The Marin Half Marathon Breakdown (Mile by Mile)

STARTING LINE

Dozens of Fleet Feet runners everywhere you looked. It was awesome to see all of our teammates out in full force. It was 8am and it was already quite warm…good thing I hydrated with at LEAST 3 liters of water the day before. I'm sure you TOTALLY want to know this, but yes, my pee was indeed "copious and clear".

MILE 1

Quite possibly the easiest mile I’ve ever run, mostly due to the fact that you couldn’t really stop running because we were still in a huge mob. I found out the secret to me running without stopping: 1) Put me in a crowd of other people running and 2)Don’t let me look at my watch, not even once. The sun shining on our faces was invigorating, but let me tell you, my dark blue “Girls on the Run” technical shirt was feeling really uncomfortable already.

MILE 2-3

At this point I was still running, but taking little (10-20 second) walk breaks. Sam and Whitney, who were behind me up to this point, passed me. I stripped off the technical shirt and handed it off to Clarisse’s fiancée as I passed him at the second water station. I was feeling pretty good at that point. I was running with my friend Mary up until that point, and then she ran off to the bathrooms. Needing every second I could get, I couldn’t wait for her…so off I went. Along the way, I saw two FF faces – Coach Eve, and Uyen, cheering from the side of the road!

MILE 4-5

It was around this point that I caught up to some of my Fleet Feet buddies…namely, Cat and Mariette. I think they had both stopped off for the bathroom, and it let me catch up with them. I lost Mariette again during these couple of miles (she's quick!). Up through this part, it was all road running – which is what we’d been used to running on. There was one loop around a trail portion that was fairly wide and flat, which was not bad at all. I passed another girl who had passed me earlier…and ran it all the way to the turnaround. Still going strong at mile 5, surprisingly!

MILE 6.5-ish (Turnaround)

This was the highlight of my race. My friend John (aka Hayato) was volunteering at this station, and cheered me on as I ran up to get water. It was such a wonderful thing to see a familiar face – I should have relished that feeling a little longer. I had caught up to Mariette again and we began our ascent into the trail section of the race, or, as Caitlin put it, “7 miles of ‘when the hell is this hill going to end?’”.

MILES 7-9

I think I stayed with Mariette during these next couple of miles, mostly because we walked them. The trails were a little scary if you’re not very surefooted (or experienced) running trails. At some point, the pace leaders for 3:00 and 3:15 came up behind us and Mariette continued running with them…but then my hip started to bother me. She ran off and I slowed down. Into the woods I went...

MILES 10-12

Possibly the longest and loneliest couple of miles ever. My left foot was aching and I couldn’t run for very long. I almost got run over by four mountain bikers (who were NOT supposed to be on the trail). There was a lot of horse poo. And I was hot and tired and my hands were swollen to the point where it hurt to try and close them. My fingertips were swollen red bulbs. And somewhere around mile 12, I heard a VERY familiar voice. It was Marathon Matt!

MILES 12-13.1

Marathon Matt was standing in the trail trying to take pictures of me “running”. At that point I was sad that I wasn’t going to make a sub-3 time, and I was a little pissed off that we were running so much trail. But Matt, in his always energetic way, told me that I had just a little ways to go, and walked with me for a bit. We came down the hill into the road, and I saw another familiar face – Brett Lamb, Fleet Feet owner and all around awesome dude – hanging out on the side of the road. I ran for as long as I could but the pain in my foot just wouldn’t quit. Right near the finish line, another familiar face – my friend Clarisse. She ran with me all the way to the end…and my fellow Fleet Feet runners (who had already finished) were cheering me on.
Crossing that finish line was the best feeling ever. I had finished my first race, and it was a half marathon at that. Dirty, sweaty, and feeling a little bit physically broken…I wanted to collapse in the grass…but I wanted to jump around for joy too.