adventure with the 2007 Nike Women's Marathon came to a close. Official "chip" time was 39 seconds slower than my 2006 time on the same course, and I'm beginning to understand why. It's a bit disappointing not being able to improve my time from the year before, but it's not a disaster. More about that in a moment, but first let's talk about the good news. We had a GREAT weekend in San Francisco, even though it was too short. Naomi had business meetings in SF on Wednesday and Thursday, so arrived ahead of me. We were staying with the TNT team at the Serrano Hotel on Taylor at O'Farrell. In the "Tenderloin" (which meant lots of interesting street people), only a couple of blocks from the race Expo and start at Union Square. We went over to Union Square as soon as I got to the hotel, about 2:00pm, and picked up our race packets, with the "bib" for the front of the shirt along with various giveaway goodies like "sport beans" (energy food for the race) and looked around the Expo.
Left the Expo and went across the street to Niketown - five stories of downtown SF Nike store, complete with loud music and crowds of fellow racers. Posted on the outside of the store is "the wall", a two story listing of the name of each entrant in the Nike Women's Marathon, always a crowd of people looking for their name. Naomi had been there on Thursday evening for their special "ladies night" packet pickup, complete with wine, cheese, free posters with all the entrant names from "the wall".
Back to the Expo to wait for the rest of the TNT National Capital Walk Team to arrive for packet pickup, greet everyone and get some photos. We then went back to the hotel to relax for a few minutes before the 5:00pm wine tasting in the lobby (nice touch in an old hotel). Then off on an adventure in a strange city - trolley to Divisadero Street for dinner at Metro Kathmandu, an excellent Nepalese restaurant. Great chance to sample the cuisine before we head to Bhutan/Nepal next April.
SATURDAY
Up and out about 7:30 for a walk to the Ferry Terminal Building with our friend Kevin Frederici from the Walk Team. Breakfast at the Farmers' Market has become a tradition any Saturday we are in San Francisco, with a great chance to get fresh and dried fruit, great yogurt and excellent breakfast tamales. Saturday was a "take it easy" sort of day, trying not to spend too much time on our feet and save energy for the marathon.
TNT Pasta Party at the Moscone Center Saturday evening with a few thousand of our close friends. John Bingham (aka "The Penguin", writes for Runners World and owns a company which puts on several marathons - we enjoy his races) does a funny and motivational speech. We learned there were some 4500 folks doing the Nike Marathon for TNT, and the combined funds raised were over $18.5 million. That's enough to provide some serious help for folks like the young lady who was our prinicipal speaker, telling us how much our fund-raising mattered to her and other blood cancer patients. Our dear friend Peggy G. was seated between me and the speaker, and it was sort of tough watching Peggy during the speech, knowing her cancer has recurred and she's back in chemo and other treatment. But she is DOING the Nike Marathon, and is a real inspiration to me any time I wonder whether the strength is there to complete the next mile.
This event makes me really proud of our National Capital team - 69 walkers and runners went to San Francisco, and each one met the $3800 fund-raising minimum, so we raised a lot of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We let the other teams know we were there too, whooping it up when our name was mentioned. Back to the hotel, get all the equipment and clothing ready for next morning and then try to sleep. Nerves make that difficult at best, but we have to try. Getting equipment ready the night before may sound like overkill, but it's the best way to be sure the "timing chip" is fastened on the shoe, the "bib number" is pinned to the singlet (and not pinned through the singlet, which makes it really tough to put it over your head), Gatorade mixed (I use the "Endurance Formula", buying it as a powder then carrying 3 or 4 snack size bags with enough for a single water bottle), clothes laid out and so forth.
SUNDAY
Out of bed at 3:30 to get ready for a 5:30 start, after a visit to the nearest all-night diner for a real breakfast. That's one of the advantages of doing an event in a city, fresh fried eggs, sausage, toast instead of hard-boiled eggs and cold bread. Besides, you see and meet some interesting people in the diners at that hour.
4:15am - Team Photos in the lobby for the three of us doing the full and taking the early start at 5:30. Two other walk teammates are doing the 7:00 start for the Full Marathon, with one of the Run/Walk team joining us, while Naomi and the others from our National Capital team doing the Full and Half Marathons are all at the later start. We walk about three blocks over to Union Square for the start, and going through the gate a familiar voice greets me. John Bingham is there, before 5:00am, with a light affixed to his hat, checking credentials. We have gotten to be friends over the past three years, and seeing him is good for the inevitable pre-race jitters. Star Spangled Banner, starting gun and here we go.
5:30am - Off through the streets of San Francisco, working to avoid cable car tracks, potholes, and other possible "trip you" spots while working to get around slower walkers. I chose to start very near the back of the pack, there is plenty of time for this and being in front simply means more crowds. Forgot my Garmin 301 unit (watch with built-in GPS unit) does not like being in tall buildings where the satellite signals are not clear, so for about the first mile there is no pace information, as it can't compare distance to elapsed time. Also miss the first mile marker, not sure whether it was not set up yet or just on other side of course from where I was looking. Not a big deal, although by the time I reached Mile 2 my pace was already one minute behind plan.
6:35 - Mile 4.5, by now we have done our first "hill", a short quick climb of about 60 feet up "Fort Moran" between the Embarcadero and the Marina. Nice spot in the daytime, it's a little tricky at 6:30am because it's not well lit (and is where I stumbled and fell in the 2005 Nike Marathon). The Old Scoutmaster had taken along a tiny flashlight, which was very useful in this section. Now we go across the Marina district (going by Ghiradelli Square), past Crissy Field on Mason Street to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. UP - Long Street to Lincoln Boulevard, going from 25 feet altitude to 295 feet in just over a mile. And our friends training for the Marine Corps Marathon think the slope to the Iwo Jima Memorial is a hill! Course map at
http://www.nike.com/nikemarathon/media/pdf/nike_marathon.pdfLeft the Expo and went across the street to Niketown - five stories of downtown SF Nike store, complete with loud music and crowds of fellow racers. Posted on the outside of the store is "the wall", a two story listing of the name of each entrant in the Nike Women's Marathon, always a crowd of people looking for their name. Naomi had been there on Thursday evening for their special "ladies night" packet pickup, complete with wine, cheese, free posters with all the entrant names from "the wall".
Back to the Expo to wait for the rest of the TNT National Capital Walk Team to arrive for packet pickup, greet everyone and get some photos. We then went back to the hotel to relax for a few minutes before the 5:00pm wine tasting in the lobby (nice touch in an old hotel). Then off on an adventure in a strange city - trolley to Divisadero Street for dinner at Metro Kathmandu, an excellent Nepalese restaurant. Great chance to sample the cuisine before we head to Bhutan/Nepal next April.
SATURDAY
Up and out about 7:30 for a walk to the Ferry Terminal Building with our friend Kevin Frederici from the Walk Team. Breakfast at the Farmers' Market has become a tradition any Saturday we are in San Francisco, with a great chance to get fresh and dried fruit, great yogurt and excellent breakfast tamales. Saturday was a "take it easy" sort of day, trying not to spend too much time on our feet and save energy for the marathon.
TNT Pasta Party at the Moscone Center Saturday evening with a few thousand of our close friends. John Bingham (aka "The Penguin", writes for Runners World and owns a company which puts on several marathons - we enjoy his races) does a funny and motivational speech. We learned there were some 4500 folks doing the Nike Marathon for TNT, and the combined funds raised were over $18.5 million. That's enough to provide some serious help for folks like the young lady who was our prinicipal speaker, telling us how much our fund-raising mattered to her and other blood cancer patients. Our dear friend Peggy G. was seated between me and the speaker, and it was sort of tough watching Peggy during the speech, knowing her cancer has recurred and she's back in chemo and other treatment. But she is DOING the Nike Marathon, and is a real inspiration to me any time I wonder whether the strength is there to complete the next mile.
This event makes me really proud of our National Capital team - 69 walkers and runners went to San Francisco, and each one met the $3800 fund-raising minimum, so we raised a lot of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We let the other teams know we were there too, whooping it up when our name was mentioned. Back to the hotel, get all the equipment and clothing ready for next morning and then try to sleep. Nerves make that difficult at best, but we have to try. Getting equipment ready the night before may sound like overkill, but it's the best way to be sure the "timing chip" is fastened on the shoe, the "bib number" is pinned to the singlet (and not pinned through the singlet, which makes it really tough to put it over your head), Gatorade mixed (I use the "Endurance Formula", buying it as a powder then carrying 3 or 4 snack size bags with enough for a single water bottle), clothes laid out and so forth.
SUNDAY
Out of bed at 3:30 to get ready for a 5:30 start, after a visit to the nearest all-night diner for a real breakfast. That's one of the advantages of doing an event in a city, fresh fried eggs, sausage, toast instead of hard-boiled eggs and cold bread. Besides, you see and meet some interesting people in the diners at that hour.
4:15am - Team Photos in the lobby for the three of us doing the full and taking the early start at 5:30. Two other walk teammates are doing the 7:00 start for the Full Marathon, with one of the Run/Walk team joining us, while Naomi and the others from our National Capital team doing the Full and Half Marathons are all at the later start. We walk about three blocks over to Union Square for the start, and going through the gate a familiar voice greets me. John Bingham is there, before 5:00am, with a light affixed to his hat, checking credentials. We have gotten to be friends over the past three years, and seeing him is good for the inevitable pre-race jitters. Star Spangled Banner, starting gun and here we go.
5:30am - Off through the streets of San Francisco, working to avoid cable car tracks, potholes, and other possible "trip you" spots while working to get around slower walkers. I chose to start very near the back of the pack, there is plenty of time for this and being in front simply means more crowds. Forgot my Garmin 301 unit (watch with built-in GPS unit) does not like being in tall buildings where the satellite signals are not clear, so for about the first mile there is no pace information, as it can't compare distance to elapsed time. Also miss the first mile marker, not sure whether it was not set up yet or just on other side of course from where I was looking. Not a big deal, although by the time I reached Mile 2 my pace was already one minute behind plan.
6:35 - Mile 4.5, by now we have done our first "hill", a short quick climb of about 60 feet up "Fort Moran" between the Embarcadero and the Marina. Nice spot in the daytime, it's a little tricky at 6:30am because it's not well lit (and is where I stumbled and fell in the 2005 Nike Marathon). The Old Scoutmaster had taken along a tiny flashlight, which was very useful in this section. Now we go across the Marina district (going by Ghiradelli Square), past Crissy Field on Mason Street to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. UP - Long Street to Lincoln Boulevard, going from 25 feet altitude to 295 feet in just over a mile. And our friends training for the Marine Corps Marathon think the slope to the Iwo Jima Memorial is a hill! Course map at
7:20 - Mile 7.25, after reaching the "peak" of Lincoln Blvd., crossing the Presidio to Camino Del Mar on a gentle downgrade, we head down 32nd Avenue to Clement Street. Left on Clement, and UPHILL again! This time it's less steep, but it seems almost endless, until we pass the VA Hospital and start down towards the ocean. During this stretch the "gazelles" (elite runners, who will do the marathon in under 2.5 hours) begin to pass us, complete with motorcycle escorts. The runners will continue to pass us for the next couple of hours, having started later but often moving faster.
8:00am - Mile 10 - Our friend Ed Avant is waiting with extra "gels" (food supplements) and encouragement, a very welcome if momentary break. Past Seal Rocks and the Cliff House, then steep downhill on Point Lobos Avenue to the Great Highway. As we come around the curve at Cliff House the beach stretches out for miles, with just a bit of fog visible in the distance. Nearer at hand are the large white tents at the finish line, but we won't be going there for quite a while.
Mile 11 is around the corner and in Golden Gate Park, where we will do about five miles, going up JFK Drive to the Art Museum, then back out on the Lincoln Street side. The Half Marathon course splits off at about mile 12, takes a shorter route back to rejoin our course just east of the Great Highway on the south side of the park. Oh, did I mention the Art Museum is at 240 feet, compared to 25 feet when we entered the park? At least it's a very long slow upgrade, but it's still UP.
9:30am Mile 16.2 - Lincoln Boulevard and the Great Highway, the Half Marathon turns right to do their last tenth of a mile, but we turn left to go south on the Great Highway. This is when the miles start to feel a little longer, but at least we have the ocean on the right, and there are a fair number of folks out to cheer us on. Having my name on my singlet means people I've never met before call out "Go Tom", which is a nice boost.
Somewhere along the way I've fallen in with a couple of run/walk TNT members from Louisville who are moving at more or less the same pace. (Later learned they were Anuji Abraham and Margaret Anderson.) At times they will run ahead, then I'll walk past them, then they'll run a bit more. We talk, but not a great deal as we are sort of using our oxygen for other purposes at the moment. Wind up being more or less next to them until just before the finish line.
Along the Great Highway between miles 16 and 18, along comes the smiling face of Coach Shari
Tanck, just checking to be sure all is OK and going well. Perfect illustration of one of the biggest advantages of doing this kind of event with TNT - the TEAM is real, and the coaches are all there to help us, based on their training and their own hard-won experience.
Tanck, just checking to be sure all is OK and going well. Perfect illustration of one of the biggest advantages of doing this kind of event with TNT - the TEAM is real, and the coaches are all there to help us, based on their training and their own hard-won experience. 11:00 - Mile 18, past the Zoo, then at about 18.7 the course turns East to cross a ridge over to Lake Merced. We do a 4+ mile loop around Lake Merced, passing the San Francisco State University campus.
Mile 22 - I see a woman on the curb cheering people on, wearing an outlandish hat with blue ears sticking up and jumping up and down. I pass her, she reads the "Walking Tom" on the back of my singlet, and then starts yelling "TOM - it's LIZZY". Have been swapping emails with Liz Shepard from California and Deb Hellman from Denver, who is walking the Nike, and Lizzy promised to be out there cheering. (We are all three alumni of Dave McGovern racewalking clinics.) Nice feeling, thanks Lizzy! If you have ever done long miles, by this time you are getting really tired, so greetings from a friend like Dizzy Lizzy is a real boost.
11:45 - Mile 25 and here's Jacque Carter, my Coach from National Capital TNT, there to give us a boost before the finish. She asks how I'm doing, I tell her felling good even though I'm not likely to make a PR today. She asks if I want her to pace me, but at that point I have to reply "Thanks Coach, but don't think there is anything left in the tank for more speed, so with the finish in sight Jacque peels off and goes back to help the next teammate.
12:06 - Cross the finish line a little later than hoped for, but at least with no back problems and able to give the photographer a "thumbs up". Just beyond the finisher medals, calling to me from the sidelines - John Bingham, "The Penguin" himself.And just a few yards beyond him was Naomi . Great way to finish a long hard day.
I will be back next year to make that 6:30 finish time.
Mile 22 - I see a woman on the curb cheering people on, wearing an outlandish hat with blue ears sticking up and jumping up and down. I pass her, she reads the "Walking Tom" on the back of my singlet, and then starts yelling "TOM - it's LIZZY". Have been swapping emails with Liz Shepard from California and Deb Hellman from Denver, who is walking the Nike, and Lizzy promised to be out there cheering. (We are all three alumni of Dave McGovern racewalking clinics.) Nice feeling, thanks Lizzy! If you have ever done long miles, by this time you are getting really tired, so greetings from a friend like Dizzy Lizzy is a real boost.
11:45 - Mile 25 and here's Jacque Carter, my Coach from National Capital TNT, there to give us a boost before the finish. She asks how I'm doing, I tell her felling good even though I'm not likely to make a PR today. She asks if I want her to pace me, but at that point I have to reply "Thanks Coach, but don't think there is anything left in the tank for more speed, so with the finish in sight Jacque peels off and goes back to help the next teammate.
12:06 - Cross the finish line a little later than hoped for, but at least with no back problems and able to give the photographer a "thumbs up". Just beyond the finisher medals, calling to me from the sidelines - John Bingham, "The Penguin" himself.
I will be back next year to make that 6:30 finish time.
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2 comments:
Congratulations Tom! Really glad to see you standing straight and tall at the finish! You're an inspiration.
Oh Tom ... I am crying now!!! You are THE BEST!!!! You didn't look like you had a care in the world when you went flying by!!! You told me to look for an old slow guy ... you're neither ... but you are a guy! CONGRATS in a BIG WAY!!! Next year, I'll be in the field with ya!
Cheering ya from long distance --
Hugs --
Lizzy
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