#SFM2013

Yet another The San Francisco Marathon weekend has come and gone, but the memories will last a lifetime!  

I hardly slept with all the activities that surrounded race day and the stimulation that surrounded me was completely worth the lack of z’s.

It was great to meet (and see again) those ambassadors that I have spent a year getting to know digitally. It was also amazing to see so many of my friends again. Since I moved out of the Bay Area, it always seems like a whirlwind trying to see everyone when I come in to visit. So how wonderful it was to be able to see them all in one place!

It has been a really fun time representing SFM once again for the 2nd year as an ambassador. Even though it has only been a few days since the race, I already miss all of my ambassador family! The experience is one I will never forget and I cherish all the fabulous moments!

Before the race recap, I thought I would share a few (or more than a few pictures) of all the fun I had leading up to race day.

Fellow Ambassadors Bruce, Meg, & Elise

Posing w/ newlywed Jen

Ambassador Dinner

Shakeout Run at Lululemon w/ Layla

Shakeout run w/ fellow ambassadors Bruce, Emily, Chris, & Jon

Lululemon Shakeout Group pic

SFM chicks w/ Ciara, Daniela, Courtney, Jojo, Alyssa, & Layla

This year some of us ambassadors did the whole Sparkle skirt thing w/ Courtney, Heather, Meg, & Elise

Charlie stylin' a shirt he made for Monika

Da boys - Albert, Christopher, Keith

My favorite girl Katie and her blueberry

Tweetup w/ Christopher, Brian, & Daniela and of course gotta love the photo bomb w/ Dennis. With an unintentional appearance but looking stunning still; Erin. Hair & arm shown of Alyssa (rht) Paulette (lft)...I think

This year, I ran the 2nd Half course. It had occurred to me that this was my first half marathon road race of the season. Which admittedly, is a bit odd. I had focused so much of my time on trails that I forgot about pavement...At least for a little bit. That being said, I really did not have any goals except to have fun! And that is exactly what I did x’s a billion.

As Paulette and I were boarding the shuttle to take us to the Golden Gate Park, the start line for the 2nd half, I asked her if she had any goals. She told me that she wanted to PR and cross the finish line under 2:05. It was then that I knew I wanted to help her achieve her goal.

At the start line waiting in the Wave 2 corral there were heat lamps! My goodness, this was the best thing ever! While the weather was warmer for a typical San Francisco morning, it was still brisk. Huddled around these glorious lamps I was surrounded by so many friends! I thought my heart would burst from happiness! My friends Shannon and Ivette were among them. They wanted to take the race easy as they had both ran a 50k and trail marathon the week before. They also agreed to run w/ me and support Paulette in achieving her goal.

Pre race w/ Paulette in our matching gear

W/ Kelle & Ivette pre race. Not shown Heat Lamp

Pre race w/ Paulette, Courtney, and Monika. Still not shown the heat lamp, but it was there!

And then we were off! The first eight miles seemed to fly by as we chatted and took in all the beauty of Golden Gate Park. The hills felt effortless to me. I am not certain if that was caused from running in Placerville where it is all hills, or from training on the trails, but I will take it regardless! It was at the eight mile mark that Paulette informed us that it was the fastest eight miles she had ever run. I told her that regardless what happened she already PR’d!

I was quite surprised with how great I felt out on the course! In the last 48 hours leading up to the race I might have gotten a total of four hours of sleep. Despite this however,  I had a blast the whole 13 plus miles with energy to spare! I mean, hard not to when you have friends running with you on a fantastic course, in a beautiful city!

Paulette started to slow down a bit and it was here that I might have yelled at her a few times! You have to understand, it was all out of love. Besides, I knew if she had slowed down, she would not get that PR. Those next miles, it was #TeamPaulette every stride of the way. Between Ivette, Shannon, and I, we pushed Paulette to her limits. Ivette was an amazing resource. Having run the SFM many times before, she knew exactly where the cameras were all positioned at. With a 30 second warning, we were able to prepare for our close up. Although, no matter how much prep time you get, do we ever really have a fabulous race photo?

The last mile I looked at my Garmin and told Paulette to dig deep and up her step. She did, and we all crossed the finish line at 2:04:30 which was a three minute PR for Paulette! I have to say, I really enjoyed pacing. There is something very rewarding when running to help someone else achieve their goal. Not to mention, the pressure was off of me so I could really enjoy the course!!

#TeamPaulette w/ Shannon, Ivette, Paulette after crossing the finish line before we got  our medals

I had a blast running the 2nd Half. I think I might even have liked it more than the 1st half. I mean, sure I didn’t run over the Golden Gate bridge, but in place of that, there was some fantastic downhill running that I really enjoyed. Upon finishing, I completed "The Half It All Challenge" and got a nice little token to show for it!

Finishers Medal and Half It All Challenge beauty

Post race w/ Paulette, Daniela (who also PR'd on the marathon course) and fearless leader Jojo

More post race with Paulette, Layla, Kristen

Concluding this lengthy post I will say that The San Francisco Marathon is never a disappointment! It was an absolute privilege to represent this race and be able to deepen my connection with the race community that I love love love!!! Is it July 2014 yet? I can’t wait until next years event! Who knows, I might even run the Marathon! Stay tuned!

And Fin.