2nd Half Marathon In The Bag! Nike Women's Rocks!

WOW- talk about amazing half marathon! Nike Women's Marathon far exceeded my expectations for a race. I knew they were going to do it big but jeez it was amazing. I have been so excited about this race since I was able to get into it in April in the lottery! I never felt luckier.


Packet Picket Up at Union Square in SF

Went up to the Nike Expo on Saturday afternoon to pick up my packet and the line wrapped around Union Square! It went really fast because they were super organized. We got a great pink draw string bag because I was doing the half marathon while full marathon peeps got a neon green one. The expo had a lot of great booths but the line wasn't worth it for me to partake in them but I did enjoy perusing. Some of the things they had at the Expo were:
- Biking on a stationary bike to earn a smoothie- so good!
- DJ booth
- Facebook area to hook up your race time to FB
- Free Pom, Luna Bar, Gatorade
- Speakers from all over talking about the race


Nike Women's Marathon Sign in front of Macy's in Union Square


"Run To Be" is the theme of this NWM 2010


OKAY I was super excited to go to Niketown in order to see the participant wall! Proud to see that we helped raised 100 million dollars towards Leukemia and Lymphoma society. This Nike wall had all the participants names and I found mine! Once we got into Niketown it was trouble. I was definitely prepared to spend some moolah on cool NWM merchandise. Its hard to NOT get into it. Then its super fun to see other women wear all the Nike gear. Its like we have this bond like wow you got in too! I ended up getting a sweater, hat, water bottle, jersey, and since I spent over 125 bucks got a free make up. This race is great that its for women. ;)


My name is on the wall! They got all the A's in there!

I got soo lucky that my veteran runner/sorority sister/old roomate came into town to run the Nike Women's marathon too! Its her third one so she knows all the ins and outs! We ended up having a little "pasta party" of our own with her mom and another sorority sister Mari at Fino's in SF. It was perfect for carb loading the night before the race.


"Pasta Party" at Fino's

Starting time at 7AM!! We woke up at 5:30am ate a banana, cereal bar, drank some water and was ready to go! It took a good 15 minutes for them to get us out of the starting line with 20k people in the race! I'll highlight the race here:
- Okay really challenging course- lots of hills- I had to walk a few of them up
- Tweaked my ankle at mile 3 so it was pretty painful to run downhill but oh wow it felt so good to go down hill
- Power songs! Every so mile they had great music playing
- Capturing our time at every 5, 10k, 20k, etc and being able to stream that online! Super high tech race!
- Sprinkling lightly at the end and having it pour on the way back to the car
- TIFFANY'S NECKLACE HANDED TO YOU BY A TUXEDO-ED FIREMAN!!
- Having so many different stations for water, Gatorade, chocolate mile, oranges, bananas
- Great goodies at the end! including dri fit Finisher's tee!!
- Tons of volunteers everywhere and people cheering


Waiting to start in darkness at 6am


My friends at the start!


My Tuxedo-ed Fireman with my Tiffany's!

I am also super beyond happy that my boyfriend Anthony showed up to the Finish Line :D I was so happy to see him. He braved the cold/rain weather parked super far, got me flowers, and treated me to sushi after. The best part was that he said he was proud of me. Thanks honey!


Me and my babes Anthony!

I cannot WAIT to enter again next year and hopefully get in! My muscles are sore, my ankle kind of hurts, and I'm under the weather to a potential cold but SUPER worth it.


Tiffany's Necklace!

I'll leave you with a quote that Safeway as a sponsor had a sticker on the ground for motivation..."When your legs get tired you run with your heart"