Race Recap: Nike Women's Half Marathon

I'm not completely happy to say that my 10th half marathon was one filled with so many ups and so many downs (I am not talking about the San Francisco hills here) -- but at the end of the day, I'd call the Nike Women's Half Marathon fun.

I initially wrote a long post that screamed of complete negativity and I didn't like how it turned out. I don't want to diss a race that's important to so many people for so many reasons, so instead I will just breeze over the bad instead of focusing on it. Condensing the negative points into bullets will prevent me from going off on some unnecessary diatribe right?

1.) The "Expotique": A 3-day event in Union Square where Nike doesn't let any other company sell anything to ensure they dominate the entire sport's market for a few days. Going to the "expo" was more like going into a nightclub, but outside and in the middle of the day. Huge crowds, blaring music, and inconsiderate and pushy participants gave me a headache and the angries within minutes.

ZOMG my name is a square inch on the temporary wall art! I'm famous! Let me through!

2.) The participants: 25,000 people is a lot of people. A LOT of people. When the majority of them are walking/randomly stopping/switching lanes without signaling/being inconsiderate/never having been a part of a race before and therefore not following any sort of etiquette, it makes me want to kick some necks. I felt that sensation a lot while in the bag check and during the 13.45 miles I ultimately ran on Sunday morning.

Effff.

3.) The bag check. In theory, the way they set up a bag check with school buses was a great idea. However, it was so inconveniently located and congested with people that we couldn't even push our way through. My claustrophobic tendencies made me want to panic a bit, simply because I was afraid of being trampled to death by a bunch of perfumey girls.

Efffff part 2.

4.) This course. This was definitely not an easy course! I venture to say that this was harder than the San Francisco Marathon in terms of the hills (three different stretches of mile+ uphills?), and yet it seemed to be marketed to beginners...

NWM 2011 course profile.

5.) The immature high-school volunteers. Let's just say that some physical volunteer-to-participant contact was unnecessarily made, some 4-letter words were exchanged, security was about to be called on us, and we left the post-race expo angry, ready to kick some more necks, and drink the last few hours away.


NOW, onto all the good!

1.) Rad Runner Girl! Early Friday morning, my best running friend Rad flew into town and we had grand plans for the most epic weekend ever; a weekend that just so happened to include a race with 24,198 other psychos. We started off by heading to the Expotique where we met up with Courtney, found our names on the Niketown wall, satiated Rad's photobooth junkieness, and then busted the hell out of there in leiu of ramen.

(Okay, okay, so we pushed our way through to find our names on the wall, too.
Guilty as charged.)

Niketown Expotique

Loves.

Thanks, Pom, for letting us waste too much time in the photobooth with a long line behind us.

2.) Audrey Hepburn outfits! Originally we were planning on wearing good-ole Tiffany Blue for the race, but nixed the idea in the last few weeks because we were actually too lazy to shop for the outfit figured other people were going to be wearing that. Instead, we decided to dress like Audrey Hepburn a la Breakfast at Tiffany's. While I'm not sure many people appreciated or even understood the costume, we did get a lot of hoots and hollers for the pearls. :)

Courtney, me, & Rad, channeling Audrey.

Sheer brilliance.

Ready to rawk.

Work it!

3.) Friends! Courtney and I told Rad we were going to do our best to get her across the finish line in under 2 hours so she could set a new PR, but the fact is there was no way it was going to happen with all the people or the hills we were running. Instead we just went with the slow & painful march, enjoyed one another's company, dodged whoever and whatever we could whenever we could, and successfully stayed together the entire time. (This was a huge feat, honestly.) I am used to running races alone, so running with two awesome running friends was seriously, seriously amazing. So fun.

BRFs actually getting to run together!

There was a big TV screen with runners going by featured on it. Do the people on screen look familiar?

How about now? I see a Courtney Audrey & a Rad Audrey!

Best cheerleaders ever: Page, Jess, and Katie! (Sorry I cut you off, Dennis. Makes up for you forgetting to give me a Twitter shout-out???) Hey, XLMIC, where were ya??

4.) The scenery! While running the hills on this particular course was a royal pain in the ass, I never get sick of these views.

Sun rising behind the Bay Bridge. It looked much better with purple sunglasses on.

Running toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

Running down Lincoln Blvd, looking onto the Avenues.

Passing the Cliff House on the way to Ocean Beach.

5.) The finisher's medal, provided by Tiffany & Co. Ahhhh. This was perhaps the most redeeming factor of the race and/or the only reason we ran it.

Tiffany & Co. necklaces are passed out by firefighters in tuxedos.
Totally ridiculous. Totally fun.

This is probably my first real piece of jewelry because, if you haven't surmised, the pearls I ran with around my neck were actually plastic.

Overall...

I am still trying to look at this race from an objective point of view. While it was a Nike event, there were clear problems with the organization and the execution of this race. It was not a runner's race -- instead, it was a race geared toward the amazing Team in Training participants & supporters, many of whom were doing a race for the first time and had no qualms about stopping at a dead standstill in the middle of the road or having any regard for a finishing time. Their efforts should in no way be overlooked, and it's important to note that they raised a sick amount of money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This is far more important than any time on the finisher's clock, but it was frustrating for the runners to not get to run their own race safely.

That being said, I had a great time running with my friends, and I wouldn't change that experience for the world. After seeing how this race went down, I wouldn't want to do it any other way either; and if the opportunity ever comes up again, I'd want to run it casually in this same fashion. It's the kind of event that brings everyone of every ability together; it's an activity that should be absorbed and enjoyed.

So there we have it... the fastest slow (and my longest) half marathon I've ever run. Being around my friends in such a crowded and energetic atmosphere made the miles FLY by, even though we were doing anything but flying. Every time a mile clicked by, I think I told Rad & Courtney that I really didn't want it to be done.

And yet, at the exact same time, I just couldn't wait to be far, far, FAR away from the Nike Women's Marathon.