Pre Nike Women's Marathon 2009

I have started this post a couple times but never got very far.. 1st it was to wait to get some pictures to post, then I was tired or just not motivated which usually means I'm not really sure how I feel about my "race" so have not had much to say. I went in with my plan of not really racing it after taking almost a full month off, having a cold and upset stomach the week before that mostly just focused on finishing and enjoying the weekend. Not really what I envisioned the event when I signed up. Anyway the fun stuff...

We flew in to San Francisco early Saturday morning. Kyle and my Mom are both are not morning people so it was a bit of a stretch for them but we got through it and they got lots of coffee and Kyle took a nap on the plane. We took the BART into downtown and after dropping our bags at the hotel we headed straight to the registration to grab our bibs ect.
Then we were off to the nike store to get a sweatshirt of something before they sold out. The place was a total zoo but i was happy that they still had small sizes left.
We also did the custom shirts made that said "run like a girl! Linda & MacBeth" on the back. They are very cute and the shirts they put it on are very soft. We also found our names on the list of participants they put on the windows of the nike store.. good thing they were alphabetical.

Since I would not be "racing" the marathon I wanted a running skirt to wear so I would feel less like I was supposed to be racing. I knew Lululemon had one I wanted but the lame store near me at home had no sizes so I wanted to go to the store in SF in hope they would have one. Of course they did :) and in the process introduced my Mom to lulu hehe. Jerry was a sweetheart and got her a pair of running tights and a pair of gloves for her birthday.

At this point we completely burned both Kyle and Jerry out on all things Nike Women's marathon lol. So we decided to go in search of lunch. The guys both wanted fish and chips so we headed on foot to teh waterfront only to figure out that we needed to walk 2 miles to get to fishermans warf... But it was sunny and warm out, I had my running shoes on so my feet were good, we got to see Alcatraz Island along the way and best of all found a place for Kyle to rent a bike so he could get around the course better. Honestly by the time we got there I was getting a bit cranky from hunger and being on my feet so long... so we quickly picked a place and since I really wanted to sit down for a bit we sat inside vs buying fish and chips on the street.

After lunch Kyle headed off to rent the bike and my Mom, Jerry and I walked a much shorter route back towards the hotel. Only isn San Fran would you see such a nerdy tour as a segway tour - seriously cracked me up..

Once we made it back to the hotel I put my feet up and slowly started gathering together what I needed for the marathon. I decided not to wear my team kit at all and just went with the lulu run skirt, sugoi fizz tank so that everything felt like training and not racing for me.
I was not very hungry the rest of the night so I wound up having frozen yogurt for dinner which was perfectly yummy. I had one last talk with my coach over my plan and how I was feeling ect and then I think I fell asleep around 8:30 or 9pm which is even early for me but after the early morning flight and walking around I was tired.