Nike Women's Half Marathon San Francisco-Race Review

So, would I run the Nike Women's Half in SF again?  YES!  But, I hear that it's not coming back (could be a rumor) and it definitely was an expensive adventure...but 100% worth it.

Here are my thoughts about the good and the bad of the whole race experience.

Good

• Awesome location
• Tiffany & Co finisher medal (seriously, my two medals-DC and SF-are the ONLY race medals I wear daily)
• Nike race swag and SF half marathon gear for purchase
• Fantastic crowd support
• Smooth organization and race execution

Bad

• Lack of communication about key race details
• Nike deciding to not mail race packets only 2 weeks prior to the race
• Crazy long, unorganized finisher boutique lines
• Nike gear is $$
• $20 ticket for a shuttle back to the start

I'd love to hear about your experiences.  The Nike FB page was full of very angry comments, which made for some highly interesting reading during our flight delay on the trip back home :)

We literally made the most out of every minute of our time in SF.  After the race, we shuttled back to the start (and pretty much the front door of our hotel), we showered and headed out to lunch.  The 49ers were playing, so the first place we attempted to go was full.  We ended up at an Irish pub and the food was pretty good.  BUT, my friend's credit card was overcharged $300...so BOO to that establishment and the fact that they won't respond to her to fix the issue.

Post lunch and fully refueled, we hopped on a cable car again and headed back down to the pier to bike the Golden Gate Bridge.  Nothing like running a half marathon and biking a bridge in one day.

The ironic part was on the ride down to the pier, we discussed how the weather had been nice and the traditional SF fog was not an issue.  We spoke a little too soon.  The bridge adventure was a little drizzly and definitely foggy.  But gorgeous nonetheless.

We rented bikes and followed the bike path (which wasn't as easy as the dude made it seem, although maybe our exhaustion hindered our critical thinking skills).  The path had one big hill and was a bit much for us and we walked our bikes some.  There was no actual bike path at this part and we were nervous nellies about it!  It also was getting dark, to be fair.

We sped back to try and return our bikes before the place closed, but we didn't make it, so we had to go a little further to their larger store and make the drop there.  We ended the night with some souvenir shopping and yummy Mexican dinner.  

That pretty much sums up our whirlwind trip.  Checkout was super early for us (5am-ish) and we hit the Bart and headed back to the airport.  Thankfully the only travel delay we experienced was the last leg of our trip.  Our final flight was 3 hours delayed and we didn't get back to our homes until 3am.  Totally.worth.it.

You can see my other race recap posts here, here, here, and here.

Nike Women's Half Marathon San Francisco-Race Results

So I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles to hear about my results and the end of the race.  Or not :)

I've been super busy pretty much since the school year started.  In fact, today seemed to be the first weekend day that I didn't have anything on my agenda.  It's been glorious.  And now I'm here to wrap up my SF Nike Women's Half recap.

As I previously stated, I had three over all performance goals. And I came EXTREMELY close to hitting the most ambitious one.

Here is the breakdown of my run...probably more than you'll ever want to know.

So I was obviously monitoring time and attending to my goals during the run.  When I got to the top of the hill around mile 10 (dear God that was tough) I knew that I was definitely on track to beat goal #1 (faster than my last 1/2) and also goal #2 (be done by 9:30am).  What I didn't realize was how close I was to my PR time!  Part of it was due to the fact that I couldn't remember the exact time.  FAIL.  I thought it was either 2:24 or 2:26.  Turns out I was wrong on both accounts.

I was 29 seconds from setting a new PR.  29 seconds!!!!!!  If I had known that I was that close, I would have a) run more of the giant hill and b) not walked at mile 12 when I ate my last Shot Blok.  So yes, I was a little frustrated with myself (and the cell reception at the finish line b/c I couldn't get my phone to pull up my Shamrock time!); however, the fact that I was even that close to my time makes me happy.  This course was MUCH MUCH tougher than the fast, flat Virginia Beach course. I also know that I could have pushed myself harder.  What this means is....I'm going to BRING it at next year's Shamrock.  I'll elaborate more on this goal closer to the race.

My last Nike post will be a race review and detail the fun we had post-race in San Fran! 

Nike Women's Half Marathon San Francisco-Race Day!

I can honestly say that I have NEVER, EVER slept so well the night before a race.  I guess the long travel time combined with a day of sight-seeing left me with no other choice.  And it was delightful.  Our 4:30 am wake-up didn't seem insane.  Probably because we were both fast asleep before 9 pm.

My pre-race ritual is to wake up; enjoy coffee, a banana, and a peanut butter chocolate chip Larabar; and then get myself "ready" for the run.  This process includes stuffing 3 Gus into my bra in a manner that doesn't irritate me, filling my hand-held water bottle, and getting dressed and bibbed up.

We walked out the door of our awesomely placed hotel-thank you fast running friend-and headed to the start line.  Despite lacking in the communication department, the Nike Women's Half was extremely well organized.  My fast running friend was in a faster corral than me, so we snapped a quick picture together (with her phone I think...) and parted ways.

Each corral was super well organized with its own set of porta-potties and gear check.  The only waiting I did that morning was for the race to start and then for my corral to be released!  I don't run with my phone (blogger fail, again) so I snapped a selfie and had a random new friend take a picture before I gear checked my phone.

Yes, it was dark for the start of the race.  The first corral took off right at 6:30 am and it was right about 7 am that I crossed the start line.  I had three goals in mind...I always have three.  Goal #1 was to beat my last half marathon time, goal #2 was to finish by 9:00, and goal #3 (which I told myself I was not serious about, but maybe I was) was to PR.  That goal seemed a bit far-fetched since this course was super hilly and what not...

I have zero course pictures because I run phoneless; however, the course was gorgeous, full of support and awesome runners!  The water stops and fuel stops were amazingly well run and had tons of volunteers working to make everything go smoothly.  Again, despite their lack of pre-race communication, Nike sure knows how to put together a great race.  And the race includes free photos!  

Here's a selfie I took after retrieving my stuff from gear check.

And this is my official finisher photo (or one of them at least).

Nike Women's Half Marathon San Francisco-First Night

After packet pick-up, we settled into our hotel room (which I TOTALLY forgot to snap pics of...still getting used to this whole blogging thing) and decided to head down to the Wharf/Pier area.  We hit up some public transportation again, but this time we took the cable cars!

We took the cable cars both days we were in San Fran and both times proved to be highly entertaining, and costly!  $7 for a one-way ride.  Yikes!  The drivers on our first trip were very cautious about our safety and were constantly reminding riders to lean in, especially when cars or other cable cars/buses passed us!

The view of the hill we were climbing was gorgeous and terrifying for the next day's run!

This picture was taken at the top-ish of the hill.  Please note that the climb up mirrored the drop down that you can see here!  Eek!

Once we got down to the water, the view was even more spectacular.

To the right of this picture was Alcatraz.  One day I'd love to take a tour, but you have to book weeks in advance and be prepared to shell out around $100.  Not quite budget friendly :)  But definitely an experience, from what I hear.

We took the cable car back to the hotel, although the trip took longer than we would have liked.  Apparently the drivers take their shift changes very seriously, and we straight up waited in the cable car, in park, in the middle of the road while the first crew left and the second crew arrived.  Literally it was a car full of folks with no attendants.  Got to love a union state.  Here in the Old Dominion we don't roll like that.

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we wandered for a hot minute before finding a pizza/Italian diner for dinner.  I definitely didn't take any pictures here and barely remember the meal.  We were both absolutely exhausted and couldn't wait to crawl in bed.  We both knew we'd sleep great the night before the race, since we'd been up for 24+ hours!  We had a 4:30 am wake up, so sleep was necessary for many reasons...

Nike Women's Half Marathon San Francisco-Arrival and packet pick-up

This past weekend was one of the most fabulous weekends that I have had in a long time.  Don't get me wrong, I have had some awesome weekends recently, but this one takes the cake!!!  I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco, California.

I enjoyed this fabulous weekend with another runner friend who is also a reading specialist.  I met her through my grad school cohort and we were fast friends!  Ironically, she is actually quite a fast runner too ;)

Our journey started around midnight on Friday.  I picked my fast runner friend up and we headed up to Reagan Airport in DC.  Traffic was quite light, not surprisingly since we left at midnight and we made great time.  We rolled into economy parking (which FYI is a bit of a misnomer, as it's $17 a day!), woke up the gate person, and were on a shuttle to the airport by 3:15 am.  Thankfully both flights took off and arrived on time and we landed in Cali around 9:45 am.  I even caught a few zzz's on the plane, which is rare for me.

The real fun began as we navigated the public transportation system to get from the airport to our hotel in Union Square.  We took an airport shuttle to the Bart station and then stared at the Bart map for a solid 5 minutes before determining which stop we needed and which line would get us there.  It took another 10 minutes to purchase our tickets at the kiosk, and not because we were clueless, it was just a slow process.

We were quite proud of ourselves! :)

We met a super friendly guy on the Bart who gave us some key tips that really proved to be helpful over the course of the weekend.  We hightailed it from the Bart station to check in to our hotel.  We stayed at the Hotel Beresford and I would highly recommend it.  They staff and facility were awesome!!!

After we dropped off our bags, we headed to packet pick-up at the Westin.  It was super well organized and we were in and out in a matter of minutes.  The whole weekend was well organized, the only issues we had were related to the lack of communication from Nike.  But I will get into that more in a future post reviewing the actual race.

We left the Westin and bee-lined to the Nike store to shop for SF gear and find our names on the wall.  I found mine and was even able to pose with it!  Woot woot!

After waiting in line to check out at Nike and dropping $125 on two items (which I LOVE) we headed back to the hotel to make our game plan.  Stay tuned for our evening adventures on night #1.

Down for the count

So between trying to work two jobs  (I got a new job, but couldn't start until I had a replacement at my old one, so I was half in both positions) and getting sick, I've been totally MIA. Ugh bronchitis, ain't nobody got time for that. But I'm on the mend and am feeling better.  I got in a good run Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I'm headed out for a good one shortly, I hope!  Yesterday I tried out my San Fran run outfit. Always try out race day apparel prior to the big day. You never know how things work out on the road. Here's my nod to Tiffany and Co and Nike....the race sponsors.

 Everything worked great, except for the socks. Those ended up with a hole in the toe. Good thing they're old. Guess I'll add that to my pre-race shopping list. What do you wear for races? Do you like something new, like me?  :)

Speed Work + Me = Love; BUT Long Runs + Me= Nothing Good :(

So as the title of this post might imply, my long runs have not been super fantastic.  Last weekend I had 10 miles scheduled and I did 7.  Hey, both numbers end in "n" so I was kind of on track.  Not.At.All.

But, all of my short runs and speed work/hill runs have been great.  On Monday nights I attend a free running group through Biffledinked Running, and this week's session felt great.  Wednesday I had 9x400s scheduled and I nailed them at the paces I wanted.

BTW, this is what I came home to after my Wednesday morning run.  It was about 5:45 am when I got home from the gym.  Guess he's not a morning pup.

Today I completed the run that I was scheduled to do on Thursday, but didn't make it b/c of time issues.  I did my normal routine of 3 bridge repeats over the Great Neck Bridge.  It was hotter than it's been all week and more humid, but my run felt GREAT!  Once again Speed Work + Me = Love!  I spotted these tally marks at the bottom of the hill and knew that my running group friend had done her own hill work here recently.

Ignore my creepy shadow.  One day I'll learn how to take normal pictures, or at least better ones.  Tomorrow I'm supposed to run a 15K race.  I couldn't find any, so I'm mapping out a route around my neighborhood.  Wish me luck!  I'm also in a weekend challenge for Fitbit, so that might motivate me to complete the long run.  Need those steps!