Tag: Nike Women’s Marathon

The Marathon

Hi!

Last time we chatted I was about to do my second ever MARATHON — I was nervous, excited, and ready to get up to San Francisco. A few weeks have passed, and I am happy to report the marathon was awesome! Most of you probably saw the photo updates on Instagram and Twitter, but just in case you didn’t, here are some highlights of the 2012 Nike Women’s Marathon. Photo collages courtesy of my lovely mother.

Highlights of the trip: crossing the finish line after 26.2 miles with SMILES on our faces, eating anything we wanted for a couple of days {San Francisco, yum}, a view of the Bay Bridge the second we stepped out of our hotel, countless laughs and encouraging moments with Mom and Sandy, dominating the public transit system {you’ve got nothing on us, BART/MUNI!}.

 

Strange moments of the trip: Watching a man attempt to steal NyQuil from a 7-Eleven, observing a drug deal {or twelve} as we walked around town, having to pay 10 cents any time we wanted a bag to carry our purchases in, risking our lives every single time we got into a taxi.

San Francisco has a special place in my heart, and even though it’s filled with lots of crazies, it’s a really fun place to spend a weekend, and an even better place to run a marathon… especially with your {almost} sixty year old Mom!

NWM 2013 – who’s with me??

Things Happening Right Now(ish)

1. Ate The Gourmet Cookbook’s Macaroni and Cheese for dinner last night. Actually I should say we couldn’t stop eating it. It was one of those things where you’re super full but you simply can’t put the fork down. Not good and yet delicious at the same time.

2. Diet Coke and lunch with my work buddy Alejandro. It’s been a while since I’ve had Diet Coke. It is very bubbly. Hiccough!

3. Flying to San Francisco tomorrow for THE MARATHON with Mom and Sandy. Hip-hip-hooray I am so nerve-cited I can hardly stand it!

That’s pretty much my week in a nutshell.

~Kristin

Mileage

I haven’t really talked about this much here on the ol’ blog — but I’m in the middle of marathon training. At some point last year my Mama convinced me to sign up and train for a marathon that is now only three weeks away. I have done one marathon before — six years ago. It was brutal. And yet, this time, I’m looking forward to it. It will be a huge accomplishment and I’m really excited for the time with my Mom. She turns sixty this year and I turned thirty, and honestly I don’t know many other sixty year old women who are interested in 26.2 miles on their feet.

Training for a marathon is a lot like training for a half marathon, just a lot longer. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

This week I did twenty miles {my legs are still feeling that one…} and last weekend I did fifteen. From here we “taper” until race day so I have a twelve miler and then an eight miler and then TWENTY SIX POINT TWO. Phew.

On my fifteen miler I had the foresight to take photos along the way. I took my very first step as the sun was rising over the bay.

I have been convincing various friends to join me for my walks {or portions of them} to give me something to look forward to. Piper and Chloe joined me from miles three to six. Aren’t they presh?

I was alone and excessively hot {it was over 90 degrees this day – yuck!} from miles six to twelve where Jessica and Reagan met up with me. I could NOT have been happier to see them. Jessica brought me ice water and grapes and gave me a good pep talk to help me make it through my last three miles.

When I finally hit mile fifteen I was just so happy to be finished, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on a Chick-fil-A sandwich.

I don’t have any photos documenting the twenty miles, but my lovely friend Emily joined me for the ENTIRE thing. She is a true champ and a true encourager on these long distance walk/runs!

Hope everyone is having a lovely Wednesday. More fun to come this week on the blog!

~Kristin

FINISHED!

Hi Everybody!!

I have officially finished my tenth half marathon! Yippeee!!! These pictures are all from Caitlin’s phone, and you may have seen them on facebook, but I’m posting them here anyway because it’s too exciting not to share. 🙂

We woke up early Sunday morning and found it absolutely necessary to take some Power Pose Pictures before we left the hotel. We’re super fierce. Obviously.

Next it was time to walk to Union Square and brave the crowds. We were meeting up with Piper and Lindsay and this is what we had to push our way through to find them. Ai carumba!

Once we were all together, it was time to start running! We stayed together through mile 5, I ran alone for a couple of miles, taking in all of the awesome San Francisco scenery,  and then Caitlin found me at mile 9 which was AWESOME. Caitlin and I finished side by side {holding hands, I am pretty sure… she was a real encouragement to me, especially toward the end!} and ran an awesome race. My official finishing time was 2:32 and I’m totally proud of that. This course is super hilly, so to come in that close to my personal best is a real accomplishment. Yay us!

Once the race was over, the real fun began. First I almost broke into hysterics as we crossed the finish line because I had pushed myself so hard and was just SO glad to be done. I can’t wait to see the pictures the race photographers captured of that lovely moment… oh dear. Just a few seconds later, the tears subsided as all we could see were hundreds of firemen with Tiffany boxes. There was no longer any reason to cry.

We grabbed ourselves a necklace, got our official finisher T-shirts, inhaled a couple of bottles of water, and scrubbed our sweaty faces at the wash station.

*side note* this is what caitlin looks like after every run. like she just had her hair done and is heading out for a latte.  it’s ridiculous how naturally glam this girl is. *end of side note*

Here are all four of us past the finish line, showing off our bling boxes.

It was such fun and an awesome blessing to get to run with these girls. Great job, ladies! We killed it!