26.2 baby, 26.2!!!

So sorry I haven't written sooner. There are a number of factors as to why I haven't written yet. One of which was that I didn't want my fellow Team In Training runners (especially the first time marathoners) to read my post and get nervous! Another is that I think I've been in disbelief that I actually did it! Anyway, I digress, here is how it went down:

I landed in San Francisco on Friday afternoon, and really couldn't believe it was actually happening. What in the world had I gotten myself into?!? I was REALLY going to run 26.2 miles??? Really. Yeah, right. I gotta say that it was such a strange feeling. Plus the excitement of being somewhere I'd never been. Very surreal.

We were really lucky with the weather, San Francisco is such a beautiful city, and it was pretty much sunny the whole time. I didn't get to see the famous fog, but what I did see totally made up for it.

My first day (Friday), was spent getting my packet, which included my race bib, and checking out the Expo. Free Ghiradelli chocolate samples, yum yum. There were stations for massages and manicures (it was the Nike WOMEN'S Marathon, after all), but the lines were too long, I didn't want to wait. So I got my free postcards, then made my way to Nike Town (I was hanging out with Robin, Tina, Asi, and others by the way).

Won't you take me to... NIKE TOWN! aka starting line.

...where I spent way too much money! It was all Nike Marathon stuff, so I felt justified. But still... I didn't spend any more money after that, well besides food. I was REALLY good about that!

The next day, I went with a small group on what I thought would be a short walk to Fisherman's Wharf. WRONG! Turns out we followed the wrong people. Still, it was a fun walk, we ended up walking through Chinatown on the way back to the hotel... but boy were my feets HURTING! Not the best idea, on the day before a marathon. (I can say that it was the first real Chinatown I'd ever been too, veryyyy interesting). One of the highlights of the walk was seeing the 'performance art' pieces in a park. Basically, a bunch of people were dressed as super heros, and they seemed to be playing a game against what were possibly 'ninja's.' Innnneresting. Oh yeah, and seeing the Pacific Ocean, Golden Gate Bridge, Transamerica Building, Alcatrez (sp?), and Coit Tower (sadly, my only San Francisco knowledge comes from 'So I Married An Axe Murderer' references---great movie, check it out!) "Coit Tower, San Andreas Fault!"

Farmers Market

Me! Razorback Girls Rock! Arkansas beat Ole Miss that day!!!

Fisherman's Wharf

Coit Tower

"Performance Art"

Pretty church

Transamerica Building

See my name???

I was able to relax in my room after that, and had a great afternoon, see my other blog: http://www.chasingfireworks.blogspot.com/ if you want to read more about that.

So that night was the Pasta Party, and what a great night! There were about 8,500 people there, and we learned that $8.5 million was raised for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in this race alone. So Cool! Joan Benoit Samuelson, who was the first woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic marathon (literally the first ever to win, the first time they had a women's marathon event), gave an inspirational speech. Oh yeah, and some guy named the Penguin (a sportswriter) was the emcee, he kept it light and funny.


Then the REAL inspirational speech came. A woman who had been diagnosed with Stage III non-Hodgkins Lymphoma stood up to speak. I won't go into everything, but you can check out her blog here: http://www.ichoosehope.com/. She was amazing. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.

Entrance to Pasta Party

Joan Benoit Samuelson

So I went back to my hotel, and got much needed sleep. The race started at 7 am, and we were all meeting at 5:30 in the lobby of our hotel. Whoa!!! That was early, but I got right up. Got dressed and went down to go out with the team. It was still dark, and FREEZING (mostly from the wind, I think). I was wearing my shorts, race singlet, and a trash bag to keep me warm! They had music playing, and were really pumping up the crowd. Let me tell you, if that doesn't get your adrenaline pumping, I don't know what will!

Front of race day singlet

Back of race day singlet, with all my donors names...

... and the rest of em. You are all on there, some you can't see, because they are on the side!

Starting line up ahead... not so great pic...

Golden Gate Bridge

The 'little' hill

Pretty views.....

Run Girls Run!!!

The race started out great, everyone was in such a good mood (by the way, on one account, there were about 23,000 women, and 900 men in the race). I got hot in my 'jacket,' and took it off around mile 2 or 3. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day! We passed a band that was playing No Doubt's 'Sunday Morning,' and I sang along as best as I could while running!

Things were great! We got to the dreaded mile 6 (next to the Presidio), and whoa!!!!! This was a hill that went straight up 350 ft. for one mile. Yikes! Then we had rolling hills for about 4 miles after that one. Let's just say we walked all of them. Didn't want to wear ourselves out (by the way, I ran with my friend Donna, who I had trained with, she was great!). Funny how going downhill, we would actually run, because it was easier to do that than to walk, the hills were so steep! But we were rewarded with amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge. I will never forget coming down that last hill and seeing the amazing ocean, the waves crashing onto the beach. Just... wow.

This is a little before the hill, wish I would have gotten a picture of it, you could see it from a mile away! Honestly, I just didn't want to look at it!

The Presidio, or part of it, or right beside it, I'm not sure...

And down the last BIG hill, with the great view of the ocean!
There's Donna, to the left.

There it is again, and this is the last picture I took that day. I have a slide show of the professional pics on the post prior to this one, check it out!

It was a little after that when the full and half marathoners split off. We ran into Golden Gate Park. And, as usual, around mile 13 to 14 my feet starting hurting. But I was good, I ran through it, and had Donna to help me go on. We got to the highway, and the sun was beating down. We got ahead of the pace guy, so felt that we were good to go. Mile 18.5 was ahead, and we had to make it there in a certain time, or they would turn us back. One of my coaches was there, saying, 'you have two minutes, you can make it.' We were in front of the pace guy, so I wasn't too worried. Well... we got right up to the place, and they turned us back! Oh gosh, how awful was that?!? As we started to head towards the finish line, our pacer ran right through the people blocking the road. Donna changed her mind and went after him, and I did too! Ran right through those people...

Now, I will say this is when it got reallllly hard. How discouraging was that??? I kept thinking, I messed up, I'm not going to finish in time. Donna was there, and saying that we were on pace, but I just couldn't help it. I started crying. I would cry in spurts. And we had to go around this (seemingly) huge lake. I really thought I couldn't make it. None of my tricks worked on me. Who cares about Matt Jones?!? (The former Razorback I said I would think of, as in 'if he can play and win a 7-overtime game against Ole Miss- check it out: http://media.www.thedmonline.com/media/storage/paper876/news/2003/10/24/UndefinedSection/Ncaas.Longest.Game.Filled.With.Lasting.Scenes-1587385.shtml which lasted 4 hours and 46 minutes, then I could run/walk this dang thing in 6 ). None of the songs that seemingly effortlessly came to my mind during my solo 20-mile walk worked for me that day. Nothing did. I was completely and totally in denial that I could do this. I guess you could say I ran out of faith in myself.

Anyway, it got to where my legs hurt soooo bad, I couldn't run any more. Donna stayed with me probably longer than she should have, and made sure I had a coach with me when she got her final burst of energy to finish the race running. I was so grateful for her, and for Coach Craig. I just kept crying in spurts, which oddly made me feel better. But I literally felt as though I wouldn't make it, that my legs would give out before the finish, that I would just fall down. Craig stayed with me, holding my arm, let me squeeze his hand... up until the finish. Right up until about 20 or 30 feet. Then I saw my DC coaches, Mark and Rich. They held my hands, told me how awesome I was (and I didn't feel it, believe me), and I made it across by myself.

It took me 6 hours 38 minutes 50 seconds. That works out to a 15 minute/mile pace, which is what I trained at. Obviously I would have liked to finish sooner, but I'm still proud of myself. I have the Tiffany necklace (handed to me a the finish line by a guy in a tux... in that nice blue Tiffany box), finisher t-shirt and official photos to prove it!

So fast forward to a week and a day later. I was really sore for two days, but on the third day... I was like a different person! No more pain. And I can tell you that what I felt that day was probably the worst pain I've ever felt. Oh my gosh.

Will I ever run a marathon again? Hmmmm, not sure. If I do, I want to be in better shape. The good thing is that I know when I hit that breaking point, and that before I hit that wall, I had a great race. Mentally... it was such a hard thing. Now I know what to expect. Still haven't answered that first question, have I? Well, for sure I would go back and do the half. Maybe work myself up to another full. And doing it with Team In Training... that just makes it more amazing. I get to help people out by fundraising for a worty, accomplish something as great as FINISHING A MARATHON, and meet great people in the process!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your support. I REALLY couldn't have done it without y'all!


Much love and blessings,
Mandi

P.S. I will say that having so many people cheering me on was so helpful! So much so that I made it a point to meet up with the TNT cheer station at yesterday's Marine Corp Marathon, so I could cheer my running buddies (and everyone else) on. Such a fun and great thing to do!