Note: The Nike Women’s Marathon is a race exclusively benefitting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and therefore also a huge Team in Training event. We had around 20,000 runners with at least 5,000 who had spent the past several months fundraising.
This past weekend has been so rewarding, fun, inspiring, motivational, I can’t just put it into words. It made all the early morning trainings, the hot humid runs, the weekends consumed by fundraising, the stress of raising $8500, more than worth it. Starting with the flight to San Francisco where the flight attendants announced that there were “a special group of athletes on the flight who had raised over $110,000 for Leukemia and were going to travel to run a marathon” to the flight home getting to listen to everyones conversations about how the race went for them, people from other chapters or even non-TNT people, it’s been a community bonding experience.
The day we arrived in San Francisco H and I went immediately to the expotique to pick up our race packets and enjoy some freebies. One of the things that stood out all weekend long was that everywhere you went you saw people wearing TNT shirts, hats, bags, something. We were surrounded by people who all had stories about why they were doing TNT and who knew exactly what we had spent the past few months doing. Many times during the long lines we were forced to wait in (to check out at Niketown, to pick up packets, for shuttles) we struck up conversations with people from San Diego, Tennessee, Ohio, all over and compared stories. It was so neat to talk to strangers but have so much in common. The expo was pretty nice and I loved going to Niketown. It was a runners heaven, which I find more than amusing since the last time I went to Niketown (about five years ago on spring break) I had no interest in anything in the store.
That night I had a nightmare about dehydration, which is also very humorous to me. I guess I had more pre-race jitters than I realized, but I woke up and chugged a bottle of water and resumed sleep.
H and I shopped our way through San Francisco during our free time. Both of us have been to the city before and didn’t really have the time or money to do the touristy things.
Saturday night was the pasta party, which is a traditional event that occurs before any TNT event. The idea of a pasta party is to carbo-load before a race, but more than anything the night was about bring everyone (about 7,500 people) into the same place to celebrate our achievements. I had a vague idea of what to expect, but when we walked into the Moscone center we were greeted by a whole room full of green and purple decked out coaches, staff, mentors who were cheering for us. The room was so loud with the sounds of people cheering and yelling “GO TEAM!” It was a ginormus pep-rally in our honor. After picking up a plate full of pasta we made our way to tables for our chapter. We watched a slideshow of honored teammates and people who the race was being run in memory of, heard inspirational words of wisdom from John “The Penguin” Bingham (columnist for Runner’s World) and Joan Benoit Samuelson (olympic marathoner). There was also a speech from Ann Davis a honored teammate who has run 3 marathons and is a non-hodgekins lymphoma patient. She thanked everyone in the room for all that they do, because if it weren’t for the money raising by Team in Training she might not be a survivor today. She shared her story, which was heartbreaking. She was diagnosed when she was 25 and has undergone so much treatment that her internal organs when into failure from the radiation and in the meanwhile she had a sick infant, a divorce and her cancer came back. She told everyone that her teammates were her support system and she finds resolve to keep going from them and their efforts. The whole night I had goose bumps.
Race morning H and I woke up at about 4 o’clock and put on our Team in Training running clothes. All the TNT participants have a race day jersey which is same purple, regardless of your chapter so that on the race course you all you see is a sea of purple. We met all our teammates in the hotel lobby for a pre-race breakfast and put our names on our chests and tattooed TNT on our cheeks. By putting your name on your chest people can yell words of encouragement as you make your way through the course. As we rode over to the start line I was listening to the various conversations happening around me and heard one woman thank one of my teammates for helping out TNT. She herself is a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patient who was running the race as a way of showing her kids that despite her cancer she is still strong. Hearing all these stories has made me so grateful for this experience.
The race itself was awesome. Cold, very cold, but totally and completely awesome. To be honest I didn’t really notice the hills and despite the weather only getting colder as the morning worn on, I was so consumed by taking in my surroundings that the 13.1 miles flew by. There were lots of DJ stations playing music, water stops with people offering words of encouragement and so many TNT support staff on the sidelines and in the race itself, I almost wish the race was longer. I joking told H that we should just continue on at the split off and do the full marathon. The sights of San Fran were pretty breath taking, but I really think I was so overwhelmed by the total experience that I had a hard time focusing on any one aspect. A couple of my favorite people from the race was a woman running the race in moon shoes, someone with a Flat Stanley on her back and one guy who was mobile support station, running with a boombox, camera and nutrition. I really appreciated Britney Spears’ music during the parts of the race where the DJ stations weren’t playing anything. H and I crossed the finish line hand in hand and were immediately greeted by tuxedoed fireman handing us Tiffany’s necklaces, then smoothies, bagels, a gorgeous finishers t-shirt and all sorts of other goodies. At the finish there was a TNT tent where we checked in and got a pin celebrating our 13.1 mile accomplishment and a catered lunch. Oh and we were given these nifty space blankets to keep warm, which was definitely needed since once we stopped running I got so cold. After we explored the surroundings we rode back to the hotel.
The rest of the day we spent limping around, eating, resting and relaxing. We went to the victory dinner but we were so tired that we headed back early and passed out.
I am so happy that I challenged myself to participate in this program, not even because I got to travel to an awesome city and got a gorgeous finishers medal, but I actually feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives. No, I know I’m making a difference. I’ve decided that while I don’t know if I can handle fundraising again anytime soon, I want to stay active with TNT. I’ve got my sights set on a couple halfs for the upcoming season and have already asked our coordinator if I can help with cheering/support and water stations at either Disney or Gasparilla. I’d like to give some future participants goose bumps by cheering for them. I also think that I’d like to be a mentor, because if H and I, two girls under 25 can raise $8500 together, than anyone can do it. I really do feel like a different person from before I started this project and I love that. *
