San Francisco

This past weekend I went to San Franciso to run a half marathon and to celebrate my birthday with my two friends Melissa and Brenda.

The weekend started off rocky, a pattern that continued throughout the weekend. Melissa and Brenda were flying in from LA and missed their flight on Saturday so instead of getting there at noon, they didnt get to SF until 9:30 pm. I got there at 3 and checked into the very nice but snooty and overly ornate hotel. I needed to get my race packet as well as Melissa and Brendas and since I have a phobia of public transportation decided to walk. Did I mention that our hotel was at the top of Nob Hill and the race expo was at the Pier and that I was wearing 3 inch suede boots? That was a fun trek, good warm up for the race the next day for sure.

We didnt get to do anything Saturday or Saturday night because we had to get up at 4:30 on Sunday to make the 5:30 start time of the race. We got there a little late but races never start on time anyway and our wave hadnt even started yet. Then we were off and there were A LOT of people running.

I knew there would be hills, that I didn't train at all for, so I was nervous as to how I would handle it. The first big hill was up to the Golden Gate Bridge and it was very steep. I dug in and got to the top and it was really cool to be able to run across the bridge. It was a bit foggy and cold and I never realized how long that bridge was. It was really beautiful though and when I was able to get my mind out of run mode and enjoy my surroundings, I was able to appreciate it.

It was also windy as hell and I got blown around a lot up there. One complaint that I have is they blocked off two driving lanes on the bridge, one coming and one going, and the lanes were narrow so it was easy to get bunched up around people and get stuck behind slower runners, which is always frustrating. About the time I was halfway over the bridge I started getting pretty severe stomach cramps. Knowing I was stuck out there on the course, with about 8 more miles left to go stopping and walking would have just prolonged the discomfort so I kept running. The cramps would come in waves too so I would get relief for a little while at least.

6 more huge hills and I was very happy that I do squats because my legs were my workhorses as I muscled my way up them. There were more hills and steeper hills than I expected though. I would think I was finally done with them but at mile 12 there was still one final hill. The good thing about hills though is that they make the time go by faster. I was so focused on running up them and keeping my pace that I didn't pay attention to what mile I was on as much as I would on a flat course where there are no hills to distract me.

I finished at a decent time, at least one that I was happy with. I had slacked off my training the last 2 weeks and didnt train any hills because I got lazy so I am kind of annoyed with myself because I probably could have had a PR if I trained harder. This was my 4th half marathon and the best time I had so far was 1:45, and that was on a completely flat course. This time I ran it in 1:54, so I averaged an 8:42 mile. Overall I placed 977 out of 6,678 and out of females in my age group I placed 96 out of 1,342.

The bad news however was I finished an hour ahead of Brenda and Melissa so I had to wait for them with bad stomach cramps and in freezing temperatures. I wasnt cold when I was running but when I stop and was all sweaty, I cooled off pretty quickly. By the time they finished and we got on the bus to take us back to the start line so we could take a cab back to the hotel, all 3 of us were experiencing bad stomach cramps. And once we got back to the hotel, the fun really began. We basically took turns without giving the toilet any breaks in between uses for 4 hours. Brenda had it the worst because she was also throwing up but we were all suffering. We all managed to pull it together and make our reservation at Asia SF for a drag show and dinner later that night and both were fabulous. They are also opening an Asia SF in Hollywood so at some point I think everyone should check it out, it is amazing and a lot of fun (I am going to try and post a video later).

So thats about it, race, colon blow and drag queens made for a very interesting weekend! I really love SF too, that city just makes me happy.

Oh and I am sorry I didnt make it to the game last night, I know I missed out but I was so tired from the weekend. I was still tired this morning proof of which is that I wore my shirt inside out to starbucks, true story, it was awesome.