So ya’ll have been asking and wondering where this recap has been. Well… I’ve been under the weather, in fact I even went to the Doctor since I couldn’t kick this cough and turns out, I have bronchitis. Sheesh. Oh well. So that’s where I’ve been, coughing my head off. (get ready, this post is long!)
Let me begin on Saturday…
We had to go back to the expo to by bus passes, when we were there, something just sad happened… my iphone was bumped out of my hand and fell to the concrete… the back cracked and the phone just wouldn’t turn on. Which was SO sad for many reasons, but I was suppose to meet up with Kirsten, Renee, and Beki around Pier 39, which was really close to where we were about to be, but sadly I didn’t have any way to contact them.
Sigh. So we made an appointment in the later afternoon and headed to our scheduled tour.
We went to tour Alcatraz that afternoon…
The tour was really interesting. We did the auto tour and got to walk around and learn about the once prison…
It was crazy to me that a building that was once miserable for a lot of men, is now a fun tour that families go on. Just crazy ya know?
After the tour, we headed to our Apple appointment. On the way my sunglasses broke. Now I was thinking, please don’t be an indication of how Sunday was going to go. Goodness.
Apple appointment went well and conclusion was I had to get a brand new iphone. ugh. Thank goodness its under warranty. The fun thing was the apple store was in this really neat area of town, Palo Alto. I was so excited when I saw a Lucy Activewear store. I’ve never been in one before! Love their stuff.
We ate at a cute little Italian Restaurant, Palermo Rotisserie
. I ordered the Pumpkin Ravioli…
It was amazing! I ate some bread too, gotta get those carbs in. 
And of course froyo is the perfect pre-race treat (as well as after, I’m just sayin’)
We went back to the hotel pretty early so I could plan out everything (12 times over)…
and then SLEEP.
Sunday morning the alarm clock went off at 4:30am… time wake up, eat breakfast (half a bagel with Justin’s nut butter and half of Trader Joe’s Greek Yogurt) and head out to the race!
We parked and walked about 10 minutes to the start and of course got in the porta potty lines (hate those).
We walked over to my start area…
obviously we were bored…
They had someone leading a group stretching thing going on and then they played a lot of music and people were dancing and cheering. You could feel the excitement in the air. It was amazing! I was excited and sad at the same time being there, I didn’t have any friends there and yet I did (Hi Renee, Karena, Kirsten and Beki!!)
My sweet Rodney stayed with me until he had to get in line for the buses
once Hubs left for the buses it felt like time flew by and before I knew it we were off! Eeeee!!!!!
see me? right by the Nike running girl
I felt good, I told myself I would listen to my Garmin when it said to walk so I could stay with my intervals.
I felt great, the crowds were amazing, cheering and shouting out things like “You look great, go runners, good job!” You have no idea how hearing those kind of things give you an extra boost. You run faster, hold your head up higher, you feel like a champion. It’s awesome!
Hubs was going to be at mile 4, I was looking for him everywhere…
Never saw him. 
turns out I beat him there. The buses were a mess and he didn’t get to mile 4 via bus until about an hour AFTER the race started. bummer.
But what was cool was Nike had all these “Nike + Power Song” stations set up, one song that I remember was “California Girls” by Katy Perry was playing, I don’t run with music, so it was a lot of fun to hear some good songs along the course. This song had the line: “Lets run away and never look back”. And that I did, I didn’t look back I just kept going forward!
Soon I was coming up to mile 6 and saw this beauty…
It was so neat running next to the Golden Gate Bridge, and the cheer squad that was there had all these signs that read “Don’t Think. Run.”
As mile 6 started, the dreaded “big hill”, I knew this was going to be a challenge. Because… well… honestly… I never did any hill work. Even though I got fantastic advice from Morgan and B.o.B… Houston is pretty flat and I never made it happen. My bad.
So I knew these hills were going to hurt. So I sucked it up and went on my way. I was also looking for Karena who had this fab sign…
I couldn’t wait to see her and it. Sadly, missed her too. but just knowing she was there still meant a lot.
After the ridiculous hill, the miles just kept rolling by.
I felt good, but my hamstrings were starting to bother me, feeling really tight. I remembered reading Bobbi’s post about acknowledging the pain during a race and then leaving it alone. Something about telling yourself you know it hurts but you’re going to suck it up and keep going really takes you mind off of obsessing over the pain. Lemme tell you what… it worked.
Then it started to rain. Yes, rain. Just like it did at my first half-marathon. Crazy right? What are the odds?!
Then I saw this…
going down towards the finish… I fought back tears… I only had a 5k left. I looked at my watch… I was doing it… I was beating my first half-marathon time. Fought back more tears, I love this, I love this so much. I felt good, I felt strong, I felt so proud of who I’ve become.
As I came around that corner at the bottom I heard someone saying “Lauren! Lauren!” I looked to my right and it was Rodney! MY HUSBAND! YEAA! I let out a sigh. I was so happy to see him, he was smiling ear to ear. My gosh I love that face. He told me “you’re almost done!” And that I was.
We had to take the last 3.1 miles through a park, I was freezing. See I tossed my jacket at mile 2, I was getting hot and had no clue it was going to rain.
I looked at my hands and they were red from the cold. Freezing! I’d run and felt colder from the wind. It was a mess. I was irritated that it was raining. Rain messes up everything. Yeah, I know runners love running in the rain. Sure. Its fine when you can go back to your house right away and get all cleaned up. But geez, when you’re in a race you want to take after race pictures and it was SO COLD. So I was plain ol’ irritated. I wanted the rain to stop now. It didn’t. I sucked it up and kept going.
And then..
there it was.
The Finish Line.
official photo – my face looks intense yes?
I finished! I did it, no running buddy (only in heart) and finished faster than I had expected.
I secretly had wanted to finish at least by 3:20, considering I completed the first half-marathon in 3:41. I looked at my garmin, it said: 3:10! Official race results: 03:09:22. I’m improving! Woo!!!
As soon as you crossed the finish line, some very important business has to happen, and that involves a certain blue box!
Hubs told me to pose, ha!
space cadet in that crazy silver thing. I was freezing, it’ll do!
After getting a very awesome swag bag and getting it full of stuff, I told hubs I needed to sit and stretch…
and of course I wanted to see that necklace…
I love it. I worked hard for it.
Waiting to get on the buses to get back to the was pure torture. It was so cold, I was shivering and hungry. I have no idea exactly how long it took, but it was well into an hour before we got back into our car. It felt so good to change my shirt and be in a warm dry car. I didn’t feel up to going to a restaurant to eat, but a drive thru would work (I NEVER eat fast food so this was an indication how exhausted I was), we found an In & Out on the way to the hotel. My awesome husband went inside to get the food (the drive-thru was stupid long) and let me sit in the car.
I had a grilled cheese…
and then we got back to the hotel and rested. I couldn’t fall asleep though the coughing began to get worse… but resting was good enough.
But sleeping that night was great (minus a few wake up’s). The next morning I felt sore, but nothing like the first half-marathon. Which I thought of that as another improvement
Day after picture…
I’m a half-marathoner again. I felt like a champion finishing this race. This race was such an amazing experience. I felt strong, encouraged, empowered, determined throughout this whole race. If you’ve ever considered doing this race and haven’t yet, I highly encourage you to do it. Just Do It!! I can’t wait until the next one (whichever that may be).
Also, a huge congratulations to my girls running half-marathons on the same day: Bari, Jen (their first half) and Kirsten, Renee, (who ran Nike too). It was so awesome tweeting with these ladies before and after the races. You ladies are amazing!!
Anyone else run Nike? Send me your recap, I’d love to read it!
Do you have a favorite race you’ve done? This definitely is my favorite so far.
Who’s saying what?