Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Dinner After ... Nike Women's Marathon



The Nike Women's Marathon was not easy, but that was not a surprise based on my training for this race.  I firmly believe anyone can run a marathon if they train for it...  I did not follow my normal training schedule and did not have a normal experience.  That said, there were many things to appreciate today:
  • The TNT volunteers are truly amazing. Favorite vignettes include the coach with the "free, performance enhancing hugs" sign on his back -- every one ran up to this guy for a positive reinforcement, coach walking hand in hand with a struggling participant, and the mentor at mile 18 with the sign that said "only 8 miles left". I have never seen a group of people so interested in supporting others through a positive, perhaps once in a lifetime experience.... 
  • TNT participants. I was constantly inspired by the participants, either their commitment to run for someone they loved and lost (or hoped to keep) or their sheer strength in surviving a blood cancer followed by living to run a marathon so that others have a better chance of surviving too.
  • Personal Bests. Big smiles every time I saw someone "labeled" as a first time marathoner. Lots of people had some notation to that effect. Good for them. :)
  • Gorgeous course. I thought this was harder than the SF Marathon (http://www.runsfm.com). I missed the Golden Gate bridge, but loved the ocean facing parts of the course and appreciated the semi-secluded, peaceful lap around Lake Merced for miles 19-23.
Calafia saved the day with an excellent dinner:

1 comment:

  1. Found this on the NY Marathon website, recipes for their pasta feed:

    http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/entrantinfo/recipes.htm

    ReplyDelete