Nike Women's Half Marathon 2013

This past weekend, I was able to cross something off my bucket list: running a half marathon. After 15 weeks of training, race day finally came and it felt really good to accomplish something so big. I signed up for the race in the summer and since I'm a (grad) student, I was automatically accepted for the race. If you aren't enrolled in a university and have a current Student ID, it's a lottery process to be accepted for the race. Thanks to Southwest, I found stellar deals on flights up to San Francisco and ended up making a weekend out of it.

Two days before the race, we went to pick up our packets at the expotique. I thought that it would take forever to get our packet since 30,000 people (holy smokes!) were running the marathon but it only took 5 minutes to pick it up. In the expo, they had various booths with all of the companies who sponsored the marathon. Some of them included: Luna Bar, Whole Foods, Verizon, Neutrogena, and Paul Mitchell. They also had displays of the newest Nike Blackdoor line which is a mix between high fashion and workout clothes. 

Here's my insta from the expo:

And here are all the goodies I got from my runner packet and at the expo:

Finally the day of the race came and we woke up at 5AM to eat and make it into the city by 630AM. The race started in Union Square and ends in Golden Gate Park. Along the 13.1 miles, there are people standing along the road cheering people on and holding signs which makes the run fun because there are people cheering for you all along the way. Also, you're able to see some major sights by foot such as Fisherman's Wharf, Aquatic Park, Ghirardelli Square, Fort Mason, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Something that I know for next time is to do more cross training and for the hills. I underestimated how crazy the hills were since I've never run the course or been to it before. Along the way, I took some GU Chomps (after the first hour, then every half hour after that) to give me a little more energy during the run. Considering that I have some problems with my post tib and was taped up with some KT tape, I finished the race in 2:50 which is a lot better than I had expected myself to do. Since this was my first half marathon, there are a lot of things that I would do differently the next time around. But I would definitely say that this was a great run to start off on!

OH! And did I mention that instead of medals at the end of the race, they give out Tiffany & Co. necklaces?! Best part ever aside from firemen handing them out to you :)