The San Francisco Marathon has come and gone and I survived!  I don’t know what possessed me to run it in the first place.  The fact that I have been running since high school made it a logical goal.  Maybe that combined with a bit of the “I am a stay-at-home mom ; therefore I must refurnish furniture, cook gourmet meals each day, set outlandish goals and have perfect children” syndrome with a dash of the fact that running a marathon seems to be the yuppy “in” thing to do in our extremist society.  For whatever reason, I did it and I am thinking that I may never do it again or that I am addicted to running them now.  I can’t decide which but I am leaning towards that latter.

Tom and I went into the city Saturday morning to have a day to ourselves.  Katie took Liam for the night and it was really nice not to have to worry about him in the city, especially at night considering how terrible of a sleeper he is when he is in a new place.  He gets that from me.  I was a little nervous because it was the first time that we had both been away from him for a night but he did great with Katie and she said that they had a really good time.

It was fun to be in the city with Tom.  It reminded me of the times that we would just go in to walk around aimlessly.  We went to the runner’s expo in the morning and I got my “Worth the Hurt” bib and swag (although at about mile 19 I decided that they should change their motto to “Worth the Inevitable Back Surgery that You Will Have to Have.”)  Then it was off to Market to do a little shopping and a lot of window shopping.  Then off to Chinatown and down North Beach to the warf where I tried to eat as much of a Boudin’s bread bowl that I could.

In the afternoon, we checked into our hotel.  We got a room in a little boutique hotel downtown called Hotel des Arts where each room has been painted by a different local artist.  I had called a few weeks before to request a room that I thought was very pretty but when we arrived, I was told that we had a different room.  I don’t know how to put it in words, so here are the pictures of what we wanted…and what we got!  BEST ROOM EVER!

This is the room that I wanted...

AND THIS IS WHAT I GOT….

I was glad I brought my recreation clothes because my robes they was astinky!

NACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Just in case you need motivation in the bathroom...

The blue masked dude was my favorite with his pathetic lone tooth.  Let’s just say that this room killed any thoughts of a nice night away from Liam although Tom and I did learn some new moves along the lines of body slams and pins.

The marathon was great.  I finished in 4 hrs 5 min and am very pleased with my time especially considering all the hills.  I finished 1,919 out of 5,873 total runners and 402 of 2,014 women.  I loved the course.  It was typical SF weather with fog throughout the course, but not enough that the view over the Golden Gate wasn’t breathtaking.  I didn’t start to feel it until mile 18.  I think that is when I hit my wall and started counting the miles.  It was a good thing that the course went down Haight where there is never a lack of interesting things to see.  I have to admit that I cried a bit at the finish because I actually ran the whole thing, and Tom got a little misty when he hugged me although he will deny it.  The only problem was that Katie didn’t get there with Liam in time so he wasn’t there and she was supposed to take pictures so I don’t have any personal pictures.  Tom was taping it, but when I tried to watch the video all I saw was the four second blur of the concrete.  So at this moment, I don’t have any pics to post but if you go to http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/sfm2011 and type in my number 7296, you can see a blurry video of me in a white jacket in one and my yellow WV shirt in another.  I have to wait a few days until they get the pics ready and then I can fork out an inflated price for them because they will be the only pics I have.

I feel great now.  My legs are a bit sore, but not as bad as I expected.  I am definitely doing this again.  If things work out the way I want I will be back in 2013!