San Fancisco Half Marathon - I Did It!!

I am ridiculously nervous in this picture! This was about 5:45 (which is about when Willie's wave took off, but ours didn't go until 6:25. Willie asked me the night before what time my wave left and I had NO IDEA. He said, "It's written on your bib." I knew it had the wave # but Willie had to tell me to turn it over to find my start time. Doh! Can you tell I haven't done this very much?) Oh and can you see the sunburn? Apparently you can still get sunburned through fog. I'll post more about the tri-clinic we did the day before, but the sunburn was absolutely the only bad thing about it.
I bought a fun headband instead of a 13.1 sticker, but then felt all kinds of pressure! What if I didn't make the 3 hour course cut off?
But I had a GREAT race. I felt amazing the entire time. I had a gel and water at every station (=4 total) and it worked for me. I know that would be too much for most, but I had the best run I've had in a long time. Real race report (might) follow (someday) - but for now? PR baby! By like 30 minutes! (That's what happens when you RUN the half marathon instead of freaking out and walking most of it!) I did carry my phone and I took some pictures of the Golden Gate bridge. It was so much fun to run over it and back!! That was my very favorite part of the race. I'm too tired to figure out how to get the pictures from my phone to my computer. I'm not particularly skilled when it comes to my phone. Willie sent me text updates as he ran. I tried to respond in kind, but how the heck do people text and run at the same time?! I could barely read the ones I got, much less frame a coherent reply. I tried to send a simple one saying we were at Mile 11. Later I found out that what I sent was like, "Mh !@b!/" Willie interpreted that as "Mile WTF?" - which wasn't far off after all. Also, remind me to tell you how we ended up in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel - for FREE! (My birthday? I just keep celebrating it!) But for now... look who I got to meet!!! The RBR girls. All of them! How amazing that the day before they ran Barb's (Mary's) race (in 98 degree heat!!!!!) and then trekked to SF to hang with us! AND...
Willie! I got to meet Willie in person. He had a great race too. (Y'all know he flew out for this marathon spur of the moment? Who does that? Someday I'd love to be a good enough runner to decide at the last minute to go do a fun marathon!) We really missed Southbay Girl. It was her kind of weather - cool and overcast for the race, then sunny and pleasant for the "afters" party. Next time!
This is our whole crew: RBR girls, Willie, Donna, me, my college buddy Ray, who is local, and his son Josh. How lucky are we to drive all the way across the country and end up with this much support? We had a much delayed post-race lunch of seafood soup and sandwiches with Anchor Steam on draft. (Do you like how I could NOT take off my medal? Willie wasn't wearing his, but he did use it as a coaster for his Anchor Steam at lunch.)
Now we are heading East again. So. Tired. I can't wait for some time to catch up with what's been happening for everyone and to let these experiences sink all the way in.

Did I mention that I RAN further than I've ever run before? And I felt GREAT the whole time? Ya - hoo! I think I'm hooked. I is a runner! Peace my friends.