I'm Still Standing, yeah yeah yeah
I ran the Nike Marathon almost 3 weeks ago, and unlike my first marathon where I a wrote up a race report immediately, I haven't had much desire to write up my Nike report. Not that it went bad, it went very well. I just haven't been in a writing mood (I've been too obsessed with the election).

Nike Marathon is very different from my first marathon the California International. I don't know why I expected it to be similar. The CIM had only 6000 participants and was a marathon-only event. Nike had 20000 with a mix of marathoners, half-marathoners and walkers. At CIM I lined up in the back to get that psychological boost in passing runners as I ran all those miles. With Nike (though I can do 11/min mile for 26.2 miles) I lined up around the 12-14 minute mile mark (not the last, but enough to try that trick again) not expecting walls of walkers from Mile 0. I'm not sure why the walkers didn't line up at the last group, whatever the case I spend the first 8 miles trying to get around rows of walkers by jumping curbs and barriers.

Other than that frustration I will say Nike was extremely organized. You can't beat the scenery in San Francisco. There were lots of water stops, changing areas, and handsome men in tuxes to hand you your hard-earned medal. However my friends (thanks to fuzzyradar  and tigercub for coming MILES and across states to cheer me on) didn't get the shuttle to the cheering places as promised for $15 at bus pass -- only from the beginning point to the end point. That sucked, but with so many runners I doubt they could have found me anyway.

I trained well for the hills, they went well (though again so many people walked the hill). It is an exhausting thing to do, run all those miles. At mile 22 I really wanted to punch everyone that said "GO TEAM" (and I was a happy participant of Team in Training last year, but if you are not with TNT at Nike you do feel like the cat at a Dog Fancy convention). However it is fair to say at mile 22 I probably was grumpy enough to punch anyone.

I was able to get a PR (4:51) with a harder marathon (CIM is net downhill! YEAH, Nike, I believe, has the second hardest hill in a marathon). And I felt perfectly fine and fit after I finished. No real soreness the next day. I should be thrilled that I got through training and the marathon without so much of a stiff muscle.

I won't run the Nike marathon again, but will put in for their half marathon lottery next year.  I have to choose my runner up marathon for next year if I don't get into New York City Marathon (my dream).  Either local or the Mardi Gras Marathon (my homestate, though I am kind of pissed at Louisiana right now).

But yea, I am still wishing I could just go faster. During my off time I am going to concentrate on interval training.