Last weekend my mom and I went to San Francisco for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon on Sunday morning. Saturday we spent at the expo gathering as many free goodies as we could. This consisted of about ten Pom drinks, a billion luna bars and Ghiradelli chocolates (yes they give you chocolate!). We visited Niketown to get some awesome marathon merchandise and find our name on the wall. There is a wall filled with all of the names of the women particpating in the Marathon. It took forever to find ours but we eventually did.

After unloading our massive booty back at our apartment we took a trolley down to Fisherman’s Wharf for some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Somehow I managaed to never have been on a trolley, or have eaten clam chowder in a bread bowl even though I have been to San Francisco many, many times. Sad, I know. But now I can say I have done both! That was all fun and good but we couldn’t find a taxi back to our apratment for the life of us and had to beat out a group of guys to jump a taxi after walking for like a mile. Sorry about stealing your taxi, we knew it was yours but we needed it more than you I think…. sorry.

We then met up with the rest of our group that we would be doing the half marathon with which consisted of mother’s and their daughters. We had a lovely dinner at Scallas and had a lot of fun talking with each other.

That was enough fun and games for the night before, we had an early morning the next day to begin our journey. I got up at five in the morning to get ready in the pitch black. We met down at the starting line at 6:30 and started to walk our half marathon. We started a little earlier than the pack of 20,000 people so we wouldn’t get stampeded by the mob. It was an amazing feeling to walk down the normally busy streets of San Francisco in the dark where no one is around except for you and your group of friends. All of the course was blocked off so we had the whole road to ourselves. It was really amazing.

Around mile three the first of the runners started to pass us and the marathon had really begun! It was so much fun just walking and running through the entirety of San Francisco with our group. We got to see almost every inch of San Francisco it felt like. We walked along the piers, out to Fort Point and beyond. Every few miles there were stops with food or water that was also fun. You could stock pile goodies like shock blocks and luna bars for later on in the walk.

I was totally fine until around mile seven when my foot started to really cramp up and never stopped hurting for the rest of the walk. I tried to not let it hinder the experience however. We got to see so much beautiful scenery that I never knew existed all around San Francisco like the rolling hills overlooking a stormy ocean. There was so much to see, not one second was boring.

At about mile ten it started to rain, then it started to pour. The last stretch was nice, especially the chocolate mile. The chocolate mile is at mile twelve where they have a food station. They hand out Ghiradelli chocolates. I stashed about six of those…. for later of course 😀

After that it was the final leg, we ran the rest of the way and the best part of the whole experience was turning that finally corner and looking down the shoot at the finish line and all of the people cheering you on to the finish. Running over the finish line with my mom was an unexplainable feeling. By that time it was pouring and we kind of looked like drowned rats but we sure where some proud drowned rats. A half marathon finished, thirteen point one miles done!

After crossing the finish line we had firefighters in nice suits and Nike shoes give us our Tiffany necklaces. They give you these cute little boxes and then you know you really are done.

Then came the painful part, the way back to the apartment. To get back to the start line we have to get on a bus and drive back. The line to get on the bus was miles long! After running all that way the last thing we wanted to do was wait in a line eons long in the pouring rain. It was so cold and all we had where the emergency blankets to shield us from the rain as we waited in line. I got so sore from standing there I still hurt. That was definitely the worst part. The ride back seemed like it took forever but at least we weren’t in the rain any more.

We then had to walk up all the hills of San Francisco to our apartment which was terrible after getting totally sore, cold, and tired. Besides the last part, I had an awesome time. I will never forget this experience and hope to do it again someday. For now I am a one time half marathon finisher!