Run, Karla, Run!

Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco (Photo: Nike)

UPDATE 3/9/15: Registration for the Nike Women’s 15K in Toronto is now open at Nike.com.

Big news in women’s running: Nike announced Tuesday that they’re expanding their Run Nike Women’s Series, which previously included half-marathons in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to a 20 city tour around the world.

The new Nike Women’s Event Series will include the Nike Women’s Race Series and N+TC Tour with more than 200,000 participants. The series starts March 8, 2015 with the Nagoya Women’s Marathon and N+TC Tour Shanghai and culminates with the series signature event, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco. New to North America will be the Nike Women’s 15K Toronto on June 14, 2015, in place of the Washington, D.C. half-marathon.

Shalane Flanagan, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Jordan Hasay at Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco (Photo: Nike)

“We started over a decade ago with the inaugural Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco, and now the Nike Women’s Event Series is expanding that vision to bring the inspiration and camaraderie we find at local races and gyms to women all over the world,” said running legend and Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson in a statement.

“The Nike Women’s Race Series motivates women to achieve personal running goals, and N+TC Tour offers challenge, variety and reward for athletes at any level. The choices and access for women who love sport and fitness are better than ever with the announcement of the Nike Women’s Event Series.”

Nike Women’s Race Series

The expansion of the series will make it the world’s largest for women and will include distances ranging from 10K to half-marathon. Each event will be tailor made for its host city right down to a custom finisher necklace designed for each town. Cities in the tour will include: Read the rest of this entry →

Training with Nike at Icahn Stadium (Nike)

Today is my five-year blogiversary! And I’m celebrating the best way I know how: going for a run. On Sunday, October 19 I’m running the Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco as part of a Nike media group. When I cross the finish line and earn my Tiffany & Co. necklace, it will be a reminder of just how far I’ve come since I launched “Run, Karla, Run!” back in 2009. And how far we’ve all come together.

Before the 2009 Chicago Marathon. (RunKarlaRun.com)

It’s appropriate that my five-year anniversary is occurring around a race. My very first post was about running the 2009 Bank of Chicago Marathon on the anniversary of my father’s death. I’m from Chicago and the course runs right past my dad’s old office, a place I spent many weekends growing up. Running that race on that day in that city was bittersweet for me. You can read that first post, and its follow-up if you’re curious.

Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, where my dad worked. (Phil Hospod)

But opening my blog with a post about the town where I got my start as a writer—on my high school newspaper, where I eventually served as editor-in-chief— was a fitting beginning to my career as a running reporter, which has taken me from Chicago and my home in New York City to places I never would have dreamed of five years ago: to far-flung locales like Israel, Peru and the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, to new career frontiers like hosting a web and TV show for New York Road Runners on ABC in New York, to seeing my byline in publications like SHAPE and Canadian Running, RunnersWorld.com and Active.com, and right here on RunKarlaRun.com.

Now, I’m off to my first race in San Francisco. Rather than try to PR on the city’s fierce hills, I’m going to use the Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco as a litmus test. This time, it’s all about my marathon pace for the upcoming GORE-TEX Philadelphia Marathon in November. Can I run 13.1 miles at my goal marathon pace? If I can, will it feel easy enough? It’s time to find out.

Stretching (Nike)

Lessons From The Track

Last month, I hit the track with a Nike+ NYC training group, including some of the ladies who are joining me in San Francisco. We ventured to Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City where we ran a workout led by Nike+ Head Coach Chris Bennett. It consisted of a warm-up, dynamic stretches and drills, strides across the infield, a speed workout on the track, cool down and foam rolling. Read the rest of this entry →

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. (Nike)

A few weeks ago, I announced that I’m running the Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco on October 19 as part of a Nike media group. I was waiting for Nike to release the course map before I decide if the race will be the scene of my sub-2 hour half marathon attempt.

Well, the course map is finally here! For the 11th edition of the race, Nike has drawn a completely new route through San Francisco.

Course Map

Like years of yore, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon starts in San Francisco’s Union Square.

But instead of heading north to the Marina and Presidio, the first three miles take runners through the city streets, including the iconic Alamo Square neighborhood with its rows of Victorian houses.

San Francisco’s Alamo Square neighborhood. (Nike)

Miles 4 through 8 tour the bucolic 1,017-acre Golden Gate Park before another mile through the often-foggy Richmond District. Read the rest of this entry →

(Courtesy of Nike)

Have you ever had a running gait analysis? I now have video of mine thanks to Nike Running.

On Sunday, October 19, I’ll be running the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco! I’ll be attending the race courtesy of Nike as part of a media group. Along with the race, they’re helping me train and gear up for the event. Excited? You bet!

Gait Analysis

To help me gear up for the race, I got fit for shoes at the Nike Running store in New York City’s Flatiron district. I’ve had my gait analyzed four times before at various running stores and in physical therapy. I have it checked periodically in case my form has changed dramatically since I’ve gotten faster, been diagnosed with arthritis, injured my hip in a horseback riding fall, and all the other things that affect how I run.

But year after year, gait analysis shows I’m a steadfast neutral shoe runner. This time I have video proof.

But what does it mean to be a neutral shoe runner? Read the rest of this entry →

The Nike Women’s Half Marathon SF. (Photo: Nike)

So you didn’t get into the 2014 Nike Women’s Half Marathon SF? If you want to be one of the 25,000 runners at the start on October 19, you still can. Charity bibs are available with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training (TNT), the series’ major beneficiary.

A TNT runner. (Photo courtesy of Team in Training)

Since the first Nike Women’s Marathon in 2004, Team in Training participants have raised more than $147.9 million in Nike Women Series events, helping The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) fund research to advance lifesaving blood cancer treatments.

Through its 25th anniversary last year, TNT had trained more than 600,000 participants and raised more than $1.4 billion for LLS.

If you want to run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon SF with TNT, you’ll be asked to raise funds in exchange for your spot in the race. You’ll also train with TNT coaches for four months, receive access to clinics on nutrition and injury prevention, and race past San Francisco’s iconic sites.

Nike has yet to reveal the 2014 course. Previous editions started at Union Square in San Francisco and finished on the Great Highway at Ocean Beach, travelling along the San Francisco Bay with views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Read the rest of this entry →

The Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco. (Photo: Nike)

UPDATE: The 2014 lottery is now closed. To run the race via charity, read Run Nike Women’s Half Marathon SF for charity with TNT.

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Registration for the 2014 Nike Women Half Marathon San Francisco random draw opened Wednesday, June 4 at 11 a.m. PDT. Runners have until 11 a.m. on June 19 PDT to register for a chance at being one of the 25,000 runners expected on October 19.

The half marathon is the focus at the 2014 Nike Women’s Half Marathon San Francisco. (Photo: Nike)

For the 11th year of the world’s largest women-focused race, Nike has decided to forgo the marathon distance and concentrate on the half.

“Due to runners’ feedback over the past few years, we have decided to only offer a half marathon,” reads numerous responses to runner inquires on the race’s Facebook page. “But we are dedicated to bring you one of the best Nike Women’s Half Marathons yet!”

The Nike Women’s Marathon and Half Marathon San Francisco debuted in 2004 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first Olympic women’s marathon in 1984, won by American Joan Benoit Samuelson. The Nike Women’s Marathon and Half Marathon went on to become the largest women’s running event in the world. More than 30,000 runners finished races at the event in 2013. More than 26,000 of them ran the half marathon. Read the rest of this entry →