I Left My Heart in...

San Francisco?

Yeah, pretty much it was so much better than I thought it would be… the city.

Yeah, pretty much it was so much worse than I thought it would be… the race.

Yeah, it was freaking EPIC… the company.

I can’t organize my thoughts!  I’m beyond exhausted.  I landed in VA and turned around less than 24 hours later to get to MA to run the Providence RI Half Marathon this Sunday….

In the Non-runners are clueless category:

~ “All runners eat cliff bars.”  Instead of food, right?

~ “I know a great place you can run.”  A bike path along side of the freeway wouldn’t be my first choice.

~ “Are you ready to get up?  It’s almost 3:30 a.m.”  If a runner sets their alarm before a race, trust me. it’s freaking SET.  And double checked.  And there’s probably a back up alarm in the room.  Which has also been double and triple checked.

~ the above was made that much more entertaining by the dinner conversation 14 hours later … non-runner says, “G, you looked really tired this morning.  Were you tired?”  No.  Getting up 40 minutes before the alarm had no impact on my tiredness.  At all.

pre-race ~ naive has never been so cute.  or bright.  (or, in my case, short)

In the It’s Not as Hilly as you Fear category:

~ Yeah, it freaking is… don’t imagine for a minute that race has any flat after the first 3 miles.

~ If you get behind your pace before mile 3, say, almost 2 minutes behind due to major congestion at the start… forget it.  Stop fighting for the goal and pull out the camera.  My ONE regret of the weekend was not recognizing that my race was over at mile 2.

~ FYI – the last 2 miles of that race are effing BRUTAL.  T summed it up as “soul crushing”.  Yup.  That’s what it was…

~ I still got a 4 minute PR, so it could have been worse.

~ The course was BEAUTIFUL.

~ I LOVED meeting Kim, she's adorable on SO MANY LEVELS.  

Kim & T
T's worshiping Kim's awesomeness... ~ ahem.

In the Don’t go to San Fran on a diet category:

~ I loved every bite of every bit of food I found in SF.

~ The Ferry Building only sells deliciousness.

~ If you go to SF and manage to get through the Ferry Building without trying a vegan donut, or homemade scone, or what was that thing called that we randomly walked by and HAD TO BUY? … you’ve wasted a trip, you can go ahead and un-friend me on FB now… because we have nothing in common.

In the We are SO MUCH COOLER than you COULD POSSIBLY KNOW category:

~ We ran into Bart Yasso on the street on Friday, and he recognized us.

~ The next morning, we went to the Lululemon shake out run, and ran into Bart again…  he and I had a really entertaining exchange pre-run.... and T's (and now my) friends apparently stood there going, "wait, she really is Bart Yasso's BFF?  Seriously?  That's not a joke?"

~ Apparently Bart must’ve enjoyed my company, because he ran with me for most of the 3 mile run, despite my pace variations that had me alternating between leading the pack & hanging with the crowd….  Who knew?

~ But the COOLEST thing is that T & I went to San Fran as a “couple”… and ended up having friends to hang out with on Saturday morning, friends to bond with over city driving, friends to hit the expo with… yeah, right?  We're like THAT.  Friends to run with on race day.  Friends to give high fives as we passed on the out and back at the bridge.  And after all that, it was not weird that we ended up having post race brunch with about 16 amazing women.  Right?  RIGHT?

Yeah, we arrived 3000 miles from home...  to discover we have a posse wherever we go.

In the Random Thoughts About San Fran category:

~ I didn’t leave my heart in San Francisco.  I did leave my 2XL Swamp Lager Beer sweatshirt though.  I decided the mojo in that sweatshirt might not be good.

~ I thought about my friend Lion about 20 times a day in San Fran...  not sure, well, I would guess I know why... but we'll pretend I'm not sure why...  Anyway, about the time I was thinking of her, yet again, we passed Lion Street.  After that, I embraced my loneliness for Lion.

~ I walked around for an entire day in San Fran wearing an inside out 2XL Swamp Lager Beer Sweatshirt … looking quite homeless … because I wasn’t wearing a bra…  i.e. I rode the cable car without a bra.  I walked around the Ferry Building without a bra.  I went to brunch with a bunch of women without.a.bra.  I am the kind of person who sleeps in a bra, and wears 2 to run in… but it’s just how it went down.  Not freeing though, as one might think.  Chaffing though.  I may have scars to remember my weekend by.

~ T & I raced in our TEAM SPARKLE SKIRTS TRAVELING SKIRTS!  WE LOOKED ADORABLE.  But… you know… in San Fran… Sparkle skirts & tall socks are almost  too tame…