Alive and kicking

I made it! I finished the 1/2 marathon and in great condition. I did not stop once to walk (or barf for that matter). I woke up around 6am Sunday morning, got ready for my race (basically made sure I was awake), took a cab over to Golden Gate Park and hung out for about 30 minutes for the race to start.

I met up with a few friends that I signed up with and started the race promptly at 8:30am, hung in their pace group for about a good, whole MINUTE and decided I could run quicker than that. I had no idea what kind of pace I could hold when I first signed up, so I basically signed up for one of the slow groups and quickly found out... I'm not that slow! The race went well, I had my mp3 player going the whole time and that kept me pretty occupied for 13.1 miles. The sun never came out (which is great over here, that sun can sure heat things up) and it stayed at about 65 degrees the whole race. The last two miles were a struggle for me, I had my second wind at about mile 5 and at about mile 11 it went out on me. I was still hanging in there and passing people but not moving as swiftly as I had been previously. It seemed like the last mile could not finish sooner and as I approached the finish line...A woman passed out in front of me, completely collapsed about 50yards from the finish line. It was really scary but the medics were immediately alerted and the situation was under control. I stopped for a brief moment but saw the medics coming at me and decided I best leave the situation alone and head for the finish line myself. Here are my stats:


San Francisco Marathon - 2nd Half Marathon
Bib: 24275
Name: Casie McCarthy
Gender: F
Age: 26
Hometown: San Francisco CA
Place Overall: 553 out of 1980
Women: 194 out of 1143
F 20-29: 83 out of 374
Age Grade: 57.33%
Place: 552
FINISH: 1:54:51 pace: 8:46
Chip Time: 1:54:51

The numbers in red, I'm most proud of. I held a great pace and finished under 2 hours and outran 950 girls! Very exciting for my first race :)

On another note; I'll be starting my first swim practice Wednesday afternoon. I should be fully recovered (no more knee soreness from my fantastic run!) and mentally prepared to get back into the water.

Thanks to everyone for their support during my training for the 1/2 marathon!