[ Done ]   Sorry for the delay in giving an update to my race. It has been a crazy week and we are closing this week with a camping trip this weekend in the Sierra's. Catherine and I will be at Lake Alpine for some fun and relaxation. So, the race. Wow! Done! Next! I met my first goal; finishing. It was hard to finish as my entire left leg cramped up at mile 19. Every heel strike shot pains through my leg. So I didn't meet my second goal of finishing strong. Catherine jumped in at mile 18 and paced me for the rest of the race. Why you ask? Some people find it hard to pace themselves especially after running for so many miles. I am one of them. So Catherine & I planned for her to pace and support me. For a long time I don’t know how Catherine was able to run along side me. I had a lot of bad words coming out of my mouth. When I met her at 18 I was just climbing out of Golden Gate Park. Yes, going East in the park is uphill from the beach. And I really don't care for running in that park so I was already emotionally challenged at that point. As we continued out of the park and into the city my leg was in some serious pain and I could not concentrate on my form. Honestly, if it wasn't for Catherine's support out there, I would have walked in those remaining 8 miles. Thank you Honey, you are the best for me! My third goal was that of time; a 4:30 pace. I missed that one but it will be my goal for next years race. :) I finished with a time of 5 hours and 4 minutes and 10 seconds.....and limping. And I still love running. I iced for two days and was treated to a massage that Catherine bought me as a gift for finishing. WOW! That really made things feel good. On Wednesday morning I ran 1.5 miles and felt great! So I am looking at my schedule to see which Marathon I can run next. I hear there is one in Seattle :) That was a hard run. It surprises me of how much my legs hurt during the race considering that my 20 and 23 training miles were much easier and a lot more fun. But I did enjoy running across the Golden Gate Bridge with NO fog. Can you believe that, no fog!? Did you know that the Bridge is a hill too!? Running through that city was pretty flipping beautiful too. And I no longer hate that city as I did at mile 20 :) That was one of the most mentally & physically challenging, fun, rewarding and emotional events I have ever taken on in my in my life. If you missed the email with the pictures that Nichole took, you can view them at the link below. Some of your email applications might truncate the URL. So if your link fails, please copy and paste everything in-between the quotes for it to work. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EYt2jJoxatqO