Nike Women's Half Marathon

The Expotique
Whose idea was it to drive to San Francisco? Oh yeah. The I-5 must be the most boring, ugliest stretch of highway on the planet. Arrived in SF and checked into the hotel. Had to valet park (I detest paying someone to park my car when I am perfectly capable of doing so myself). Walked the 1/2 block to the expotique and could not figure out where the heck to pick up my race packet. That place was crawling with moronic nonsense like manicures. The day I part with my hard-earned cash and my precious time to have some bimbo paint my nails for me is the day I blow my head off. I had to ask some dude where the packet pick-up was, only to find out that you had to exit the expotique and re-enter on the other side. Of course, why didn't I think of that? Got my stuff and got out.

Friday Night
My DH and I headed to Fisherman's Wharf to get him some seafood and sourdough bread. We had to walk through Chinatown, which was the most congested little area I have ever had to deal with. There had to be at least a million people walking aimlessly around and dang if some of those little stores didn't stink so badly I wanted to puke. Getting out of Chinatown was literally a breath of fresh air. Made it in one piece to Fisherman's Wharf and found a pro-sports retailer where my DH found a KC Chiefs sweatshirt. Don't ask me why he is a Chiefs fan. I guess we both love to root for teams that suck (Go Chargers!). We settled on a seafood restaurant that had a few burgers and sandwiches on the menu (I hate seafood). Note to self: never eat a hamburger at a seafood restaurant - it is cooked on the same grill as the seafood and therefore smells and tastes icky.

Saturday
My DH's Birthday! We celebrated by heading out to Alcatraz. Unfortunately, this involved yet another romp through Chinatown. My DH has only been to SF once and never made it to Alcatraz, so this was a major joyous occasion for him. I took lots of pictures of him in a cell, including a great shot of him sitting on a prison toilet - oops sorry about the TMI! We found a nice pizza joint on the way back to the hotel and loaded up on yummy carbs!

The Race
As I've mentioned ad nauseum, my hip has been a huge problem since last August. I have struggled through many of my races, but I love the bling, so I continue to race. My strategy here was to walk the uphills (uphill seems to aggravate my hip more than anything) and run the flats and downhills. I also just started taking the granny drug Celebrex for the arthritis in my hips, which is just aggravating the hip flexor/piriformis issue.

I got into the start corral at 6:45 and immediately noticed this was not like any of the other races I have run. Not a male to be seen. And I haven't seen so much badly applied pancake-batter make-up since the $1.98 Beauty Show went off the air. Seriously, who the heck wears that much make-up ever, let alone to run a marathon? I didn't think that's what they meant by "run like a girl." I was 1 corral ahead of where I belonged, but I had a pretty good feeling I was going to blow right by most of these bimbos at the start and never see them again.

The start was crowded and it became immediately obvious that most of these bimbos had no clue what to do. Uh, run like forward or something. I think quite a few people were perplexed by the timing mat at the start line. I had to jump over a bunch of bimbos to get through the start and then, at my slow-poke 9 min/mile pace proceeded to pass mobs of painted up bleach-blondes, running in groups of 4 or more, for several miles.
The first hill came around mile 3 and I pulled off to the right and walked it. I was enjoying the scenery along the Embarcadero and Fisherman's Wharf, but never got a view of the Golden Gate Bridge due to the fog. The big hill came around mile 6, and I walked it like a good little soldier sticking to the game plan. Somewhere after this hill, the 4:10 marathon pace group caught me. I was thinking to myself, "Whoa, you mean I could be looking at a 2:05 with all this walking? Woo-hoo!" Then came another big hill around mile 9 and there went the 4:10 pace group, along with my little delusion of finishing with a decent time. Oh well. I enjoyed the long downhill at mile 10 and thought I was going to keep the momentum going and finish this one feeling good. A bit more incline at mile 11 and I started feeling a little pull in my piriformis and hamstring, so I had to walk a little more. I was approaching the 12 mile marker and decided no more walking, just go BTTW to the finish.
Crossed the finish line and got my Tiffany necklace from some dude in a tuxedo, then got the heck out of that mess ASAP. No idea what my official time is, but my Garmin says 2:18, which sucks big-time, but is the best Half Marathon time I've managed since the hip first went on strike last summer, so I'll call it a victory!

Post-Race
Made my way to the shuttles back to the start at Union Square. Thanks to the walking and the Celebrex, I was not very sore at all after the race. I was able to do a bit more walking and sight-seeing with my DH. I will never run this race again. Too many people, too many newbies, too many bimbos. I got my Tiffany necklace and I am done!