San Francisco Weekend

I just returned from a weekend in San Francisco for the Nike Women's marathon.

Coleen and I arrived Friday night and got into the city at about 9. While going to get on the BART at the airport, I realized that I had left the directions to the hotel and all of our confirmations to pick up our race packets at the ticket counter in Portland. Luckily I remembered what stop to get off at and the address for the hotel and even luckier is that Coleen had a GPS on her phone and we were able to find our hotel relatively easily. We got checked in and then went to find some dinner. When we got back and I started unpacking my bag, I found a surprise from Travis. He had gotten me a new camera, which I've been talking about getting for months. I was so surprise and excited.

The next morning Leslie arrived and we went to find an internet cafe so we could print our confirmations to pick up our packets. We then headed down to Union Square to the expo. We got our packets, after a little hiccup and then went to experience all the expo had to offer. The three of us got our pictures taken in a photo booth and then got in line to try the oxygen bar. None of us felt like standing in line for a manicure or a massage, so we then headed over to Niketown to see what all was going on. They have a huge display that shows the name for every person in the race, so each of us had to find our name and get a picture. Then we decided to head back to the hotel and rest up a little before dinner. Susan had planned ahead and made reservations for all of us (there were 8 of us running in the race). It was great to see everyone, especially knowing that race morning was going to be hectic and that I might not see anyone.

Since I did the half-marathon last year, I knew a few things about the race start and what to expect. We were able to get our stuff in the bag check buses, use the porta-potties and make it to our start areas with no problems. There were over 20,000 people running in the race, so the start is very hectic. I had a hard time getting into a groove at the start and really wasn't able to break away from any part of the crowd until the marathoners split away from the half-marathoners. I ran a solid race and felt really good the entire way, the last two miles were probably the hardest part of the race for me. Mostly because you could see the finish almost the entire way and it felt like I would never get there. I didn't run my fastest marathon time, but I felt so good about the race, I'm already thinking about my next marathon.

The best part about the weekend was being able to celebrate finishing with my sister. She ran her first half-marathon and I am so proud of her. It is such a huge accomplishment. I also enjoyed being able to share the race with Susan, Bhavna, Sara, Gretchen, Leslie and Karen.