The weekend started early Friday morning as we boarded the plane from Des Moines. We arrived in Denver on time and shortly boarded the plane to head to San Francisco. Again , the flight was smooth and on time. I spent the afternoon relaxing and waiting for my family to arrive. They arrived in the evening, so we went out to eat, hung out for a bit and then decided to call it a night.
Saturday morning, I decided to go for a little jog to stretch out my legs and clear my head a bit. I ended up jogging some of the crazy hills of San Fran and decided to cut it short so I didn't wear my legs out. For lunch, we had the Inspiration Dinner. This was a very cool event. We ate and then there were a couple speakers. The first speaker was a guy who lost his wife to cancer and he is very active with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society because he promised himself he would do whatever he could, so people didn't have to go through what his wife did. He has ran 50+ marathons and calls himself the back of the pack man. He is all about enjoying the experience and had a lot of jokes about being one of the slow runners.
The next speaker was a cancer survivor. She had a great story about her experience. The day of the marathon was actually the 4 year anniversary of the day she found out she had cancer and she was going to complete her first half marathon. She was very inspiring.
After that, they announced the top fundraisers and the very top fundraiser was a lady in our group from Central Iowa. She is very dedicated to Team in Training and she is also a survivor herself. She raised over $40,000 by herself. I was in awe when I heard that amount.
After that, the family and I went on a bus tour of the city, walked across the bridge, and went to eat. Then, we went in search of my pre-race breakfast. I like to eat peanut butter on bread or toast before I go run and we had a little trouble finding peanut butter. I finally decided I was just eat something else, but my mom and my brother were determined that I was going to get my peanut butter and they came back to the hotel with a jar of it. That made that peanut butter sandwich extra special. We hung out in the hotel for a bit and then I decided it was time to get some sleep.
I was very surprised on how well I actually did sleep. I got a good night's sleep and woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm went off. I took a quick shower, ate my breakfast, and got all ready. Then, it was time to head down to the lobby to meet the team. After a few pre-race pictures, we headed out to the start. The start was a block down from out hotel. It was so awesome to walk out of the hotel and see a swarm of people. I had a little trouble finding where I was supposed to be at first, but finally found it. I was just looking around in amazement. There was a guy standing next to me and I looked at him and said, "Never miss an opportunity to run with 20,000 women in San Fran." He thought that comment was hilarious and he said it was his 4th time running the half there.
Then, the race began. When I started running, I just got a big smile on my face because it was just awesome to be experiencing it. The first part of the race was pretty slow because there were so many people packed around you. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it was really cool to run around the city and see the sights as you are running.
I felt great from the start. My IT band pain popped up in mile 3 for about a mile or 2 and ironically went away after that and it never bothered me again. I don't understand that at all, but I am very thankful for that. We got to mile 6 and there was a huge hill. I have never ran on a hill like that before. Then, after that you had to go down, which was almost worse than going up. After that it was relatively flat until I believe mile 10 or so. I just kept on running and enjoying the sights. Every once in a while, I just found myself randomly smiling because it was just so awesome.
I think it was about mile 18 and I finally took my first break to walk. That was farther than I thought I would go without walking. After that, it was just fighting through it.
I think the coolest story of the whole trip happened to me on mile 21 or so. I ran alongside this lady from Pennsylvania. She told me this was her 58th marathon and she recently did a 50 mile run over in Switzerland. She has ran in all 50 states and was telling me about Des Moines and how she really enjoyed it.
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