Nike Women’s San Francisco Half Marathon 2014

I spent the entire year thinking about running the Nike Women’s SF Half again after running it for my first half last year. I knew it would be my goal race for 2014. When I couldn’t run while I was injured I flip flopped between stressing over not being able to run at all and imagining myself finishing it. I spent months focusing on this one race and making it across the finish line.

After getting extremely dehydrated at my last half in August (and being fairly convinced I was dying), I was nervous I would make a complete mess of this race too. I was fairly conservative with my pacing on the way out and I approached every hill carefully to make sure I didn’t burn myself out by trying to charge up them.

Mentally it’s easier for me to not know when a hill is coming or how long it will last.I honestly didn’t spend too much time looking at the course map before the race. I didn’t realize that this year’s new course had a lot of hills. On Friday one of my coworkers told me he was going to be cheering with November Project SF at the brutal hill at mile 10. (Wait, what hill!?! How long?!?) Throughout the race (and even in the corral before it started) I heard people whining about how hard the hill at mile 10 was going to be, but I couldn’t wait. I knew there would be a huge crew, and I was 100 percent confident that their cheers and my sheer determination would get me up the hill. I actually motivated myself during the race by thinking about how great seeing them all would be.

When I finally made up most what I’m now calling The Hill From Hell, I gave Josh the sweatiest, most disgusting hug, and instead of telling me I was gross, he ran to the top with me. By the time he left me at the top of the hill (with another very moist hug, sorry Josh!), I was feeling recharged and ready to put the last three miles behind me. I let gravity do the hard work and did my best to fly downhill without fighting it.

At this point I was pretty sure I was going to finish feeling better than last time. I still felt strong, my legs were still working, and I didn’t feel like I was going to vomit or collapse at any moment. The course started to be filled with more people cheering, and I tried to focus on all their energy instead of how tired my legs were. (Big thank you to everyone who came out and cheered, especially the people who called me out by name and gave me some much needed energy on the last mile.)

I don’t think I have ever felt so good crossing the finish line. I had an actual finishing kick that made me feel like I was flying (even though I’m pretty sure I looked like I wasn’t even moving to everyone else). I felt strong and proud of how I had raced. I was exhausted, but not sick (a huge accomplishment if you ask me).

Throughout most the race I had a huge smile on my face. I laughed multiple times per mile, and I never once regretted being out there. The spectators were amazing, the volunteers were irreplaceable, and the other runners were pure motivation for me. I love how positive the entire race is. It’s an amazing feeling to be running with so many other women who are out there to challenge themselves and have fun. I’m happy with how I ran SF.