Nike 2008 - The best job in the world

Nike 2008 - The best job in the world

(Originally posted on MySpace on 10/23/2008)

I have the best job in the world.

I get up at 5 AM every Saturday, sometimes as early as 3 AM. I get to work when it's dark and cold. Sometimes it's raining. I get to see some people at their absolute worst. More often than not, I know I'm going to be really sore for the rest of the weekend.

I'm a coach of the marathon team for Team In Training. This past weekend, I was part of a team of close to a thousand coaches and staff supporting the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, a race to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

This is the wall at Nike Town. Twenty thousand names were displayed in inch-high letters on the first floor window. This is the 5th year for Nike and it just keeps getting better.

This is the summer Bayside Marathon team (Team Blaze) - a hundred of the most amazing people you'll ever meet. The walkers are the ones with the goofy headgear in the back.

I LOVE taking pictures of the shirts from the other chapters. Kansas and Rocky Mountain had some great ones this year.

"If I only had a cure!"

Two more were universal. Both of them made me well up a little when I read them.

This is Ann from the Southern Ohio chapter. She was our Honored Patient speaker at the pre-race pasta party. Ann was diagnosed with Hodgekins lymphoma in 1997 and was cured. She recently relapsed and is in remission from her second bout with lymphoma. Ann was one of over 100 survivors and cancer patients participating in the race on Sunday. Her chapter all wore shirts saying "If Ann Can, So Can I".

The race starts in Union Square right in front of Nike Town at 5:30 AM for the early starters. Only about 2000 of us were there, so as races go, the crowd was VERY thin. We got spread out pretty quickly so it was easy to pick out some of the people cheering from the sidelines.

Why did we train for 5 months? These ladies were out there at 6 AM to remind us.

 

The Mission Mile was once again halfway up the hills behind the Presidio. Anyone who needed a reason to fight through the climb had 68 of them in the form of chapter honoree boards.

 

The elite runners began passing us around mile 6 (they start at the regular 7 AM gun time). I liked that they had a built in cheering section from mile 4 to 7 from the early start (and I think some of them did too).

Nike offers both a full and a half marathon. One of the cruel parts about the course design is the split at the Great Highway. To the right, the half marathon finish is only a few hundred feet away. If you're doing the full marathon, you turn left towards Lake Merced for another 10 miles. This lady was perfectly placed to remind them to be strong and push through.

I caught this picture of our last Team Blaze participant around mile 25.5. Lilian (second from the left) was freezing in the strong ocean breeze, so Coach Rudy (second from the right) ran 3 miles to the finish line and back to give her his fleece jacket. The two coaches on the outside - "Mama Lisa" Felder and Coach Al (Jackson) are two of the most incredible human beings I've ever met. The four of us brought Lillian to the finish line - the pink arch off in the distance.

 

Some stories I wish I had pictures for:

- Team Blaze continued some amazing performances with two Boston Qualifying times. Angie was so fast, she even qualified despite having to walk her last mile and a half due to cramps.

- We had one walker who underwent surgery midway through the season and was unable to train. Through shear guts, she was able to do the half marathon despite only training up to 4 miles. She was the last walker on the half marathon course, but in the end, got the same Tiffany Necklace as every other finisher.

- At mile 23, Karen - a run/walker from Sacramento - began to lose her balance coming down the hill from Lake Merced. Coach Marcy (San Diego Chapter) and I each took one of her arms and walked with her for two miles, never once letting go until she was well enough to continue with her coaches. Karen also had MS. This was her first marathon and I was honored to be there to help her finish.

THE NUMBERS:
- 4900+ runners and walkers from Team In Training from 68 chapters in the US and Canada
- Over $18 million raised for Nike alone
- Over $900 million raised in the 20 years since Team in Training started in 1988.

They had a countdown of the top 10 reasons to race in Nike.  Two of the reasons were the world famous Tiffany Necklace as the medal and the Ghiradelli chocolate at mile 11 and 23.  This was my favorite.

Darn straight.

Winter season starts a week from Saturday.  We hope to recruit another hundred people to race in the Rock n Roll Arizona Half, the Kaiser San Francisco Half, the Los Angeles Marathon and Maratona di Roma (Rome!!).  Three informational sessions in, we look like we're well on our way.

Five more months of early Saturdays, waking up in the dark and the rain. Five more months of sore muscles on Sunday. Five more months of having to push people to their limits and find a way to keep them going. 

I'll see some of them when they're at their best.

I have the best job in the world.