We did it!!

Running the 2010 Nike Women’s marathon was an incredible experience.

Luckily we found out at the last minute that if you did the early start (5:30am as we had planned), you would be prevented from running any faster than a 17 minute mile!!  They had policemen on motorcyles that wouldn’t let you run any faster than that, which would have been so frustrating!  We knew we were going to take the run slow – but not that slow.  So we decided to start with everyone else at 7:00am.

I had a great sleep the night before, and felt really good when I woke up.  I met my running buddies Ted and Maha, and we headed to Union Square to the start line.  It was amazing to see all those people in Union Square before the sun rose!

Maha and Josie in Union Square near startline

It only took about 12 minutes to cross the start line – we were on our way running at 7:12am.

The course is an absolutely gorgeous one that goes past some wonderful parts of San Francisco. You get to see Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge, Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park, Lake Merced and many many other wonderful sights. This is the map from my Garmin.

Map of Nike Course

We started out at a fairly slow pace – but still we were on the Embarcadero before we knew it. Right from the start the 3 of us were on track with our 5 minute run 1 minute walk intervals. The first big hill was between Aquatic Park and Fort Mason, and we power walked up it. After that we were running past Crissy Field, and shortly after encountered our second major climb in the Presidio. Certainly the view of the Golden Gate Bridge helped take our minds off the hill.

Presidio Hill

The cheering along the course was amazing. When you are wearing the TNT purple shirt you get even more cheers, and it was great to see our mentors, coaches and captains out there supporting us.

You never forget the cause as you are running – many people are wearing photos of loved ones running in memory of or in honor of. Additionally you run past many signs that provide great inspiration including ones that tell the story of those who have been cancer free for many years. It’s a great reminder of why we are doing this, and makes you realize that the pain and exhaustion you are dealing with is nothing compared to what these families have had to go through.

After the Presidio we ran toward Ocean Beach.

Ocean Beach

Then it was in to Golden Gate park. I thought this part was going to be particularly challenging, as this was where the half marathoners split off to cross their finish line. But we really had been pacing ourselves well and we were ready to continue, and having the half marathoners shout out ‘Good Luck Marathoners’ was wonderful. Golden Gate park had a good amount of downhill sections and we sped down those. One part of Golden Gate park was an out and back, and we were able to see many of our running buddies as they were coming back the other way.

After Golden Gate park we headed down Ocean Highway, and ended up at Lake Merced. This was probably the most challenging part of the run – it was from mile 19 to 23 and going around the lake took a long time. Ted, Maha and I were still together – not exactly engaging in conversation but it was so special having them close. We also saw even more of our TNT people around the lake which was much appreciated. Maha had an amazing group of people out supporting her- including her husband and kids, brothers, friends and cousins. It was wonderful to see them cheering her on, and they helped Ted and me keep going too.

The three of us stayed together until close to mile 22, and after that Maha and I were able to continue to run together until the end. That last stretch of Ocean Highway was a challenge, but one thing that made it more bearable was the promise of an upcoming walk break! Having a walk break after every 5 minutes is a good way of breaking up the course, and certainly reduces the monotony.

Finally we saw the end! Maha and I had a strong finish, and it felt great to cross that finish line.

Maha and Josie just after finish line

You can see that we are holding our little blue boxes with our medals – it is a beautiful souvenir of the run.

Finisher Medal

After some much appreciated sandwiches and drinks at the TNT tent, we hobbled over to the massage tent, where students from the National Holistic Institute’s Massage Therapy school were offering free massages – heavenly.

We finished around 5:46 – here is the summary:

Summary stats

and pacing:

and other random photos from the race:

It took quite a few days to stop hobbling, but now it’s time to think about the next event! I’m not sure I’ll do a marathon again, but some more half marathons and maybe even a tri might be in the future.

I highly recommend training for a marathon or other endurance event through TNT. The support is amazing, they really do train you to finish, and I have met some great friends -thank you TNT!

Wonderful TNT buddies

Photo courtesy of Miriam

Hard to believe that the marathon weekend is finally here!

Many many thanks to everyone who helped me reach my goal – I ended up raising $3350 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The support from everyone has been amazing, and LLS is just such an awesome organization.

Last night I met my fellow TNT teammates Ted, Maha, Barbara and Miriam in Union Square to pick up our race bibs. It was packed with people, and the line to get in to register was huge!

In the line in Union Square to get our bibs!

Luckily it was really well organized and the line moved quickly. The next thing to do was to find our names on the Niketown Wall. On the outside of the Niketown in San Francisco, they post the names of all of the runners! No small feat since over 20000 people run this race. Here we are outside the wall:

Niketown Wall in San Francisco

Barbara and I set about trying to find our names – we found mine fairly quickly:

Unfortunately Barbara’s was too high to photograph, but Ted, Miriam and Maha were able to capture theirs.

I can’t wait to see everyone tomorrow at the inspiration dinner – this has been such a great, positive experience and I am so grateful for all the honorees, coaches, captains and mentors, and of course all my wonderful TNT teammates.

Maha, Ted and I have decided we will go ahead with the early start of 5:30am – that means getting up before 4am on Sunday morning so had better get some sleep tonight! Next post will be after the run.

GO TEAM!!

With my new running buddy Maha in Golden Gate park

We had our longest run – 20 miles in San Francisco on Saturday September 11th.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we met bright and early across from the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.  My 5 minute run 1 minute walk running buddy (Ted!) was nowhere to be seen, and I was preparing myself for having to run the whole way by myself, when I noticed another teammate in front of me who was stopping to walk the same time as I was!  I ran up to her and sure enough she had been having success with the 5/1 strategy.

Maha and I ended up staying together for the whole 20 miles which was wonderful!  It was an amazing run – we went through Golden Gate park and the panhandle, then down Great Ocean Highway, passed San Francisco Zoo and around Lake Merced before heading back to Beach Chalet.  I had gone around Lake Merced when I was training with TNT back in 1999, but had forgotten how long it was – I certainly appreciated having the company.

Sept 11th run

Once we finished the run we had dashed in to the Pacific Ocean for a quick leg ice bath.  It took around 4:20 to do the 20 miles, and we felt great so it was a very successful run!  It also incorporated the course of the last 1/2 of Nike, so since I did the first half last year I now know the entire course – no surprises.

2 weeks earlier we had run in Woodside.

August 28th

That was a 16 miler and that was a challenge – I ran with Ted for most of it. The last half of the run was pretty much trail running, and it was starting to get really hot near the end of it.  Good news is that after that the 20 miler in San Francisco wasn’t so challenging!

We have begun to taper off.  The last longish run we did was on Saturday Sept 25th in Los Gatos creek.  For those in the Bay Area – that was that stinking hot weekend which isn’t exactly conducive to a good run.  I ran with Maha again – and we decided to stick to 14 miles instead of the longest option of 18 since it was so hot (buddy Ted did 18 – go Ted!).

September 25th

We are going to run 12 miles this weekend near Oracle, and then only one week to go to the big day!!!

Stay tuned!

Many thanks to everyone who has very generously donated through my page to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.  I am very excited to have raised 86% of my goal of $3000!

If anyone else would like to help me reach my goal, my donation page is here.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be running up to 18 – 20 miles! Watch this space for updates as they happen.

The Nike Marathon does have its fair share of hills (this is San Francisco!)  Our run on Saturday Jul 31st at the Stanford Dish was a great way to get a feel for what hills feel like.

The Stanford Dish

Given there was significant elevation gain, I decided to just go with 12 miles again.  This run was TOUGH!!

Let’s start with pace and elevation..

It was a fair slog to start with, and once we had done the dish and headed off down Alpine Rd we were still going uphill.

I went back to intervals for this run, but my average pace was certainly not great.

Methinks I need to get some more hillwork in!

On Saturday July 17th we ran 12 miles out at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.

This was a beautiful run- was great to run along the coast and the weather was wonderfully cool.

This time we didn’t go out with set run/walk intervals – we were running for a while and walking when needed.

I didn’t do so well with this strategy – and as you can see from the pacing I was all over the map with my pace. Still managed to keep under a 13 minute mile average, but I was definitely fading at the end!

Was fabulous to end the run with the ultimate ‘ice bath’ and dip our weary legs in the water.

World's greatest ice bath!

On Saturday we ran at Seal Point Park in San Mateo.  Before we started our run one of our honorees who has Myeloma talked about his experience with this illness and the 3 bone marrow transplants he has had.   There is currently no cure for Myeloma – listening to this is a big reminder as to why we are doing this and how important it is to continue to raise funds.  It is certainly a motivator for the long run.

We started our run going north to around Coyote Pt, then went back the same way we came and continued further south.  We ended up running under the San Mateo bridge before turning back around again and returning to the start point.

These maps and stats and pace charts are all from the data that is collected from my Garmin 405.

The Garmin watch is a useful little device that is helpful for longer runs.  It’s always interesting to see how many calories you have supposedly burnt off.  From our almost 10 mile run on Saturday my garmin told me I used up 1024 calories!!  Of course as soon as I got home I scoffed down a huge plate of bacon and eggs, and continued to eat throughout the day so I think I replenished those calories fairly quickly!  I wonder how many weightwatchers points that is?

Pace was reasonably consistent – we took it slowly and stuck with the 5 minute run 1 minute walk intervals.

It’s great to be getting the miles up – we still have over 3 months until the marathon so plenty more long runs to go.

Yesterday’s run was 8 miles at Bayland’s in Palo Alto.  The run is right along the bay.

Baylands Run

A great thing about running in a group is that you almost forget you are running as you talk with your fellow runners.  There was a group of 5 of us running at a similar pace doing a 5 minute run 1 minute walk interval, and we probably weren’t paying as much attention to our surroundings as we should have been.

Suddenly we found ourselves a little lost.  We came to a spot that we didn’t think we had been to before, and thought it was the turnaround since this was an out and back run.  We turned back and then a while later found ourselves in the same spot again.  It felt really funny to feel so disoriented, and even with all the gadgets among us (Garmin watches, IPhones with GPS) it took a while to figure out what was going on.  Turned out we’d looped around (and were not aware of that!), and to get back we had to continue forward not turn back at the spot we thought was the turnaround.  It was funny to see the map afterward!

a few unintended backtracks

The point that we thought was the turnaround was where the ???s are. Was good to finally get back on track again, and we only ended up running a slightly longer distance than intended.

Overall a good run (and a good reminder to be a little more focused!).

Crystal Springs

One of the best places to run nearby is at Sawyer’s Camp trail (right on the San Andreas fault) at Crystal Springs. It is beautiful,  has mile markers (even half mile markers!), bathrooms, and is 6 miles long so you can easily do a 12 mile run.  I used to run there last year while training for the nike half marathon, but that was always on my own.

This trail is a regular location for the TNT ‘on your own (OYO)’ runs which are mentor led runs every other weekend when we don’t have a coaches run.  We went on a run there recently, and while I knew the run very well it made such a difference running with others.

map of crystal springs run

This time we ran for 6 miles, and instead of doing intervals by time we did 0.5 mile intervals – running for 0.5 miles then walking a minute.

We did 6 miles (my Garmin sometimes gets the distance wrong!) in around 1:10 – here are the stats:

and pacing..

We seem to be going around 10 – 11:30 minute pace while running (apart from a little sprint at the end!), and around 20 minute pace for the walks. Certainly not breaking any world records – but at this stage in the training it feels good to be out there getting the miles in!

contemplating foam roller moves after a run

I definitely don’t want to go through a painful IT band again, and it appears that foam rollers are one way to help prevent such running injuries. At my first personal training session my trainer introduced me to these rollers – she showed me how to use them and it didn’t look so bad.

It’s kind of like a deep tissue massage, so while it does actually feel a little painful it kind of does so in a ‘good way’. The idea is to roll on the roller, and when you feel a ‘tight spot’ (I have many) you stop for a few seconds (and take some very deep breaths). Some people I have talked to say that the more you use it, the less tight spots you have but others have said it doesn’t get any easier.

Anyway it is an inexpensive way to get a good massage, and I will be using this often over the next few months.