Nike Marathon Weekend

To All: This is my first blog post (warning). It will be random thoughts about first topic on my mind to blog about is.... Nike Marathon Weekend. Brace yourself if you are along for the ride.

My Nike marathon weekend started out with the regular occurance of a flight delay. /doh. Sucks! Can't I just get to San Francisco and enjoy drinks and night life without the hassles of traveling? Bull shit!

I land in San Francisco, Friday night, my new android enabled phone gets me to my location..... The Diva Hotel. Oh and what a nice hotel it was (for San Francisco downtown in our budget). It was good for sure, except for the nice street crowd that didn't die down until 3 am each morning. (or night from their points of view). Luckily, Danielle gave us earplugs. I arrive at the hotel and meet Alida and Mary. I've known Mary for over a year now, but this was my first time meeting Alida. I think I scared her because she was laying in bed, reading and minding her own business, when this random women comes bardging into her hotel room, and then into her bedroom to talk the night away. So after scaring Alida, I was hungry and decided to let the girls do what they pleased reading books and getting ready for bed. I found a local sushi restaurant from a recommendation from the hotel staff, and around the corner I walked. The sushi was fresh and the saki took my edge off while listening to live music from the DJ behind the bar. After dinner, being lonely on my first night in San Francisco, I decided to call it quits for the night, head up to the hotel and fall asleep. It was a short sleep.

The next morning Mary and I awoke to Vacation with Chevy Chase and got ready for our 4 mile run around the stadium. The morning air was crisp and the city seemed innocent as we made our way down to the pier. We ran around the stadium and noticed that it seemed smaller than we invisioned... all baseball stadiums do in fact... or was this just our little thought of illusion? Running back I was able to convince Mary to stop her run for a trip to the Farmer's Market that seemed to have popped up within moments of day break. There we found bell peppers of new shades and smells, green beans, and fresh strawberries. Making our way back to Union Square we both had smiles on our face because this is what we love to do. Run, explore new places, take in the atmsophere. Buy local organic fruits and veggies!!! In California even which is priceless. You pay whatever they want even. We didn't need to discuss it, we just knew that we were both living in the moment and it was nice to have someone to share it with.

Returning to the hotel we were starved. Alida walked up with us to a local crepery called Honey Honey. Terrific food, yet I will order something with more spice next time. Definately a hopin' place. While the rest of the girls continued throughout San Francisco touring the sites, Alida, Mary and I agreed that we were best sticking to Union Square for a bit of Expotiquage and to stay off our feet the remainder of the day. I was awaiting Caitlin's arrival anyway (my sister in law). So we played in Union Square and made the most of what the day had in store for us......

We finished the night with a pre carbo load meal at Buca De Beppo. Terrific. I had a glass of wine to (again take the edge off) and loaded on some salad and pasta. I am not a heavy eater the night before races so it was a light meal for me.... to be light and fresh for the morning.

As I get ready for bed I know I will not sleep. Again I am rampaging through the hotel room, being a loud and abnoxious Kata. I realize that I must sleep...but I did eventually fall asleep and got a good few hours in. (You never sleep on race night, or so I don't at least) . I awoke at 12 am and wondered what I could eat. Would I be too loud if I ate a Luna Bar.? Will I awake all the girls in the room? Maybe peanut butter or that banana on the table? Nah. I settled for the Luna Bar becuase I knew that I would want the PB and Banana for my prerace meal. I awoke again at 1, then at 2, then at 3:30. HMMMMM. Can't we just start the race?

Race morning we line up. I entrust Mary and line up right at the starting line. 26,000 women behind us and we decide that we must be in the front. What is this Mary? I ask her and she says, trust me!!! Well I do, and so I did. The clock rang, the horn blew, the heart rate spiked, and we all took off on our 26.2 mile journey through the streets of San Francisco for the day.

We started our day before sun up. The sun was arising quickly though and by mile 2 or 3 the sun had started to show its colors. I wanted to stop and just look and wait for it to rise, but I knew that I was here to give the Nike Marathon all that I had. All that I had trained for, all that I had been sacrificing these last few months. The small injury that I had sustained in August replayed over and over again in my mind, knowing that I had taken a 6 week break from my training was making me question my abilities. While I had finished up the season where I left off after recouperating....I had been questioning my last couple of months of training and taper. Was it smart to pick up the schedule so quickly? Still, I had lacked my 20 mile runs which the log said was crucial to completing a successful marathon. It made me doubt my abilities and questioned even if I was going to make it through the marathon without reinjuring myself... if THAT makes any sense. All this is rolling through my mind, once again, until I hit the Embaraco Street and we start paralleling the piers most know as the touristy area of San Fran. It was immaculate to be running through what seemed like at the time to be abandoned streets of San Francisco. They of course closed them off for us to run through, which made touring San Francisco feel completely different. I took my mind completely off of running for the first 6 to 7 miles as I soaked in the sunbreak and the crisp morning air.

Miles 7 through 18 seemed a little hilly. The profile, on paper, made the course look flat and easy to manuver. Of course, anybody who has been to San Francisco would have laughed at this profile, and I of course have been to SF before so I should have known... but I initially believed the profile, until mile 7 when we started to climb. I almost wanted to knock myself across the head and go "Kata YOU KNEW the course wasn't going to be so easy" "Why did you convince yourself otherwise?" The entire mid section of the course was hilly, windy, and it started to rain. YUCK. I continued my nutrition and stuck with my race strategy..... being go hard, and go as hard as you can until you drop. So I kept my pace. I noticed that I ran under 8 minute miles my first 6 and I was going strong through my half marathon mark. It wasn't until mile 18 where I hit the wall.

This was my first marathon and I know people talk about the 18 mile wall and the 20 mile wall in other blogs and articles so I won't go into detail except to say, "its true!!!" Mile 18, I wanted to die. Kill me now Lord.... I don't even know how many miles I have until the finish. When I finally made it to mile 20 I was able to do simple math and calculate 6.2 miles to the finish.... and yes I am an Accountant. /doh. SOOOO..6.2!! That's IT?! 6.2 lousy frickin' miles? I've ran that and called it a short run for the day. Which is what I was trying to convince myself it was as every muscle in my body ached and my legs were NOT going to cooperating with me. If the thought of perhaps walking started creeping into my mind... my legs would start to give away. I figured then that there was no mercy... I continued to run as strong as I could (which wasn't fast).

I firmly believe that no matter what the pace you go... just go as hard as you can!! At the end of the event, no matter what time you came through ..... you will know as an individual that you gave your best. That is all my family has ever asked of me. They have only asked me to give my best. My best doesn't walk (I told myself). My best runs, jogs, crawls (if i need to).... it doesn't stand up tall and walk to a frickin finish line. I'll drop dead and roll my way across that bitch if it comes to that in the final moments. Meanwhile... I'M RUNNING! I will run this 6.2 like my "mother in law is chasing me" (Eric Glass quote) and I'll deal with the consequences later.

Oh and I did! I dealt with those consequences because as soon as I crossed the finish line.... I saw the clock read 3:38 and my mind said, "good job , you made it!" My body said, "fuck you. i hate you. you will drop to your knees and beg for mercy" (and so I did). I collapsed into a gentleman wearing red. He put me into a wheelchair and took me to med #2 tent. Where low and behold I would be held for 2 hours while my other friends came and went through the finish line.... Rejuvenating themselves, and going through their own recoveries and mental processes of completing this marathon... and eventually finding their ways back to our hotel room. Meanwhile, the EMT was telling me that if my vitals didn't come down within 15 minutes they were going to "move me"

Okay this is where I started race #2. This race was "Kata lower your vitals race" I immediately went from thinking about where everybody else was and what they were doing... to how my legs were frozen and spasming and how to fix that.... to breathing deep and thinking about my heart rate and how to stop shivering, how to warm up. Anyway...I did! I accomplished this goal. Soothed my breathing and started listening to the nurses around me. I allowed them to feed me electroyles.... and it got me through the finish line and out the door and onto my own trek of making it back to the hotel room.

Nobody had heard from me and were concerned. Mary had made it to the hotel long before I had and had assured the other girls that I was looking fresh at mile 14 when she saw me during the out and back turn around portion of the course. I was feeling fresh then and I understand why they would have all thought I just went out and started exploring the town without them, eating lunch and partaking on San Francisco Beauty. (not really) I arrived back at the hotel and freshend up in time to relax a little bit before heading out to our post race meal in North Beach. The Stinking Rose was a restaurant that is all about garlic. It was a great meal and I was joined by a friend that I had not seen in over a year and her boyfriend. We had a great meal and afterwards, a couple of the girls were already tired enough to not explore San Francisco anymore. So we departed ways. Walking our way down the street to a local bar we had heard about, a strip club came upon us. The bouncer said it was free to get in so what the hell.... we lasted 1 drink and realized that these girls were Crazy! Well going to a strip club is a commodity anyway, but to see these girls in action was crazy and very humorous... except not everybody saw it my way so we left after 1 drink and headed to the bar. The night carried through with good times of catching up and drinking new beers and wines before calling it quits as it had been a long day. Caitlin and I left the group and made our own way back through the streets of SF to Union Square. Talking and catching up.... which are priceless moments. We finished the night with a hot toddy and awoke the next day for our last adventure through the town.

We all awoke early trying to partake on the entire day. Eating breakfast at a local dive was perfect and then boarding the old trolleys to get us down to the piers was perfect. We made our way to Pier 39 to see the sealions of course and then to get oysters, beers, breadbowls, clamchowder, famous fish sandwiches, ghirriedelli delights, organic muffins.... and another half marathon walk through SF to the Golden Gate bridge.

The Golden Gate bridge always amazes me. I loved the feeling of being suspended on such an old bridge that has taken such strength to build. I was even able to view the little cage that the painters use to manuver their way around to repaint the bridge 365 days of the year. Mary captured this photo of us on the bridge....

The day's of fun quickly came upon a close to us and all the girls eventually said their parting ways. I was especially sad to leave my sister in law Caitlin, because I don't see her much and time with family is precious. It was great to meet new friends as well as spend time with the ones that you already hold near and dear to your heart.

In any event... What have I learned from running the Nike Women's Marathon and ultimately my first marathon? I believe that I learned that the body is capable of what you tell it is capable of. I think that in the last 6.2 miles of the race, I learned that when your body thinks it has nothing else left in it... you tell it that it must finish and it must finish at all costs.... it finds its way. This was a precious moment for me to realize because I have never felt such pain and suffering before and forced myself to continue on. It was worth it.

I also learned "do not be afraid to go fast". This was a quote from Chrissie Wellington in a recent interview. She said, sometimes we convince ourselves that we are not able to achieve what we have set out to accomplish even though we have put in the effort. Come game day, I had her quote on my mind, "do not be afraid to go fast". I didn't want to be afraid and I wasn't. I forced myself from the beginning to go and to go hard despite the 26.2 miles left to complete. I figured that I would take those miles as they came and to conquer them in the moment. Whatever that moment may be.

In sum, don't be afraid and believe in yourself no matter who you are and what it is you set out to accomplish. I was a Boston Qualifier that day and I can't wait to run the 115th Boston Marathon next year.

Thanks for listening to my first blog post. It was nice to write, nice to reflect, and refreshing to remember my weekend in San Francisco with the girls.