We ran like girls!

Like girls who kick ass!

Last year's theme for the Nike Half-Marathon was "Run like a girl", and the t-shirts at the end said "I ran like a girl" on them. That's a farking cool theme. Or at least I think so.

This year's theme was much lamer: "Run together". YAWN.

Blondie and I definitely did NOT run together, b/c Blondie KICKED SOME MAJOR ASS and RAN LIKE A GIRL ON STEROIDS, and finished the course in 2:22:41. That's 13.1 miles, over SF hills, in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 41 seconds. Which is AMAZING.

Yours truly also finished, but nothing rock-star like (although considering my lack of training, just finishing the thing was amazing in itself). I did in 3 hours, 10 minutes, and I can't remember the seconds. I'm a slow runner, and did have to walk a good portion of the course, but I was out there, sweating, panting, running, walking, for 13.1 miles.

We are now both in possession of pink t-shirts cut for a woman (sorry Blondie!) that say "Half-Marathon Finisher" on them, and silver Tiffany pendants (sorry again Blondie!).

Blondie is also in possession of distance-running bug, so I will try to catch that also. I honestly would like to be able to run a half-marathon in under 3 hours (2:45 sounds good to me), so I am going to start training seriously (none of this "I did 3 miles today, that's enough" which I have been doing) for another half in spring '08.

This is all thanks to Bikram - my lung capacity has improved so much due to yoga, that if I hadn't been doing it, I would've been looking at a 4+ hour half-marathon.

Funny coincidences from yesterday - I had read somewhere (I think my Runner's World magazine) that a lot of people focus on people in their lives for each mile they run - like mom for mile 1, dad for mile2, etc, and it makes the time go by faster. So for the first 9 miles, I focused on the people in my immediate family for each mile, before letting the pain take over for the last 4 miles.
1) My sis-in-law Mrs Pooh - when it was time for her mile, I ran past a gospel chorus (the only one on the entire course). Mrs Pooh is a church-goer, and this seemed pretty cool that this happened on her mile.
2) My mom - when it was time for her mile, I was running along Embarcadero/Crissy Field - which is right on the water-front. My mom loves the water, and being on the bay/ocean seemed pretty appropriate.
3) Funniest of all though was when it was Shug's mile - and I saw a GUY WITH A COWBELL! He was just standing there clanging away. It was so freaking random - when Shugs graduated from graduate school, her entire family brought cowbells and rang them like crazy when her name was called. It was sooooo funny, and seemed totally appropriate for Shugs' mile!

So give Blondie a HUGE hand and congratulations for how great he did! You can just give me a hand and a small congratulations.

-- Half-marathon Finisher.