little dude's first half marathon

As per usual... the Nike Women's Marathon (and 1/2) was the bomb.  This year I did it the right way and arrived early, stayed late.

We got in on Friday afternoon dropped the bags off at the hotel (which was inconveniently located atop TWO killer San Fran hills).  I vowed that the first time I climbed those suckers would be the last for this weekend.  Thank God for cable cars!  Besides, Friday was an unseasonably warm day for SF... I mean like in the 90's... DUDE... I came prepared for cool weather...  I was so sweaty it was gross!

Anyway... after dropping a load we took off to catch the expo.  this race is sooooo great b/c they totally cater to chicks.  I got a back/neck massage.  There also were foot massage stations, mani/pedi stations, ipod engraving, a send a postcard station, a button making station, gait analysis, and some other stuff I can't even remember right now.  Definitely reason enough to come on Friday, which is slightly less crowded than Saturday.  Then I hit Nike town... which is where all of the race paraphernalia is sold.  Oi vey.  I went a little overboard this time around.  After that and a bit more shopping around Union Square, it was time to go to dinner and hit the sack.

Saturday morning I woke early to attend the "Legacy Runner" breakfast.  I am considered a legacy runner for this race b/c I have done it all 5 years.  Kind of a kool honor I guess.  We got special t-shirts saying how special we are.  After that I headed off to one of my favorite stores in SF... Timeless Treasures.  This is where I got the letters to spell out little dude's name.  Such a cute little shop.  I would love to own something like this one day.  After hitting TT, I had a slice of Blondies pizza with Joyce, where I somehow managed to get hot pepper flakes and garlic salt in my eye.  Not a little bit either.  A big ol' pile of it.  OMG... I thought I was going to die right there in the basement of this pizza joint.  That crisis was eventually averted and I got to catch up with my friend, one eye open, before heading back to the room to rest before dinner.

Later that night we all (my parents, Joyce,  and Eilene) met up for a good ol' fashioned high carb pre-race dinner.  Yummy.

Sunday morning.  Race day.  Up early and at the start line at 6:45 a.m.  Imagine 20,000 runners/walkers and their support peeps squeezing into Union Square.  Yikes.  We were nutz to butts and that ain't no lie.  Something has to be done about the rude people pushing and shoving... but what can you expect I guess???  Other than that, the race went off without a hitch.  The weather was cool... typical SF weather I would say.  I would also say that I managed it fairly well... considering I had this big ol' belly to lug around.  At about mile 7 I was feeling the dude though.  It seemed that with every step I took, he bounced right on my bladder or something... I had to stop to pee at least 5 times throughout the race.  All in all, it went well.  Little dude was a trooper.  We got our bling bling and headed back to the hotel.  The rest of that day was pretty much a wash, except for eating dinner.  We were ALL pooped.

Sunday we woke up and basically just wrapped it up and headed to the airport.  This was the big change from previous years... I usually wrapped it up after the race and flew home on Sunday.  That was too much stress... with trying to check out on time and all... so this year was a lot more relaxing (as relaxing as walking 13.1 miles can be while 6.5 months preggo) and leaving on Monday made all of the difference.

Here are some pics:

consider this the 25 week belly shot too.

Joyce and me in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

the view from my hotel room.