Hello, I'm Audrey, and I'm a Marathon Finisher

:)

Just a quick update for now as I just got home from being up since 4AM this morning.

As documented in the pic below, I finally have completed my first marathon! And you know what? It is *really* hard! :P No, seriously, it's crazy that people love this! (And he knows who I'm talking about. heehee) I never had problems with half marathons, but the full - wow, it is a toughie, that's for sure.

Anyway - my official chip time was 5:33:58, 12:44 min/mi pace. I ran the Nike half last year with a time 2:13:35, 10:11 min/mi pace. I guess those "extra" 13.1 miles (although mostly flat) are killer!

I feel exhausted but physically, I'm OK. I managed to survive the hills with minimal pain - of course, the two Advil I took in the morning and the two ibuprofen I took during the race helped a lot with that! (Let's see what I say tomorrow morning.) Also, it looks like I maintained ownership of all of my toenails, although I just discovered I got the nastiest blood blister on my left toe (sorry for the TMI) which I'm sure will be lovely for our upcoming Cabo vacation.

Really, the only discomfort I had was that I managed to get a really bad case of painful hiccups at mile 16 which has been on / off not only throughout the rest of the race but even to when I just got home half an hour ago! That *really* sucked.

As expected, the weather was *awesome* compared to Chicago, however, it was warmer than last year. I was fine until we exited Golden Gate Park onto the Great Highway which was a long stretch in the sun as was the tour around Lake Merced. But guess what? Plenty of water and gatorade! What a luxury.

Finally, many thanks to those that came out to support me. My apologies to Andrew who waited a long time for me at mile 9 but never found me (the race was still pretty crowded at this point, and c'mon this is a women's marathon in SF, thus *tons* of short Asian girls running around). Neeraj and Renu are rockstars for giving me the boost I needed by running alongside me as I approached the finish line. And for being my own personal videographer and photographer! Take that, Brightroom! And of course, I am so thankful that Pete, Karen, and Paul waited several hours after the half marathon to help greet me at the finish line. (Plus, now I have witnesses that I kicked it in high gear for the final run to the finish! OK, it was only for 100m or so, but whatev.) Pete and Karen both rocked the half, by the way.

I will have more to blab about another time (course review, etc.) but I am soooooo tired!!!

Nighty night.