Nike Women's 2011

An invitation from my friend Suzi to be part of her Nike Women's Marathon team came as a pleasant surprise. It took me about  two seconds to confirming with a big YES my participation. I committed myself to a dedicated training period and some very satisfying fun group runs with my friends Karen and Suzi.
I had spent a whole summer participating in other events as part my training, a summer trail training group, Cinderella marathon and Urban Cow just two weeks prior to NWM. I had a slight notion that all those events had render my body very susceptible to an injury and by the time I started NWM I had to make de choice of either just pace myself or try to improve my PR for in a marathon knowing that the price to pay for it would have to be an injury. But even when that was the case I knew it was a experience worth having.

We got to SF a day before. We carpool to the city and driving there was fun, my friend Suzi and cousin Pat, could not get over me and my attachment to my GPS. I got a kick out of their reaction when they realized I have a name for it and I that I hold it in my hand while driving. We got to SF the day before and spend the day walking around the NWM Expo and shopping around, got matching shirts and had dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant to celebrate my friend's birthday.
The we went to our Hotel and got a restless night, the kind you get before an event due to excitement. The next morning we met at the lobby and walked to the starting line some blocks away from the Hotel Baldwin where we stayed.

The beginning was impressive. The NWM site said they were expecting 22,500 participants but I had the bib  26,414.When we walked to the starting line and my cousin Pat saw the crowd I could tell she was worried for me because she knows I get some anxiety in confined crowded spaces. I saw her face then I turn to the crowd and really tried not to flip out. There was a sea of people. Suzi must have notice cause she held my hand really tight. We tried walking into the 9 to 10 minute pace area but simply couldn't so we settle with just getting a bit into the crowd. It got better 3 blocks into the run. By then we had enough space that we could extend half of our arms out and I was able to relax.

I had pain from the very beginning of the marathon due to overuse and I was in total denial over it. I decided to pop a pain killer (naproxen) to make it to the finishing without suffering. It did help and once I warm up I had just mild discomfort... that is until mile 15.

Then in between the asphalt and the posterior tibia tendonitis made it difficult to enjoy the scenery. Which I was really enjoying. There were beautiful views. At mile 15 is typically when I turn on the music as a way to reward myself. So it made it nice again.

By mile 18 I was having real pain so I had this great idea to pop another pill. I started having difficulty breathing. I was trying to grasp for air and my lungs just couldn't do it. It was like an asthma attack. Trying not to get scared again I focused in the music and I ran pretty much all the way to the end with little grasps of air. A couple of times I did think on stopping in the aid stations... but I am not the quitting kind of gal.

By mile 19 after shallow breathing for a mile everything felt so heavy and I had to make the executive decision of parting from everything I could do without which consisted of basically my visor. That was hard. I literally cried; mostly because it was a present a friend had given to me. It was and old and ugly visor when I got it but a present never the less. I stop in front of a tree and lay it next to it. Waited a second and said my good bye to it.

From there on besides monitoring my breathing and staying calm I had to work on not crying. The shallow breathing made me feel fragile, vulnerable and very emotional. NWM became a catharsis for me right then. I was looking at people holding signs cheering on and wanted to cry, certain songs that came on the ipod made me cry, guys holding flowers for their girls, little kids with smiling faces looking for their mommies, not being able to see Suzi finishing after looking desperately for her and at the end realizing Pat and Steve didn't made it to the finishing line due to heavy traffic, I was a big ugly emotional mess.

Around mile 21 I felt like there were rocks inside my shoes. I am familiar by now with that feeling; it is when my toe nails are coming off. So I had to stop to fix a bit my shocks. Lost 4 toenails, that is my badge of honor :)

By mile 20 I have gotten to the Ghirardelli station so I took 2 chocolates, ate one in a gulp and put the other one in my pocket thinking about giving it to Pat as a present. By then I had eaten all but one of my energy chews.

When I reach mile 23 I told myself ok it is time to reward myself with the last chew. I open the zipper in my water bottle (which by then was almost empty) and the damn chew felt to the ground. Aggghhhh! I
thought about picking it up for a second but then I remember the lady with the poopy pans we saw at the begging. Ehhh! So the last 3 miles I had this mental discussion on whether or not I should eat that chocolate. It went something like this:

- She will totally understand, - nooo no no no but I got it for her...

- But you just ran a damn marathon you need it! -But I got it for her. It is a special Chocolate...

- You could just not tell her about it! -But you will know it in your mind...

I felt like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings and then that made me smile giving me the extra kick I needed to get to the finishing line trying to increase the pace a bit. And Pat really got to enjoy her chocolate when I finally gave it to her after telling her the story :D

I had heard before from other runners that when you push your body to an extreme your brain starts coping with the fatigue in weird ways. I never imagine I could get to that point but I guess in over medicating the pain I had and the allergic reaction I had to the medication did just that and I found myself turning at mile 24 and seeing my ex-sister in law, who died of cancer a year prior, standing up at the curbside looking very pretty clapping and smiling for me. I could not believe my eyes I look straight at her and pass by in disbelieve amazed about the tricks the brain plays in those circumstances.

It was really rewarding to realize when I crossed the finishing line that all the effort was worth something. I improve my marathon time getting a PR with 4:24. With an improvement of  27 minutes. It was a hard and demanding marathon. Physically taxing but it was worth the experience.

In talking to Suzi about it we did agree that it was mostly because of the kind of cement, old and roughed so it was like running on poky gravel most of the time. That plus the fact that I wore the Merell train run shoes with 4 mm of thickness is almost like running barefoot and offer no protection for cement. I had done the Cow Town half marathon on those shoes two weeks prior too. Which I learn was a mistake. As a result of this effort my right foot arch collapsed and I was out of running for 4 months. It was a hard lesson to learn. Right after the marathon and went ahead and bought the Nike Free Style 3.0 which is a minimal shoe still but has cushion which makes it perfect for cement run.

I guess the highlight for me was the enormous amount of internal dialog I had. It was like having a big mommy me inside caring for a baby me. It was loving and very reassuring.

The experience allowed me to learn more about my particular shoe needs.

Now I look back at the experience and have memories full of endurance and determination which is at the end what running reinforces in you. Despite the pain, reaching your goals always makes you a stronger person and allows you to feel fulfilled and happy.