ear to “keep runnnnnnninggggggg!”.

By mile 10, I started to realize that I was going to finish the race in a much shorter time than I’d anticipated. I also realized that I’d only had to walk about a mile so far, interspersed during the worst portions of the hills, which was SO unexpected. I had fully expected to have to walk at least 4 miles of the course, if not more.

After a torturous hill around the 10-mile mark (which I walked part of), we suddenly turned a corner and went downhill for probably half a mile. I felt like I was flying, even though the grade of the hill was absolutely shredding my quads. There weren’t any major hills after that, but by mile 12, I was hurting so badly. My quads and hamstrings felt like they were on fire, but I refused to quit running. I was not about to WALK across the finish line. Hell to the no.

So when we turned a corner and saw the finish line—maybe an eighth of a mile ahead—I blasted Party in the USA and went into a flat-out sprint. I was running as hard as I could; I probably hit a 6:30 pace for that last minute or so. I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:08:57—only about 10 minutes slower than my PR. I was astounded. I had expected it to take at least 3.5 hours to finish, given all the walking I planned to have to do. I practically danced over to the tent where the finisher’s t-shirts and Tiffany necklaces were (yes, we received Tiffany necklaces instead of finisher’s medals for this race. Why else do you think I ran it?).

The picture above is actually from last year’s Nike Women’s Marathon, but I think it captures the energy of the day so well. There’s something so empowering about standing in a crowd of (mostly) women who are all about to tackle the same challenge; you get the sense that you’re all in it together, and after the race, people you’ve never met before in your life are hugging you and congratulating you and asking about your time and if you set a PR. That type of bonding is one of the things I love most about running races, although it surprised me quite a bit when I ran my first race.

I finished the race yesterday feeling like an absolute rockstar. I had beaten every goal I set for myself that day—beaten them by a mile (pardon the pun). Along the way, I’d jammed out to some great music and witnessed amazing, breathtaking scenery. Yesterday taught me that I can push my own limits further and harder than I would’ve thought, and that I’m stronger than I believed I was.

I can’t wait for the Nike Women’s Marathon 2012:)