cdn_gal_eeyore
HSBC Calgary Half Marathon - my first ever - 07/08
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 997
This race report is long overdue, but I literally flew home from San Francisco, unpacked, did laundry, repacked and caught a plane down to Orlando all in less than 24 hours...
My experience at the Nike Women's Half Marathon was amazing..!! I flew into San Francisco Friday afternoon. All flights in and out of San Francisco were delayed that afternoon so I got in a little later than planned. I would say that my plane was probably 75% full of folks heading down for the race, including the TNT group from Calgary. My friend TK met me at the airport and we hopped BART into town. We were staying at the Hotel California which was just three blocks away from Union Square. A great location, and the place was really nice. I would definitely stay there again. We checked in quickly then wandered down to the Expotique.
A man from Ghirardelli chocolates was right outside giving away free samples so I happily grabbed a square. Yum...I love free chocolate. We first went to grab our packets and right away I had an issue with mine. The bib number and chip were registered to me, but the sticker on the front had the wrong name and number. I was hoping to have my name on my bib, not someone else's, not to mention that my sticker shows that I paid my $10 to catch a bus from the finish line back to Union Square. We fine my name (on another bib entirely), peal the sticker off and tape it back on to my bib. After all this commotion I didn't bother to get my own chip registered, I just went with the one in the packet. TK and I opted to skip looking around the expo and head over to Niketown for some gear shopping. Boy howdy this place was busy... After waiting in line to get into the store we were finally among the throng of women, all clamoring to buy race merchandise in whatever sizes were left. At first it seemed like the selection wasn't too terrific, but I noticed after going to Niketown over several times that weekend that they would find new items to put out. Case in point - I was hoping to buy a race jacket but none were out on Friday. When I was back on Saturday afternoon the jackets were out, but by then I had given enough money to the Nike corporation that I didn't get one. Anyhow....I found a few race items I liked, stood in the ridiculous line to pay for them, and then I spent enough money that I got a free plastic frame to display my race bib in. Glad my bib has my name on it now! Afterwards we went outside where Nike had a huge wall with all of the participants' names on it.
We found ours, and by that time our friend Suz had arrived so we wandered back to the expo to meet her. After she got her packet we finally had a chance to check the rest of the expo out.
You could get your iPod engraved for free, and 24 Hour Fitness were doing Nike+ trials. You could also get massages, manicures and foot rubs. The lines for everything were crazy so I didn't take advantage of anything. I did see Sarah - amazing triathlete and formerly on Amazing Race - wandering around the expo. She's currently in an ad campaign for Nike and she ran the half marathon. Afterwards it was time to head down to Cioppino's at Pier 45 for a terrific dinner, then a good night's sleep.
Saturday was sightseeing with a trip to Alcatraz, Pier 39 and some shopping around Union Square. We went out for Vietnamese food for dinner, then back to the hotel to get organized for the race the next day.
It was a pretty restless night from about midnight to 4 am. Nervous race anticipation? I woke up, had a quick shower and scarfed down some bread and jam and drank some water. We were out the door before 6 am heading to Union Square. The best thing about the location of our hotel was it was along the street where the gear check bag buses were, so we were able to check our bags far up the street and avoid the crowds. Union Square was so busy with people and so loud! I felt sorry for anyone staying at the hotels around there that weren't running the race.
It took us about 9 minutes to cross the chip mat and we were off, slowly but surely. It was great chatting with people in the first few miles. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what my game plan was for the race. I've run 4:1, switched to 9:1, but also run 20:1 with my Bikini Boot Camp instructor's run group. I decided to play it by ear, try just walking at the water stops and see how I felt. The water stops were fairly well spaced out, about every 2 miles or so. We ran from Union Square down to Embarcadero and along Fisherman's Wharf.
The first 6 miles was all fairly flat, and then it was a straight uphill climb for the next mile with a gain of about 250 feet or so. You can see in the distance here where we start climbing up.
The course narrowed at this point and people slowed down but my aim was to keep running. I felt like I had great momentum and I knew that if I stopped to walk at any point it was going to be hard to get running again. That hill climb was tough....but it felt amazing...and I knew my hill training was paying off.
At the top we got a nice downhill run and some great views.
There were some more hills along the way -
- you just went up and down for several miles after that but I didn't really notice it until a climb at mile 9 when they had a water stop halfway up the hill. I stopped to walk to down some Gatorade and some water and it was tough getting going, but I was back up and running. I saw a lady with a Strides Running Store shirt from here in Calgary so she and I chatted for a bit and I said hi to anyone I noticed who was TNT from Canada. I was having a great time enjoying the race and the views.
They had an orange slice stop and a banana stop along the way but I bypassed it all. Once I started drinking the Gatorade Endurance I got a tiny knot in my stomach - not too bad - but I didn't want to try anything new. I was eating my Sport Beans along the way, but unfortunately the bag came open and at one downhill point I could hear my Beans falling out and hitting the pavement behind me. Good thing I packed lots! There wasn't a ton of on course entertainment in the middle half of the race. We turned into Golden Gate park and it was so pretty running through the trees in there. Here is where the half and full folks split:
At mile 10 I realized I was on a great track to reach my 2:15 goal if I just kept running steady....such a good feeling! Around mile 11 we were on a dirt path for a short bit and this just zapped the energy from my legs. I saw the chocolate mile up ahead though and grabbed some Ghirardelli chocolate squares and stuffed them into my waist pack for later. Mile 12 felt pretty good, but when we hit the final turn to the finish line at Mile 13 my legs were like jelly. I saw the finish and I wanted to sprint hard but there just wasn't much left in my legs. I looked down at my watch, saw I was still good for 2:15 and it was the best feeling in the world. I crossed a chip mat and they announced my name just before I crossed the finish line. 2:14:56....amazing!!!!! I got my little blue Tiffany's box from a very handsome firefighter in a tux and went to get my chip cut off my shoe. As I put my shoe on the footstool for the kid to cut my chip off my leg started shaking like you wouldn't believe.... It was good to be done. I got my finisher's shirt, some grub and waited from TK and Suz to cross the finish line after walking their half in 4:00. What an amazing race! A tough course, a great time, I can't say enough about it. I will definitely be back next year. I think I trained really well for it and it paid off - this was like racing nirvana - it all came together...
I did get to meet Terri and get a picture, unfortunately I don't have it with me right now to post it. I promise later though!
Final stats:
2:14:56 (10:18/mi pace)
Overall finish: 2381 out of 12196
Age group (25-29): 434 out of 1998
5k: 32:45
10k: 1:04:36
15k: 1:38:16
My experience at the Nike Women's Half Marathon was amazing..!! I flew into San Francisco Friday afternoon. All flights in and out of San Francisco were delayed that afternoon so I got in a little later than planned. I would say that my plane was probably 75% full of folks heading down for the race, including the TNT group from Calgary. My friend TK met me at the airport and we hopped BART into town. We were staying at the Hotel California which was just three blocks away from Union Square. A great location, and the place was really nice. I would definitely stay there again. We checked in quickly then wandered down to the Expotique.
A man from Ghirardelli chocolates was right outside giving away free samples so I happily grabbed a square. Yum...I love free chocolate. We first went to grab our packets and right away I had an issue with mine. The bib number and chip were registered to me, but the sticker on the front had the wrong name and number. I was hoping to have my name on my bib, not someone else's, not to mention that my sticker shows that I paid my $10 to catch a bus from the finish line back to Union Square. We fine my name (on another bib entirely), peal the sticker off and tape it back on to my bib. After all this commotion I didn't bother to get my own chip registered, I just went with the one in the packet. TK and I opted to skip looking around the expo and head over to Niketown for some gear shopping. Boy howdy this place was busy... After waiting in line to get into the store we were finally among the throng of women, all clamoring to buy race merchandise in whatever sizes were left. At first it seemed like the selection wasn't too terrific, but I noticed after going to Niketown over several times that weekend that they would find new items to put out. Case in point - I was hoping to buy a race jacket but none were out on Friday. When I was back on Saturday afternoon the jackets were out, but by then I had given enough money to the Nike corporation that I didn't get one. Anyhow....I found a few race items I liked, stood in the ridiculous line to pay for them, and then I spent enough money that I got a free plastic frame to display my race bib in. Glad my bib has my name on it now! Afterwards we went outside where Nike had a huge wall with all of the participants' names on it.
We found ours, and by that time our friend Suz had arrived so we wandered back to the expo to meet her. After she got her packet we finally had a chance to check the rest of the expo out.
You could get your iPod engraved for free, and 24 Hour Fitness were doing Nike+ trials. You could also get massages, manicures and foot rubs. The lines for everything were crazy so I didn't take advantage of anything. I did see Sarah - amazing triathlete and formerly on Amazing Race - wandering around the expo. She's currently in an ad campaign for Nike and she ran the half marathon. Afterwards it was time to head down to Cioppino's at Pier 45 for a terrific dinner, then a good night's sleep.
Saturday was sightseeing with a trip to Alcatraz, Pier 39 and some shopping around Union Square. We went out for Vietnamese food for dinner, then back to the hotel to get organized for the race the next day.
It was a pretty restless night from about midnight to 4 am. Nervous race anticipation? I woke up, had a quick shower and scarfed down some bread and jam and drank some water. We were out the door before 6 am heading to Union Square. The best thing about the location of our hotel was it was along the street where the gear check bag buses were, so we were able to check our bags far up the street and avoid the crowds. Union Square was so busy with people and so loud! I felt sorry for anyone staying at the hotels around there that weren't running the race.
It took us about 9 minutes to cross the chip mat and we were off, slowly but surely. It was great chatting with people in the first few miles. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what my game plan was for the race. I've run 4:1, switched to 9:1, but also run 20:1 with my Bikini Boot Camp instructor's run group. I decided to play it by ear, try just walking at the water stops and see how I felt. The water stops were fairly well spaced out, about every 2 miles or so. We ran from Union Square down to Embarcadero and along Fisherman's Wharf.
The first 6 miles was all fairly flat, and then it was a straight uphill climb for the next mile with a gain of about 250 feet or so. You can see in the distance here where we start climbing up.
The course narrowed at this point and people slowed down but my aim was to keep running. I felt like I had great momentum and I knew that if I stopped to walk at any point it was going to be hard to get running again. That hill climb was tough....but it felt amazing...and I knew my hill training was paying off.
At the top we got a nice downhill run and some great views.
There were some more hills along the way -
- you just went up and down for several miles after that but I didn't really notice it until a climb at mile 9 when they had a water stop halfway up the hill. I stopped to walk to down some Gatorade and some water and it was tough getting going, but I was back up and running. I saw a lady with a Strides Running Store shirt from here in Calgary so she and I chatted for a bit and I said hi to anyone I noticed who was TNT from Canada. I was having a great time enjoying the race and the views.
They had an orange slice stop and a banana stop along the way but I bypassed it all. Once I started drinking the Gatorade Endurance I got a tiny knot in my stomach - not too bad - but I didn't want to try anything new. I was eating my Sport Beans along the way, but unfortunately the bag came open and at one downhill point I could hear my Beans falling out and hitting the pavement behind me. Good thing I packed lots! There wasn't a ton of on course entertainment in the middle half of the race. We turned into Golden Gate park and it was so pretty running through the trees in there. Here is where the half and full folks split:
At mile 10 I realized I was on a great track to reach my 2:15 goal if I just kept running steady....such a good feeling! Around mile 11 we were on a dirt path for a short bit and this just zapped the energy from my legs. I saw the chocolate mile up ahead though and grabbed some Ghirardelli chocolate squares and stuffed them into my waist pack for later. Mile 12 felt pretty good, but when we hit the final turn to the finish line at Mile 13 my legs were like jelly. I saw the finish and I wanted to sprint hard but there just wasn't much left in my legs. I looked down at my watch, saw I was still good for 2:15 and it was the best feeling in the world. I crossed a chip mat and they announced my name just before I crossed the finish line. 2:14:56....amazing!!!!! I got my little blue Tiffany's box from a very handsome firefighter in a tux and went to get my chip cut off my shoe. As I put my shoe on the footstool for the kid to cut my chip off my leg started shaking like you wouldn't believe.... It was good to be done. I got my finisher's shirt, some grub and waited from TK and Suz to cross the finish line after walking their half in 4:00. What an amazing race! A tough course, a great time, I can't say enough about it. I will definitely be back next year. I think I trained really well for it and it paid off - this was like racing nirvana - it all came together...
I did get to meet Terri and get a picture, unfortunately I don't have it with me right now to post it. I promise later though!
Final stats:
2:14:56 (10:18/mi pace)
Overall finish: 2381 out of 12196
Age group (25-29): 434 out of 1998
5k: 32:45
10k: 1:04:36
15k: 1:38:16
Great time too- you are sending it to Disney so you can be one of the speedy people, right? 
I loved seeing the necklace. I tried to look for a picture online awhile back, and couldn't find one anywhere!
Poor Emma was leaning on me about to pass out... Was that not the longest ride ever!? 
