Nike Women's Marathon 08: Monday & Wrap-up

I received this email last night after I had posted my recaps. It is from my friend and leukemia survivor, Alice. She says it all with only a few words.

Erica,

You did it under terrible circumstances…. But the point is… you did it and didn’t give up. That’s what beating these diseases is all about huh?!

Great job!

Alice and the boys

Alice~ You said it. That is what this is all about. Yes, I felt like crap and it took me longer than I had hoped, but I could not have made it through and finished without the love and support of my family and friends. No, they were not there. I had to make the journey on my own. Just like the journeys the patients make. Ultimately, the patient must find the will, strength and survivor instinct from within. My little, urpy walk through San Francisco on a chilly day canNOT hold a candle to the journey the patients make. It does make me appreciate my "good" health more.

Monday! Monday! Monday!
All through Sunday night I would suddenly jerk awake after the sensation of falling. My legs were having a good laugh. Very funny. Ha ha.

I rolled out of bed at the crack of 11am. I could not help but glare out the hotel window at the clear blue skies smiling down on us. I guess we could do nothing but, get out there and under the the blue. (Wasn't it grey just yesterday?) We had just enough time to clean up, pack and check out. OMG, I felt like I had been hit by a garbage truck. It took a full hour to choke down some oatmeal. And then it just sat in my throat. Sat there, mocking me. Luz and I decided to take a little walk downtown. What the crap was I thinking?

Of course when we hit the streets of San Francisco it was lunch time. Every bloody shack, shop and eatery was bulging at its seams. We kept passing this super cool looking restaurant and bar, 40 Cycles of Yesteryear. Luz was hankering for some soup, so we peaked at their menu; but not before falling in love with the red-headed Mr. Higgins napping on his red velvet sofa!

He was HUGE, a real bounder. I had a Coke, while hanging with Mr. Higgins. Luz had some soup. It was so good to see her get her appetite back. Me? The mere thought of food sent me reeling. Mr. Higgins' caretaker and owner of the bar, Norman, sat on his own read velvet sofa across from us. We chatted a bit. Thanked them and headed into the day.

We stopped at Boudin Bakery for a loaf of sourdough to take home to Mom. Some how we ended back at Union Square and meandering through the biggest Macy's for Women I had ever seen. I got to the second floor and crashed onto a couch weaker than ever. I could not move another step. But, I did have a couple of hours to get myself back that 1 mile to the hotel.

By the time we got back to the hotel I was tossing my guts, again. I had nothing left, only bile. That's fun. I had no choice but to take out the big guns: my Crohn's meds. Anti-spasmatics and anti-emetics. This double dose makes me stooopid and sleepy. I was pouring sweat and getting dumber by the minute. I cannot believe I claimed my bags, got to the bus, fell asleep on the bus, check in at the airport, made it through security, found the gate and fell asleep in the waiting area. And might I say the waiting area was so cold you could hang a side of a cow in it? Sweet cracker sandwich, it was cold. Luz loaned me a sweatshirt and a coat to keep warm. We got to the airport 2 hours prior to our flight and then news came: Flight delayed. Bugger. Good thing I had enough drugs in me to tranq an elephant.

We finally boarded the plane and we were on our way home. I slept through the 2 hour flight. When we landed in Phoenix I was coherent enough to call Paul to tell him where we were. When I saw him at baggage claim, I was so relieved. I was home.

I crashed. I could not get out of bed for anything. Paul brought me Gatorade and Matzo ball soup. Here it is 4 days after the Nike Women's Death March and I am starting to feel sub-human again. I happy to be surrounded by my Paul, kitties and puppy.

Would I do it again? Yes. For two reasons: #1 For Alice and Daddy and the fight we must continue to fight. Fight until I attend the Last Pre-Race Pasta Dinner, because the cure is here. And #2 To whip this race! I set out to run in the Nike Women's Marathon and by gum, I will. It has not beaten me. I will see it, match it and beat it. I probably will not win it, but that isn't even in the top50 reasons to do it for me. (I have seen the numbers of the winners. I could not beat them in a car.)

So, yeah... I have a score to settle in my future. I think I will get a few other half marathons under my belt before I go slapping NWM with the white gloves. Who knows, it could be in 2009?

Nike Women's Marathon 08: Sunday

OMG! I can only report on the pieces I remember and those that were shared with me. I don't remember getting up, showering, eating oatmeal, dressing, donning a garbage bag and getting to the Start Line. I do remember throwing up the oatmeal before leaving the hotel room. Great. I remember staring at the Patron billboard during the National Anthem, unable to find the American Flag. I remember it was cold. Very cold. Something around 57 degrees and wind.

The gun went off at 7am. I started running. I ran slowly to the pier. I ran for a little over 4.5 miles. Then I hit the wall. And threw up on it. I could not run another step. It took every bit of energy I had to put one foot in front of the other. I ran. I walked. I jogged. I barfed. I dragged. I tried to drink water. I stopped three times for water. I drank my Gatorade. I choked down a package of Sharkies.

It was growing colder. The sky was grey. I had to keep moving. When I saw our assistant coach, Sarah, somewhere around mile six. I was trying to keep it together. I had another 7+ miles to go. I could not hear the support crews cheering me on, calling my name. All I could hear was ny stomach pleading with me to quit. My legs were cramping. No fuel. I grabbed a wedge of orange. Mistake. I kept moving forward. Just move forward. It was so cold. I never took off my jacket. I was passed by a chic in flip flops. I was passed by a chic in crocs. Ugh. I was dragging myself every step of the way. I was so relieved to come to mile 10, where it overlooked the finish zone. I knew I had 3+ miles to go. Somewhere on the course I realized: This course is longer than 13.1 miles. My GPS was telling me I had an additional .4 of a mile to get to the finish. (Another runner of the half verified it in passing, as did Paul from info online!)

All I knew was: I must keep moving to the finish. One thing at a time. I saw my coach, Roland, right before the chute and started to cry. I was almost there. Run. Run to the end. I started running and crossed the finish line approximately a week after I started. Kidding! It took a few seconds shy of 4 hours. It was brutal. I started on empty. I ended on less than empty.

One thing at a time. Focus on one thing at a time. Get Tiffany's pendant from random fireman. Pick up Finisher's t-shirt. Remove timing chip. Oh, a banana (I might keep that down). Was it colder? Yes. Go to next point. Wrap in Mylar sheet. Check in with TnT. Grab food: sandwich, Cheetos (my fave part, my victory dance), cookies and a COKE (Elaine said it saved her at IronMan08). I could not eat. I sipped the Coke. The thought of food made me want to wretch more. I had nothing left to expel. I was so cold. I had to get warm.

Focus: one thing at a time. Get checked bag. Go to changing tent. Change clothes. More like pile on what ever clothes I had. I couldn't stop shaking. I was trying not to cry. I hurt all over. I wanted so desperately to have Paul there. I needed his support, warmth and help. I had to do with only text messages. Everything was so loud, my ears were ringing. I was turning hypothermic. If I had to do this by myself, I wanted to get back to the hotel as soon as I could.

But, then I thought about Luz. She was out there alone, too. Sure, we had the Team support, but no one close. No one who could hold our hand for an extended period of time, before being called to the next one in need. I made my way to the massage tent. Maybe a quick stretching and massage would give me some juice. The student who worked me over was awesome. He popped every bone in my back. It hurt like mad, but I stayed there and let him help get the toxins out of of muscles. I poured off the table and thanked him.

Something in me made me go back to the TnT tent to look for Luz. It was insanity in there. Everyone was trying to find a inch of space to keep warm. I walked passed a bunch rows and made my way into the crazy. I looked down, there she was, sitting one aisle over. I sat next to her and she went to pieces. My brain turned my body off. I knew I had to take care of her. I didn't have anyone, but she did. She finished the full marathon, but burned all over her sugar, fuel, everything. She wanted to get out of there. It was so cramped and loud.

We went outside and huddled against the wall separating the street from the beach. It was so cold, but it was not crowded and loud. I dug through my stores of every drug I had with me. I took some Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and Vitamin V (Vicodin). That helped my body forget the pain and burning stomach. After about 30 minutes we noticed we had been sitting behind the First Aid Tent! I went in to see if they had room for 2 more. It was not crowded and it was WARM! I helped her to a cot. I sat in a chair next to her. She started her vomiting. The nurses who watched over us were wonderful. One brought me a Coke, a warm Coke-The BEST! Another got me a PB&J sandwich. I ate slowly, it burned with every bite. We stayed in there until they started to close the event down.

Luz was in really bad shape. She eventually was taken to St. Mary's Hospital for evaluation. She was released a few hours later. She had not fueled enough over the last weeks of training to get her through this event: 26.2 miles of running. She had been burning muscle. She received fluids and returned to the hotel later. I was unable to go with her to the hospital.

I made my way to the TnT buses back to the city. I almost cried when I found my bus. I did not believe and ad to ask a woman with a clipboard. I found a seat and collapsed. I called Paul. I called Mom. I cried. I tried not to get sick. Thankfully the nice people at the massage tent were giving away towels. I wrapped mine over my head and clippied it to my chin to keep warm. I pressed a corner of it over my mouth to keep from sicking up the bus. Our hotel was the second stop. I raced to the room, trying to beat the next wave of my every churning stomach. I made it back to the room. I was "home".

I peeled off all my clothes. Started brewing tea. Finally, opened my Tiffany's package. Took a hot shower (post race ice bath be damned, I was ice cold.) I crawled into my jammies and bed with my tea and fell asleep for an hour. I felt I needed to make it to the Victory Party. Why? Who knows? I walked over by myself, ate mashed potatoes and a cookie. I talked with a few people and returned to the hotel. I was back in the room for 15 minutes when Luz walked back in. She was looking so much better! We had our own Victory Party in the hotel bar with some chicken noodle soup. Team members started to pour into the hotel bar and come by to say, "Hi." Shortly after, we said "Good night".

It was over. We survived it. What a long day. But, we did it. It was 50 degrees when I finished. No wonder I was cold! Oh, there was the fever making dumber than a box of hair.

Nike Women's Marathon 08: Saturday

I made it through the night and broke my fever. I awakened feeling OK. Luz's friends wanted to take us out for breakfast at Lori's Diner. It was so comforting to be with "familia" for a meal. They may not have been my familia, but that did not matter. By the end of breakfast, we were. Nana and her son Ed live in Sonoma, but have a time share in the city. They were wonderful.

After breakfast Luz and I hit the downtown shopping area like mad! We shared many sights, smells and sounds. We ventured back to the Expotique for postcards and visit the mass hysteria that it was Saturday. By the way, the temp dropped 20 degrees, Saturday was 64 degrees.

We hit Lush, H&M, the Westfield Mall, Lady Footlocker (I was so excited my running shoes came in a new color, just released!! I had to have them.) We tromped around downtown most of the day. I was getting really tired by the time we started heading back to get ready for the pasta party. We got back just in time to clean up and head to dinner. We walked to the Mascone Center to receive an amazing reception from our coaches and staff.

Again, I could not eat much. This was making for a very bad pre-race fuel. My stomach just said, "No. We're all done here."

We still needed to get our race gear ready for the 4:30am wake up call!

By the time I got to bed my fever was in full swing again and I was incoherent. Bad. Very bad.

Nike Women's Marathon 08: Friday

Nothing like getting up at the crack of 4am to head to the airport starts a day better. Oy vey. Sixty some odd of us Team in Training Desert Mountains Chapter boarded a plane for beautiful San Francisco Friday morning at 6:30am. We arrived in the city to sunny and clear skies and a forecast of the same for the next 3 days. A balmy 86 degrees welcomed us to downtown. Luz and I checked into the hotel and headed out to have lunch, pick up our race packets and experience the Expotique at Union Square. As we walked towards the excitement we stopped for lunch at the Toaster Oven sandwich shop. (I should have known something was amiss, when I couldn't finish lunch.) We picked up our bibs and all kinds of swag. We even partook in the chair/foot massages from Kaiser Permanente, gate analysis by Lady Footlocker & Nike, personalized buttons, and smoothies rom Jamba Juice. After a couple hours we crossed the street to experience Niketown.


Niketown is four floors of Nike merchandise. The second floor is dedicated to the marathon paraphenalia. We found our names on the wall outside. All the runners participating in the marathon have their names on the windows covering the first floor outside.


We made our way through the crowds and bought our goodies. Around 2pm we made our way back to the hotel for a respite. I crashed. Luz crashed.

Luz was fortunate to have some old, dear friends come to the city for the evening. She joined them for dinner, while I was left to my own devices. I woke up sometime around 6p, freezing cold in a room of 77.5 degrees. "Uh-oh, that's not good." I could not get warm. I needed to get water and something in my stomach. Soup? Mashed potatoes? Something to deal with this fever. I perused the room service menu. My soup options were French Onion (No Way! Beef stock, yuck!) or Clam Chowder (OMG! Rich, creamy clams, not going to stay down. I "urped" at the thought of it.) "OK, I saw a soup shack down the street earlier. The restaurants along our street touted soups." I needed to go into the wild world alone to forage for soup, bottled water and cold medicine. As I was walking through the lobby I ran into our coach, Roland. He asked if I wanted to join a group heading to Little Italy for dinner. They were walking. I knew it was just up the street from Niketown on the other side of Chinatown. Sure, I'd be with people. We made it to The Stinking Rose a couple miles away.

It was a garlic extravaganza. More garlic than you can imagine. Garlic at the table waiting for us. Our eyes burned from the fine aroma of garlic wafting out and inside. They even made garlic ice-cream. It was a group effort to choke it down. It started with 7 of us and ended with 9 team members, coaches, mentors, and admin. We had the most amazing waiter with 47 years of experience. He was a hoot! Ray, the waiter is 75 years old and had the fortune to carry the Olympic torch through SFO for the last Winter Olympics. Amazing!

After a few hours of ingesting Mother Earth's most powerful cold remedy (I had the mashed potatoes and some bread, again I could not finish.) we strolled back to the hotel via the financial district.

Across the street from the hotel was a bottle shop, that sold water. I loaded my arms and returned to my room. I climbed into bed with a fist full of ibuprofen, water, Emergen-C and hot tea. I curled up with some Boston Legal and hoped for the best. Good night nurse.

The Results

Full Course
Time: 3:52:29.640
Pace (Min/Mi): 17:44
Overall Rank: 10142
Female Rank: 9612
F35-39 Rank: 1785

I will write more later. Suffice it to say: I graced the course at electrifyingly slow speeds, but high projectile vomit. My stomach made better time ejecting its contents than my feet did. I got a fever Friday night. By Sunday morning I was hurling my guts out. I don't remember getting to the start line. Thankfully, Luz got pictures of me there. I saw them. I was there. I'm going back to bed.

On the Eve of My Leave

At this time tomorrow, I will be in San Francisco doing who knows what! In 2 days, I had better be long asleep. And in 3 days, I will be celebrating a job well done.
Here's to me. I raised $4536 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society this year!
Here's to me. I'm running in the Nike Women's Marathon on Sunday!

Here's to the survivors, their journeys are a hell of a lot harder than any of that stuff.

T Minus 5 Days & Counting

I just got home from the TNT travel meeting. Jersey, itinerary, luggage tags, other bits of group travel paraphernalia. OK, I may have said I would be packing and repacking Thursday? Uh, yeah... NO!! I'm starting now. I have washed almost everything I own, just in case I might need it this weekend. The only thing I cannot take with me this year is the one thing I will need the most out there: Paul. He is staying home and minding the House of Hooligans. Seeing him at Mile 11 and when I crossed the finish line last year was exactly what I needed. Knowing him, I'll receive photo and text messages throughout the race. Egging me on! More like encouraging me. :P


I'm building my play-list. I don't like being one of those goobers on the course who needs tunes to keep moving. Maybe it comes from all those years of dancing? Always moving to music. Geez, I need music to do almost anything! I also run to the beat. So, Pink Floyd is out. With their seven-four rhythm? Forget it. Duran Duran, Cher, 80's hair bands, some club music, disco, too. Songs that remind me of friends and family, songs that make me laugh, songs that will get me from start to finish.

OK, where is my suitcase?

You are probably ready for the Women's Nike Marathon if:

...you know more about Phoenix canals than you ever wanted to.
...your toenails are black (or missing).
...last month you put more miles on your shoes than your car.
...you have chafing in strange places.
...people say, "You run ten miles...at once?"
...people ask you about your upcoming race "Do you think you'll win?"
...annoying, but people also ask "How far is THAT marathon?"
...at the end of your workout there is more salt on your face than on your potato chips
...you combine phrases like "6 or 10 mile day" and "Light Workout" in the same breath.
...you can eat your weight in spaghetti.
...you can debate the advantages of deodorant vs. Bodyglide
...you feel lost without your water-bottle.
...you have withdrawal if you don't workout everyday.
...you wake up every morning in pain.
...your memory of our first group workout (2 miles) makes you chuckle.
...Gatorade is your drug of choice.
...your Saturdays for the past 3-4 months are a fuzzy but happy memory.
...you crave Power Bars.
...you crave goo....you are always hungry.
...you woke up last night terrified from an "I showed up at the race naked" dream
...you will wake up tonight terrified from an "I got lost on the race course" dream
...your feet are comparable to rawhide.
...you know that no matter what happens Sunday, it will be easier than one minute of cancer treatment for our honored teammates
..."Go Team" can bring a tear to your eyes.

18 days away to San Francisco and Nike!