hey guess what? i’m a marathoner

I conquered this beast!

I was so happy to get back to union square and proud that I had run this sucker!

After we got back to Union Square, D and I decided we were definitely hungry and my need for coffee was fierce.  We had stopped by the store Lush, on the first day and they had told us if we came back after the race we could get free foot treatments.  Since it was on our way to the mall (where there was an “internationally renowned food court”, yep, kinda weird and very good!), we stopped in and guess what?  NO line!

The foot treatments were the bomb.  It wasn’t just a massage but the oils and clay they used really refreshed our feet.  D and I then each got thin crust pizza from the this nifty little Italian place to go and I picked up this celebratory cupcake

it was a caramel chocolate cheesecake flavor – worth every calorie!

D and I decided we were exhausted and not interested in going out on the town.  To be honest, I was tightening up, needed a shower and wanted to sit.  A lot.  After eating and catching up on facebook (my awesome fans!) I decided I should probably shower the stink off of myself.  That’s when I saw this (umm it’s kind of nasty, be prepared!)

I tried lightening up the colors a bit so it didn’t look quite as much like a crime scene…

NOOOO!!  I used non-chafing stuff!  Why?!  This is the worst I’ve had it.  In fact, even after 4 days, it hurt and I’ve had to put cream on it.  Wednesday, it was still bleeding.  The weird part is, I didn’t feel it happening.  I’ve e-mailed Moving Comfort to ask them for their help and I’m on the look out for some different body glide stuff.  It’s just too painful!

D had a super early flight but I had until the evening before I flew out.  After checking out, I walked to get coffee and just sat there for a while.  I was sore.  The night before I walked across the room and D laughed at me!  I’m pretty sure I waddled!  Then I decided I wanted to find Trader Joe’s.  This ended up being about a 4 mile hike since I got lost, was harassed by some homeless people and was really losing steam.  It was a bit of a mistake but I found TJ’s and picked up some lunch.  I wanted to go home by now.  I was dehydrated, tired and feeling oddly emotional.

it’s my car’s grandpa! I saw this on the way to tj’s and had to snag a pic!

I was able to meet up with an old friend from high school, which was great!  We had a couple of drinks at the airport and then I got the run around from United – boo, almost missed my flight and had to hoof it to the gate.  By now, my legs were trashed again!  The overnight flight was a bit miserable.

I must say, a red-eye was a bad combo with a marathon!  I’ve been exhausted ever since and had a migraine all of Wednesday/Thursday.  I’m sure it was the lack of sleep, dehydration and what I put my body through.  I ballooned up by 7 lbs in water weight!  I lost 5 of it so far, thankfully.  My ankles and feet looked like a busted can of biscuits!  *Marathon lesson #1: drink LOTS of water the day after the race as well!

Now that I am a few days out, it still seems unreal.  My legs are feeling a lot better and if I could wear a sports bra I would give running a shot.  Considering my poor chest, I think a few more days of not running is a better idea.  I do plan on hitting the pool.  I’ve already started to think about the Disney World marathon.  I think Crossfit was a great training tool for me, however, the time commitment necessary was too much with my current job responsibilities.  I’ve already started reading, Run Less Run Faster.  I have sub-5 dreams/goals to achieve and think this book will help.  One thing I do appreciate about my personality is I don’t mind changing training techniques up to fit my lifestyle and this seems to fit a little better with where I am at.  Not to mention, people who have used this report 20 min PR’s!  I’ll talk more about my impending marathon #2 goals soon but I’m still working them out in my mind.

Well, that’s about it.  I know this isn’t the last you will hear of my 26.2 since I’m still processing my experience.  I can’t figure out how to use some of the brightroom pics but I’ll be buying one or two and then I’ll post those too :)  Thanks for reading!

as the queen of excuses, this was a powerful message for me!

some san fran talk

Where do I start?  I ran a freakin’ MARATHON!  Wahooo!  To be honest, I am still trying to get used to this idea.  It’s very surreal and sometimes I’m not even sure it DID happen.  Then I move and I am reminded ;)

I really want to tell everyone I meet!

All last week was I nervous.  For my first full, I did a major undertaking – traveling across the country, an elevation chart that looked like a heart monitor in a hospital and a 25,000 runner marathon/half-marathon.  It was a bit overwhelming.  I drove down Thursday to visit my friend Meagan and to fly out the next day.  She and I had a great time talking all about running.  She ran the Chicago Marathon the weekend before so I asked her as many questions as possible.  We went on a shake out run, 4 miles in 41 mins and ended with a yummy dinner.  The run felt good and M was a major ego boost for me.

I got to San Fran at 3 ish and waited for my dear friend Danielle to fly in – it was sooo great to see her!  We grabbed a shuttle and got to our hotel.  We stayed in an American Best Suites and it was simple, within walking distance of the race start, cheap and clean – perfect!  We dropped our stuff and were out the door within 12 mins to head to the Expotique (yes, this is what Nike calls it).

Union Square was about 8 blocks from the hotel and after getting slightly lost, this came into view

there it is!

Yay!  My heart rate jumped a bit at the sight of this purple tent.  The expo opened on Thursday so I didn’t think we would get many freebies but this was the exact opposite.  There was no line for packet pick up and it was very smooth – I had a print out of a bar code that they scanned and I got my bag with goodies and my bib.

at the expo

We went started through the tent and WOW! there were a ton of people.  Maybe I was simply tired (or the massively loud music) but I found it kind of too much.  We walked around, got some awesome free granola from the Safeway station (they also had a “gerbil wheel” you could run in but we bypassed!), stalked the Neutrogena make-over line – too long, got some free Nuun, Luna bars and I picked up a ticket for the shuttle back from the end of the race.  From here we headed over to the Nike store and found our names on the wall!

this was pretty nifty – the wall was along the outside of the Nike store, I felt famous

The Nike store was PACKED!  I wanted one of everything!  We shopped for a while but again, maybe it was the lack of food, lots of ppl or whatever, I was getting done.  We made a few more stops and then went for dinner.  By this time it was around 9 pm?  After a tasty dinner, we went back to the hotel where dumped our Nike bags and made plans to return to the Expotique the next day.

Truthfully, it still hadn’t sunk in that I would be running 26.2 miles.  I went through the fun race packet, read everything cover to cover but still couldn’t wrap my head around it.  We went back to the tent the next morning around 8:30 am.  They had this really cool booth where you could get your picture taken but it didn’t open until 9:30 am so we got in line for the mini make-overs.  Well, this took a little over 2 hours!  Haha, at first I was all angsty but then D asked what else did we need to be doing?  Oh yeah!  It was ALL race business ALL weekend!  This change in mindset really helped me for the rest of the day/night.  Here is our fun photo from booth!

sorry about the bad pic – it’s a pic of a pic… this is our tough pose

Then it was onto some lunch (I had awesome french toast) and Fit Approach‘s yoga class!  It was fantastic to meet Jamie and Alyse in person – they are the sweetest.  We had a really incredible stretch session and then some chatting, free swag bags (which of course included some Sweat Pink laces) and some hugs.  It was a perfect pre-marathon workout session.

Okay, your eyes are probably bleeding by now!  So a brief rundown of the rest of the night: we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf for seafood, the sights and a trip on the trolley.  It was great fun but standing in line for the trolley there and back did a number on our legs and feet.  On the way back, there was some very odd downtime with the trolley and we got to hang out with GIANT rats, a street performer and a long line of frustrated, cold folks.  We didn’t get back to the hotel until 9:30 or so, which was way past the time we had planned.  Here are some fun pics!

tomorrow will be the race recap!