That one time I signed up for a MARATHON and had to run with only one shoe....

This weekend was the big weekend for me and my sisters. We signed up to run the San Francisco Marathon back in March and started training in June. The reason for signing up was because I read that at the end of the race you were given a necklace from Tiffany & Co--and I just couldn't pass that up (of course we wanted to raise money for lymphoma as well)! Training in Las Vegas was not fun because it was so hot over the summer that all of my runs were on treadmills in a HOT, SWEATY gym, but that's what I had to work with and I had to make it work. It helped that my sister lived with us during the summer so we got through some pretty grueling runs together.

Of course, me being the lucky gal that I am, got sick with death like 3 weeks before the marathon. I never once thought that I wouldn't run it, because it wasn't really an option for me. I had trained and I was going to run if it killed me. That's how badly I wanted the necklace! :) The week before the race I pretty much only had a bad cough so I didn't think it would be too bad......

So Friday afternoon I met up with my sister in the beautiful city of San Fran--we rented a car ($15/day more because I'm "under-aged" ridiculous) and headed to Union Square to pick up our race information and bib numbers. We didn't realize this was going to be such a stressful situation!!! Neither me or my sister are all that great at reading a map and we didn't have GPS so we just kind of went with it. It was so embarrassing!! Public transportation honked at me a couple of times, I flipped U's when I shouldn't have, ran red lights, almost hit a few bikers (they think they own the streets!) and saw a pedestrian laying in the road with a big gash in her forehead--and was so glad it wasn't my fault!! I also had a run-in with a fire truck that was coming up behind me with the sirens blaring but I seriously had no idea where to go! I was at a red light in the left lane and was seriously starting to sweat bullets, but I was able to move out of the way. Right around this point we decided to switch drivers so I could navigate. We saw much more of San Fran then we should have!!! Kristen wasn't any better of a driver in the crazy streets of San Fran--we laugh because she got honked at by the San Fran Trolley that goes like 20 miles/hour. It was sooo funny. I told her I'd rather be honked at by the public transportation. Finally we made it to Union Square after asking like a million pedestrians where the heck to go. It was certainly an adventure. The Nike tent was all set up and blaring great music. We got lots of free samples and saw lots of cool expos. One thing they had there were stationary bikes that blended smoothies for you by riding at a certain speed. The guy saw me and Kristen and pretty much forced us up on the platform and onto a bike! We were both wearing 5 inch stilettos!! Thankfully, we didn't embarrass ourselves any more than we had already that day and were able to blend up our smoothies. We walked away with a delicious drink and our pride still in tact :) Trying to get back to our hotel was another problem. Can I just say that California has the most confusing highway and interstate roads that I have ever seen?!!? Gosh darn ridiculous I tell you. So Kristen was driving again and at one point I think I could have wet my pants from laughing so hard when Kristen was put in a similar situation that I was in with yet another blasted fire truck. We were in the far right left turn lane at a red light and of course we hear the sirens coming up behind us. Kris was like, "Crap Kel what do I do??!" I didn't really have any suggestions other than to tell her to move out of the way. Before we know it, Kris is out in the middle of the intersection blocking all traffic and freaking out. The truck started honking at her so she flipped an illegal U at a red light. It was oh so funny in a not-so-funny way.



Saturday was rather uneventful. We went to an early morning movie and did some shopping near our hotel. Later that afternoon, we headed up to Pleasanton to meet up with our sister-in-law who's family lives there. They were gracious enough to fix us a delicious carb-filled dinner to aide us in our marathon.

A huge shout-out to Sherry and Rod Cross who did literally everything they could for us to make our marathon experience as less stressful as possible. We are so grateful!! They got up with us at 4 AM to drive us to the race so that we didn't have to worry about parking and stuff. It was such a relief! Brittanie's sweet dad even hand made and colored individual signs for us to encourage us along the race (they even drove around the course to meet us at every couple of mile markers--it was much appreciated support!). The race was set to start at 7 AM so by 6 AM we were in the front of our running phase line just waiting. And it was COLD from the wind. We were all getting pretty anxious and nervous and before we knew it we were off! Running through the downtown streets of San Fran. Kristen, Britt, and I were weaving in and out of the HERD of people (20,000) to try to find a spot that was less congested. Around mile 3 we lost Brittanie and then at mile 4 Kristen and I got separated!!! I was near tears and so was Kristen because we had planned on staying together--but such is life. We had to run the next 22 miles all by ourselves!!! I figured that Kristen was in front of me and so I ran FAST (which killed me) to try to catch up to her and she slowed down and even waited at the drink stations for me. Apparently I passed her (SO SAD) because I finished the race about 7 minutes before her. We really could have used each other for support because this marathon was EXCRUCIATING!!! There were far more hills than I anticipated. And by that I mean that it was all pretty much UPHILL!!! I wanted to kill myself. But there were yummy snacks for us along the way (bananas, oranges, luna bars, luna moons, CHOCOLATE) and there were drink stations every 2-3 miles. It's pretty invigorating to grab a drink that's being handed to you by a million volunteers then just throwing it to the side of the road when you're done with it. We ran through a beautiful park, forest, right alongside the OCEAN (which was beautiful!!!) and lots of peaceful neighborhoods. At mile 16-17 I thought to myself, "do I seriously have 10 more miles?!!? UGH! So I walked some. Then started running again. Right around mile 24 or so, some lady was running faster than she apparently thought and I think her intentions were to pass me but instead she stepped on the back of my shoe causing my SOLE to RIP and me to fall. It was terrible. I tried to keep running with my blasted sole not really attached to my shoe but it was tripping me up so I had no other choice but to ditch my shoe!! Yes friends, I finished the race with only one shoe on!!! It was slightly embarrassing because people were pointing at me--but actually I saw some crazy guy running the marathon BARE FOOT. So at least I had that guy.

Crossing the finish line was exhilarating. We were met by some gentlemen dressed in Tuxedos that handed us our little beautiful blue box! Then I got my awesome "Finishers" shirt. Then came the feast!! I put whatever I could get my greedy little hands on into my mouth. Power bars, bagels, chocolate milk, gatorade, bananas, etc. Food never tasted so good. We all met up with each other (we finished within just a couple minutes of each other) went to the massage tent and got a fabulous 15 minute massage, then took a million pictures. It was an awesome experience that I'm grateful I was able to do. I'm so thankful to have a strong, healthy body. I'm thankful for my sisters and their support. I don't know that I would have been able to do this without knowing that they were doing it too. I love you Kris and Brittanie!!!

Our sweet running tights!

Team Eggplant Savage :)

Us after the marathon at NikeTown--a huge wall with everyone's name on it who participated in the race--my name was up high under "Black" but technically I'm still a Savage so I got in on this photo op :) I'm not above putting a not-so-attractive photo of myself on the WWW :)


More pictures to come--we didn't take a whole lot with my camera but Britt's mom took a million pictures and we even have some "professional" ones we took after the race (when we were looking really beautiful I'm sure.....) :)

A huge thanks to my sweet husband who took care of our boys all weekend. I know they loved spending quality time with just Daddy. Sky even potty trained Ethan!! E is 4 days strong with NO accidents!! And he is super cute in his big boy underwear!! He doesn't even tell us anymore that he needs to go. He just DOES it. Way to go Ethan! It was a successful weekend for all :)