i am absolutely
FAMISHED! all day, i woke up hungry & thirsty...
i ate and i ate and i ate.....
still tummy's feeling unusual. empty kinda. could be getting over my cold... i've
lost 90% of my voice, occassionally coughing still but bringing phelm with it (tasty descriptions, i know). my "just cough" had turned into a hacking cough/loss of voice/congestion/runny nose this last week. every day i think i'm on the upswing; not sure i'm
delusional or my
body is slow at recovery.
went to bed at
6pm. that's right 6pm, old-folks' curfew here... i
slept for 12 hours, woke up twice, coughing each time and needing liquids...
images bombarded me when i woke up...
male cheerleaders with red and black pom-poms,
guys with slick-back hair in tuxedos holding
silver platters full of
tiffany-color jewlery boxes, the noise of cheering crowd
drowning the roar of the ocean at Ocean Beach...
i felt around my neck - there it was, my
Tiffany sterling silver pendant and chain, small enough to wear everyday, 4 letters on the back engraving into the pendant and my memory "
SF06" of my very first half marathon!!! we did it M, we really gone and done it!!!!
my feet and legs ache with every movement today, although not as bad as yesterday... and i'm not sure it's from playing hockey after my half marathon or just the half marathon...
when we got to the starting line,
the sky was dark as midnight; the
roar of the crowd that was there was crazy!!! the feeling was indescrible, so exciting, so many people beside you all with
a common goal; no competitive feeling, just an insurmountable crazy amount of
support for each other.
originally planned to run-walk the entire thing, but
my horrid cold/flu have set me back, M. & i decided to
powerwalk the entire race instead. that way my lungs won't be beaten down more than it already was; my body, all these years, have been
streamlined trained for long half-marathon-style endurance shopping expeditions.
i'm ready for powerwalking.when we picked up our packets the day before at Union Square, we got a free
pace bracelet - you give them your target goal time to completion, the computer calculates and prints your per mile target time based on the inclination and terrain of that mile. our
target time for walking was 4 hours, the volunteer looked at us after i told her in my
barely-there, raspy voice what we intended to do, and she
looked a little bit doubtful "that's a VERY fast pace for a walk..." she said quietly. i told M. we'd just imagine a great sales on Seven jeans.
at 7am yesterday, we were
pumped and excited; the SF mayor, Fire Dept and Police Dept chiefs of SF were there for the opening ceremony to kick off the race; the music was pumping,
the entire scene was surreal with empowerment. we lined up according to our target pace time/mile, our official clock resides on a little chip we tie to our shoe and only activate when we cross the start line.
since i lost my voice, i felt bad because i wasn't good company for M. i think it would've been more fun if we could've told stories and made each other laugh during the half marathon... but we were both good sports and had our ipods on, occassionally commenting on the local spots of interest -
mostly my pointing and half-ass signing skills (bay bridge view with the beautiful
sunrise backdrop, the
fog covering up the entire view of Golden Gate making it disappear a la David Copperfield style...)
miles 1 & 2 were the best, because everyone was pumped up, no one was tired yet, and since we were downtown there were a lot of spectators, family & friends, even construction workers & other ppl in restaurants all cheering us on.
all along the course there were enough
water/gatorade stops... and the luna bars really fuel you up... i don't know why the port-a-potties have huge lines, iwas sweating out everything i drank!
the path took us by Fishermen's Wharf, and around Fort Mason, up the hills (and the Oxygen Bar stop was atop a hill, appropriately enough - the scented oxygen smelled like perfumed air, i guess that's what it's supposed to be), up through the Presidio houses (beautiful houses), and through some scenic neighbourhoods, down through Ocean beach and a bit of a round through the Golden Gate park (passed the bison pen)
after mile 11, there were no more mile markers into the Golden Gate park... at this point our feet were hurting and we had less fans cheering along the side; and every step was heavy...
it FELT like we've walked a mile, where is the damn marker?! the further along we didn't see mile 12 marker, the more discouraging it was... you mean, we haven't even gotten to the first 50% of the remaining 2 miles??? how much further?!?!?!
LIES! there were
no Ghiredelli Chocolate mile at 11.9 miles! there weren't even signs for it, though M. tries to point me to see all the empty silvery chocolate wrappers littered on the dirt trail; i was huffing and puffing and half ignored her so i can continue to move my feet... we started seeing signs for the
last 1/2 mile, banners, cheering...
so we started to sprint...
mind you, had i known just how far we were i would've walked a bit more before the final sprint... like we sprinted towards the sign, which wasn't the finish line, but then we turned and continue and the finish line was a block down... by then all the
fans were cheering you on, the
MCs were announcing the runners and encouraging everyone... M. and i were sprinting step for step with each other...
i'm out of breath, my lungs are hurting, we cross the finish line, and the
oxygen leave my brain, and i see a bunch of guys in
black tux, each holding a
big silver platter, each platter holding many
little square Tiffany boxes...the images didn't quite click,
my instincts did tell my fingers to reach for a box, so i did, then we were shush along to make room for incoming runners, and were handed an empty Tiffany bag to hold our stuff, our timer chips are cut away from our shoes, and M. and i can finally breath...
M. was dazed, for a long time afterwards... the excitement, the shock, the out of air.. we gobbled down some granola and yogurt provided by the sponsors, then we sat, and felt the pain in the legs and feet...
we stared and the enormity of what we had finished hits us... we checked out the Tiffany box to really see if something's in there... and we see people having clam chowder soup bowls... so we weaved our way to buy ourselves some soup. there were lots of tents set up, lots of sponsors giving out free stuff (gatorade, jamba juice, luna bars, nakes granola...) and lots of vendors selling stuff (the food stands, nike products for this occassion).
family and friend reunited in this area, war stories were exchanged about the best and worse part of the race, the kind policemen protecting our route, the black-and-red male cheerleaders, the 4 goofy guys holding a sign that says "call us, we're lonely, not picky" and one of them had their phone numbers on it - many girls ran by, stopped and took a picture with them. brilliant idea, i am sure these boys will get some calls in the future!
it's a little
shocking to know you have crossed the finish line... at the end, without the mile markers, things look gloom, and the feet and legs hurt. what kept us going was that along the path,
i'd look next to me, this older pair, probably my mom and her mom's age, asian ladies, keeping pace with me and M. through a good mile of the race.
i think if they can do this... we see all types of women out there, older, younger, better shape, worse shape. i'm walking with them, and
the thought unites us - we all started at the same place, we're all heading in the same direction on the same path, we can and will do this. - no doubt this was a huge event for the
Team in Training organization. if you haven't heard of it, they raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. say you sign up with them to run the 1/2 Marathon in New Orleans next year. your signing help obligates you to raise 3600$ for this race. (each race has a different target amount) it means you have to canvas and write letters and run fundraisers to get this money, and by the deadline if you haven't raised that money you still have to foot that money yourself. i think
over 80% of the money goes towards the research, and the rest covers your airfare, hotel and entry to the race. they also assign group coaches, and have programs to set you up once a week to run with a run buddy for the same race with similar pace time as you, and once a week a run with your local Team in Training group.
it's really a great organization, i see they have mentors, and coaches and honorees cheering each other on throughout the race.
"Go Team!" was a constant cheer/chant. there were Team in Training chapters from all over, Hawaii, North Carolina, Vancouver who flew in for this specific race, and no matter which chapter, all the Team in Training staff would encourage any of their members. there's a half mile where there were pictures and collages of loved ones they were running for, a lot of them young kids, or even young parents of kids
. one particularly striking poster had pictures and the words "
if you think this hill is hard, try chemo". haunting words.i think i may like to do this half marathon again next year, but try to raise money and get ppl to sponsor me. i almost did Team in Training a few years back, but the finanacial commitment was too much pressure at the time. maybe one day i'll be able to commit that kind of energy, it is such a good cause and it builds such a close-knit support group of people you fundraise with, run with, travel with, share stories with and encourage each other. Each person also has an Honoree, if you do not know someone suffering directly from Lukemia & Lymphoma, you will, and you will know them well, and you will be running on their behalf...
alright, this has been a long blog entry... the excitement and pain are still fresh.
and
yes i did make it to my hockey game yesterday. my shifts were slightly shorter than usual cuz my lung capacity was limited (i think major contributor of that is my cold more so than the race), but i skated to the best of my abilities. made decent plays, our final score was 1-0, so the game was close.
i went home, and took a hot hot bath, then made something to eat, crawled into bed. the house is a mess. now i'm hungry all day long. my body's out of whack. it's saying 'why are you doing this? why make me suffer? i'm still sick!'
i promised deviline and d. that i should 'Take it Easy' for a little bit; their suspicions are that my body keeps falling apart as protest because i keep stressing it. to be honest, i haven't really intensely trained for this half, not like i really should be... but now that it's behind me, i will start to take it easier especially mentally trying not to stress so much. does anyone have a good humidifier to recommend? :) i think part of the issue is my throat gets so dried when i sleep at night. i'm also going to find a competent doctor in my area, dammit. :)
that's it for this blog update...
oh ppl ask what our time was, officially it was 3 hours 38 minutes +. our target was 4 hours. we were 2 minutes slower than my friend who was running 1 mile and then walking 1 mile. i think that 2 minutes could be when i stood at the oxygen bar, or when i had them put the temporary tattoo on me ;) hehehe
