When I ran this race 2 years ago (Nike Women’s Half), the course was different. The course this year is sort of like a backwards version of how it used to be.

If I had to guess why they changed it, it would be to not have to close the Great Highway and to make the hills a little better. Do you see that big downhill around mile 12? That 300 feet of fast elevation gain used to be a pretty brutal hill in the past. Just based on the course map, my experience today, and my experience in previous races, the hills should be not nearly as bad as in the past! I wanted to get at least one hill in from the race in my run today, so I started in Golden Gate Park and worked my way over to the Golden Gate bridge, taking the following route (about miles 5-10 of the race).

Granted I’ve been training on worse hills this summer, but the hills during this portion were not bad-I think running the reverse of this portion actually was worse.

I haven’t spent much time in Golden Gate Park besides during races, so I took lots of pictures. I was able to park on a side street right at the Western edge of the park, by the windmill.

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city-75 and sunny! What?? I actually got to see the amazing views that I missed running this race the previous time because it was super foggy and you couldn’t even see the beach/ocean!

Golden Gate Park is nice. I should spend more time there.

First view of the bridge!

I ended up stoping regularly to make sure I was staying on track. I didn’t think I was, but I think I actually stuck to it pretty well until I reached Lincoln Highway, which I was supposed to run up, but there was no sidewalk. Instead, I cut down into a parking lot and got some good views of the bridge!

The return trip was actually better than expected, and I was surprised by how strong my legs felt with the increasing distance. I’ll take it!

Also-compression socks are magic. I put them on immediately and my legs felt great the next day. I mistakenly thought I was near Dynamo Donuts, and was thinking about them the entire second half of the run, so I decided to make the 20 minute drive there, especially since it was right by the freeway!

This time, I got a gluten free lemon buttermilk donut and a decaf iced latte.

Since my entire post-run lunch was sugar, I decided to stop for a hummus and avocado sandwich at the place across the street.

After leaving the city, I went to pick my puppy up from her play group and she was tired!

After a relaxing afternoon, my evening ended on a delicious note when we went to the Greek Festival down the street (it happens every year during Labor Day weekend) and picked up some Greek food for dinner. Spanikopita, or pastry with spinach and feta, is my favorite, but we also had Greek salad (traditional Greek salad doesn’t have lettuce) and chicken kebabs.

For dessert, I had my favorite-Galaktoboureko-which is phyllo dough filled with custard and soaked in honey. Plus, this is one of the only non-nut desserts!

Have you ever run a Nike Women’s Race?

Friday night, I dressed up and actually wore heals for my sorority’s fancy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I’m not really sure what I think about the Cheesecake Factory. To be honest, it kind of intimidates me! My sister is in my sorority, and since we were sitting together, she suggested we order an appetizer of guac. And we all know that is one thing I am not going to pass up on!

I since we had an appetizer, I ordered an interesting sounding salad for dinner. It had a bunch of different veggies, including beets. I am convinced that I can like beets, I just need to find the proper preparation for me. I was about to dig in when I exclaimed to my sister, “Oh no, I’m being a bad blogger!” I then proceeded to grab my phone and snap a picture. This picture does not do this salad justice- it was massive!

I wasn’t planning on having any cheesecake, but after a few bites of my sister’s mango key lime cheesecake, I was convinced. 

For the record, before taking this picture, I warned her it was going on the blog! The cheesecake was delicious but SO RICH. We saved the leftovers to take home to her boyfriend. However, my sister reminded me AFTER the cheesecake that we still had to run that time. Heh. 

I was very concerned for the run, but it turned out to be fine. We ran on a Friday night during prime party time, and it was interesting to run by party-goers. We got a whole bunch of “Why are you running now?”

Saturday was a fairly productive day, at least in the morning. I had plans to work out after lunch, but then a 4 hour nap happened, and I ran out of time before my evening events. Hey, if I am going to sleep for 4 hours, I obviously need it! Hence the R&R. I’ll have plenty of time for exercise in a week!

First on tap for Saturday night was a banquet for my dorm. We all dressed up and enjoyed a dinner of non-dining hall Greek food!We also did Superlatives which was a ton of fun! Some of them were hilarious, and all of them were spot-on. Surprisingly, mine was not “Most Likely to be Awake at 5am.” Here’s mine:

How cute is that? 

After dinner, we watched a slideshow. We saw pictures from move-in day in the fall! It was so sad! The saddest part though was a song. There is a guy in my dorm that writes parodies of popular songs, with the parodies being about how awesome out dorm is, and then performs them with his guitar. We listened to all the songs from this year, plus a new one that was sooo sad. I am going to miss all these people so much! I never really realized what a great community I have in my dorm. 

After that, I went to a sorority party planned by the pledges. We used my theme idea-neon. Hey, I’ll take any excuse to wear workout clothes! 

I slept unusually late this morning, and am considering taking another nap. I don’t know what it is!

Also, I just wanted to clarify something. I’ve posted before about my No Sugar challenges, and I want to discuss a little bit about the reasoning behind them. It isn’t because I believe sugar is an off-limits food that should be avoided at all costs. I’m all about eating whatever you want as part of a balanced diet. It’s not that I think “Oh no, if I eat any chocolate, I’m going to gain so much weight.” The reason is that I have a really bad physical reaction to sugar. The worst is it makes me literally crazy-it completely alters my hormone levels. It also raises my body temperature. Yes, I actually get a measurable fever from sugar, I’ve tested it. I have trouble thinking clearly as well, and I get stomachaches a lot of the time. It also has this very addictive hold over me- whenever I eat it, it is hard for me to stop at a reasonable amount. And the newest thing- since I’ve been eating sweets this week I’ve had this nagging headache, which is really irritating. It can’t be a coincidence that it started exactly when I started eating sweets again. So that’s my rationale. I have a very strange and purely physical reaction to sugar, and most of the time it just isn’t worth how it makes me feel. In the future, I don’t intend to never eat sugar again, but I feel more sane when I avoid it!

(Because this post didn’t have many pictures!)

Do you have a food that makes you feel yucky?