Monday Monday – NWM Race Report

This will be a race report mostly in pictures because we all know about the ratio of value between pictures and words.

The plan was for 2 of my friends from Forward Motion to arrive at Chez Moi at 4:30 so that we could head into the city and park out near the finish and take a bus to the start. That went off without a hitch and when we got to Union Square we connected with our other friend from the Ladies Night Extravaganza

Fomo Foxes prepare to toe the line

Margaret and I stuck together and tried to find the 4:00 hour pace leader but the crowd was thick by then and we could not so we took off together running. Maggs is a master at weaving through the crowd so I just followed her lead as we did what we could to find some open road. I had my phone in the hip pocket of my running skirt (for the first time) and the weight of it started pulling my skirt down so that I soon found myself perilously close to violating this rule:

Thou Shalt Not Show Crack!

Thereby bringing new meaning to the term ‘crack berry’.

I ended up putting the phone in my bra until it got too wet in there and then I took it out and carried it. The mic didn’t work when I got done but it’s okay now. I lost Maggs somewhere along Fisherman’s Wharf so this race became mostly a solo effort which was fine. That 7:42 pace she had settled on was just a wee fast for me.

Then the hills – the hills that just go on and on and on. My goal was to keep running and not give up and walk and I did.

I ran/jogged at all times even though it looked like this:

Finally the run down to the Great Highway – yay! And then back UP into the park – boo.

But then I found her – my friend Laughing Star who came out to cheer for me – yay!

By then I had only about 4 miles to go which was good because my knees hurt. I had already had a pain in my left shoulder and a stitch in my side that I just ran though and that went away. Then the knees. Then, with only 3 miles to go I got a very odd pain on the bottom of my foot that I can’t describe very well but I suppose if you stepped on a rock barefoot, just at the bottom of your 2 last toes on your right foot, really hard, it might feel like that. Damnit! I just kept running/limping, rolling my foot. I stopped for a second to see if my socks had bunched up but they hadn’t so I just ran.

And then I finished and I got one of these:

Nike Women's Marathon Finisher's Necklace

Here are the final numbers:

Final - out of 10,939 women over all; 851 in my AG

NWM 10K Splits and Positions

I’m happy with that. It is a 19 minute PR from last year and a half marathon run at just (and I mean just) under a 10 minute mile – what’s not to love about that?

Thanks to Bio Freeze, Ibuprofen and sleep my knee is much better today. Speaking of thanks I’d like to offer a few shout outs to people who made this race special

1). Dana, Maggs, Sue and Julia. Dana wasn’t there but we ran quite a few training miles together (with Maggs) so thanks to all of you for companionship and fun.

2). Laughing Star for being there. I was late to get her an email about our plans and yet – there she was! And what a welcomed sight she was. She ran with me for a bit and then sent me off to finish strong. (I think it was an order and I took it very seriously).

3). The SF Cheer Squad who always show up on the corner near the Marina Safeway – you guys rock!

4). The lady in the hat that looked like a flying pig with wings that flapped when you tugged on the chin strap – loved it!

5). The high school cheer leading squad in the park who chanted “Go Go Runners” over and over and over again while waving their pom poms – excellent.

6). All of the volunteers – there were thousands.

7). Nike and Tiffany and those fabulous massage students at the expo (especially Eddie) and all the sponsors. You all make the Nike Women’s Marathon one of the most fun races in the country.

15 Responses to Monday Monday – NWM Race Report – PR

Molly says:

October 21, 2008 at 4:25 am

Great job!!! Huge PR and all! I hope you continue to recover quickly 🙂
jeanne says:

October 21, 2008 at 3:28 pm

well done!! magnifico! you are breaking all the records this year. and you are one lucky lady to have such a great cheering section.

Congrats!
the Dread Pirate Rackham says:

October 21, 2008 at 4:30 pm

WOOt!

you win. no question.
Megan says:

October 21, 2008 at 6:17 pm

A 19 minute PR?!?!?! Good gosh. To say that is awesome seems to be a massive understatement! Dagn, nice job!
Dana says:

October 21, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Love the race report !! You had a GREAT race even with all the screaming body parts!!!! Hope you are very proud of yourself!!!

Thanks for sharing your day!!

“crack” does not make you faster either
Runner Susan says:

October 21, 2008 at 10:43 pm

Mom, that is so awesome! That time on those hills totally kicks ass! I’m so proud of you.
fe-lady says:

October 22, 2008 at 1:45 am

Congrats again on a solid PR amongst HOW MANY OTHER RUNNERS? wow…it must have been difficult to keep up a sub 10 with that many people around you! Great job….and the hills! ugh!
laughing star says:

October 22, 2008 at 4:27 am

you looked great out there, and I’m glad you understood that “Finish Strong” was an order. Great PR! I’ll take the blame for the extra 41 seconds where you came over to hug me, so you can call it 2:10 even.

Top 10% of your age group!

I cheered on the other Forward Motion gals I saw out there as well.

How’s the foot today?
suzee says:

October 22, 2008 at 3:17 pm

Great race! Sounds like fun (except, of course, for the pain), too! I’m in next year for sure.

Hey, you got me to switch to Google Reader from Bloglines. I like it much better, and now can see all my RSSers. Thanks!
Juls says:

October 22, 2008 at 8:56 pm

Yay SF Cheer Squad! I took a slight detour to the right and touched each and every one of their hands. Give 5 and get a nice smile back. Love it!!!
Julie says:

October 22, 2008 at 8:58 pm

By the way, did my suggestion for race corrals work out for you. I felt like an elite runner in my corral. It was heaven. Oh, and I made a new friend named Heidi (which it appears from LinkedIn that you know). It is a small and wonderful (depending on where you look) world.
Jen says:

October 23, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Congrats on the AWESOME time and PR! You killed those hills. Way to go. 🙂
Jumper says:

October 24, 2008 at 11:18 pm

Awesome Job.

But no thanks for placing the “Monday, Monday” song by the Mama’s and the Papa’s in my head. On a Friday too! Arrgh!
Runner Leana says:

October 27, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Congratulations on your race! Love the swag too. I ran the half last year and loved it, and with any luck maybe I’ll get to run it again next year too!
Dori says:

October 30, 2008 at 4:21 am

Impressive! Congratulations on such a speedy race–78 out of 851! Way to go. 🙂