It's OVER!

Hi all!

Okay, so I am happy to report that I finished in one piece, but I have to say that those hills in San Fran are BRUTAL!

Because of these rather brutal hills, as soon as we started, my immediate goal became to finish. I should also say that I been running for the past two years with two friends, Martin and Susan, that I met through Team in Training last summer. They convinced me that I should do this event this year, so the three of us went into this event together.

The three of us made a pact that we would start and finish the race together. Now Martin has been hurt with some back and leg issues for the past couple of weeks so he hasn't run all that far in the past couple of weeks. Needless to say, he started hurting at mile 8 and we knew it would be a struggle for him til the end. But Susan and I knew that it would be important for him to finish so we encouraged him throughout the race and stayed with him til the end, even though it meant that Susan and I were doing more walking than we originally intended. So in the end, I finished in a little over 5 hours. It was lengthy but nonetheless it felt good to finish. The three of us were able to cross the finish line hand in hand, which to me meant more than any time I would have finished in. With a course as brutal as this one, it truly becomes about racing for a cause and not about any personal gain. This was apparent to me throughout the race.

Now the weather here in San Fran is some of the strangest I think I have seen. It starts out cold and foggy (meaning you need as many layers as possible) and by the middle of the afternoon it can be sunny (meaning you shed all those layers) and by early evening you need all those layers again. Of course on race day, the sun decided not to come out so we basically had cold and rainy for the entire race. For much of it, I lost the ability to feel my arms and hands. Some of the views were great. I took a disposable camera so I will be able to post some pictures once I get them developed.

It's now the next day, and I am still in some pain but walking around and seeing some of San Fran really helped. I have to admit though I didn't see as much as I could have. I simply don't have it in me today. So, I broke down, paid $4 and have been using the internet for the past few hours. I figured my health is more important than seeing the sights of San Fran.

I'll post more in a few days (including my official time and photos) but til then, I wanted to share the experience.

Thanks for everyone's support!

Mitsu

p.s. Thanks to my fabulous friends for getting me a gift certificate for a massage place. I am happy to report I will be getting fully recovered on Wednesday!