I ran a 1/2 marathon!

Last weekend I packed my bags and headed up North for a visit with friends and a run by the sea. I started out visiting with Nicole, a girlfriend of mine that I went to nursing school with. We spent the afternoon shopping, lunching and watching The Secret Life of Bees (which I highly recommend!) Nicole, her husband David, her sister Megan and I then decided to make dinner that night.

Sadly enough it took 3 of us 1 1/2 hours to make one of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals. Whatever Rachel!
The next morning, bright and early, I headed off on the BART to San Francisco for the Nike Women's Marathon benefiting lymphoma and leukemia. 
I signed up earlier this year with some friends from work to run the 1/2 marathon portion of this race. 13.1 miles to be run along San Francisco Bay.
The race started in Union Square near Nike Town. The pink wall in the background has the name of all of the runners on it.
I found mine. This was actually pretty cool and everyone loved looking for their names and having them on a wall in Union Square. 
The race started at 7am Sunday morning. It was amazing to see over 18,000 women up and ready to run.
I was touched to see so many people running for loved ones that had been affected by the cancers. Many were wearing pictures of their friends and family on their shirts with messages that brought tears to my eyes more than once.
Here is our crowd. Marla, Sue, Angela, and Cheryl had all run the LA marathon a few years ago, but this was a first for Amy and me.

A few of these pictures are blurry due to my running, they get better as the race continued and I slowed down. =)

We ran through Union Square, the Financial District, and down to the Embarcadero.
Along the route were tons of people there to support the runners. This was one of my favorites, a gospel choir that was singing so wonderfully.
We continued past Alcatraz,
and came upon this site. These bagpipers were great! I loved seeing them all dressed up, and my favorite thing about them was their shoes. I didn't notice it at the time but they are all wearing new white Nikes. How fun is that?!
Ghirardelli Square.
The Golden Gate Bridge. I didn't realize how far we had run until I would get glimpses of the bridge and it kept getting closer and closer.

It was such a beautiful route, even though it was overcast, but this was my favorite site. Oranges! I think this was mile 8ish and Kaiser had sponsored these wonderful volunteers to hand us orange slices. I love these people!

The race ended after a run through Golden Gate Park. It was amazing to actually finish!

These nice young fireman got all dressed up and stood at the finish line. They handed each finisher a Tiffany's necklace commemorating the event. That was very nice of them, I say.

And here we are afterward. I was honored to be the last of our group to finish, I needed to make sure everyone made it safe...what can I say, I'm pretty others centered like that. 
Amy and I got one final picture on the route. Those smiles on our faces are because we just found out that Amy's sister was going to get the car to pick us up. Every step saved made for a bigger smile.

When we made it home the next day my mom surprised me with an hour long massage. I actually fell asleep during it, and then shook awake a second later, which made me laugh and left the masseuse thinking she had hurt me. A very funny situation. Anyway, I had such a great time and am inviting everyone to join me next year!

PS Way to stick with the long post! I'm super proud!