**Many pictures in this post are not mine, but borrowed from Danielle.**
FridayFriday, October 16, two days before the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco, felt like a never-ending day. I didn’t have to be to work until 8:00 AM because it was a teacher work day, so I used the opportunity to take my car, a Honda CR-V that just turned 100,000 miles (see this post), to the shop for a little TLC. Okay, it was more than a little, it was $1300 worth, but hopefully for some items that will never need to be replaced again. By the time I finished work and picked up my car, it was much later than I anticipated and I spent the hour before leaving for the airport running between packing in the bedroom and cooking and eating pasta in the kitchen.
My flights from Palm Beach to San Francisco via Dallas were, fortunately, uneventful and I arrived in San Francisco around 11:00 PM. Keeping in mind the 3 hour time difference, it felt more like 2:00 AM, but I tried with all my might to not sleep on the plane so that I could fall asleep quickly when I arrived. I got a Super Shuttle into the city from the airport, but being the third person on the shuttle, we circled the airport until the van was full, and then I was the 3rd to last person dropped off in the city. It was after 12:30 AM before I entered the elevator of the Hilton San Francisco Financial District, located at the edge of China Town, to reach my room on the 20th floor.
Hilton San Francisco Financial District
When I entered the room, I was welcomed with the most amazing view. The following picture isn’t it, but it’s kind of close. This is actually Danielle’s photo from the evening after the race, so it was actually much darker when I arrived in the room.
View from our hotel room at dusk
I couldn’t believe our amazing view! I had the room all to myslef the first night, since my friend Andrea wasn’t able to join us in the race and we were suppose to be sharing. It was so nice and relaxing to have a room to myself! I was in desperate need of a shower, and afterwords, as I laid in bed and looked at the clock, I realized I had been up for over 22 hours. The day was finally over.
SaturdayIn the morning, I awoke to this view. Did I mention how amazing the view was?
Saturday morning view from the hotel room
This is the fourth time in my life I’ve been to San Francisco, and never had I had view like this.
Looking to the left – AMAZING VIEW!I awoke surprising early for getting to bed so late, so I played on my primitive phone until Danielle text me to see if I was up. I then went over to her room, 2 doors down, to say good morning and meet her friends Kristin, Rachel and Hilary while chomping on Swedish Fish that I had picked up at the airport in Dallas. I had been hungry since arriving the night before, but pushed it off thinking my body was confused between hunger and sleep, which it often is. Now I knew it was really hunger and I was ready to find some breakfast.
Rachel looked up a couple places nearby that looked like promising breakfast sites while we were getting ready, but as we started looking for them, realized that nothing in the Financial District would be open on Saturday morning. As we continued walking without a clear plan, I turned to Danielle and said “Should we ask someone?” and before she could barely respond I stopped a lady who advised us to keep walking a few more blocks to the Ferry Building at Pier 1.
Me and Danielle across from the Ferry Building
The Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building is awesome! I have never seen such a large and diverse farmer’s market and it made me want to shout “I love San Francisco!” We not only found breakfast but also spent some time enjoying the beautiful morning market atmosphere. I took this photo of Danielle snapping a picture for her blog. I love how, if you keep looking, the market seems to go on forever. I recommend checking out this post to see more of Danielle’s colorful market photos.
Danielle taking pictures for her blog at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market
I had no clear agenda for the day, besides making sure I went to the race expo to pick up my packet. Although I was excited to get to the expo, Suzanne (my high school best friend who lives in SF) wasn’t going until the afternoon so I decided to continue hanging out with Danielle, Kristin, Rachel and Hilary. Their plan for the day, after breakfast and the market, took us to Coit Tower via a cab. No need to kill our legs and feet the day before a marathon!
The view from the base of coit tower
Once at the base, we took a vote to see if we wanted to pay the $5 to ride the elevator to the top. There were 4 “I don’t care” votes and 1 “I want to” vote, so up in the old elevator we went. Since I’ve always been too cheap, and I learned that from my family, I’ve never been all the way to the top. So, even though I was an “I don’t care” vote, secretly I was happy at the voting results. Is the extra view worth $5? Absolutely Not! But now I can say I’ve been there.
My first trip to Coit Tower in 1989 (I'm on the left with my dad center and sister Gretchen right)
20 years later, 2009, finally made it to the top
After Coit Tower, we walked down Lombard Street towards the “crookedest street” but had to take a detour to go to Trader Joe’s (the one in North Beach). Danielle was super excited for this stop since she’s read all sorts of good things, but since we don’t have TJ’s in Florida had never been to one.
Kristin eyeing some TJ's Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix
We picked up a few items we would need for our pre-race breakfast the following morning, such as bananas, bagels and peanut butter, along with some other items that just looked yummy, like the Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix. In our new grocery bags, we were off to conquer Lombard Street.
The view from the top of Lombard Street, looking back at Coit Tower where we started walking from
Once at the top, Danielle snapped this picture above. It looks like Coit Tower, where we started walking from, is so far away, but it’s actually only about 8 blocks! It’s the down and then back up part that makes it seem tough. What a gorgeous day we had too – check out that blue sky! I don’t think that happens everyday in SF!
From the top of Lombard Street, we caught a cable car to take us back to Union Square, where the race expo was being held. I reached back and took Danielle’s camera from her so I could snap this photo of her riding the Cable Car.
Danielle Riding the Cable Car
And then turned around and got this one of Kristin and Rachel.
Kristin and Rachel holding on the Cable Car
Back to Union Square, we went into the Expo tent to pick up my packet. I called Suzanne around this time too, to see if she was close by to meet up. She was looking for a parking space, so the rest of decided to kill some time visiting the restrooms in a neighboring department store.
Danielle warned me that it wasn’t a typical expo and I might be disappointed. The expo was a tent set up in the park with little ventilation, it was small, uncomfortably crowded (although they said it was better on Thursday and Friday) and had very few vendors. I’m glad she warned me. Despite being busy, we didn’t have to wait long in any lines and it was easy to meet up with Suzanne and her college friend Holly who she had picked up at the airport from NYC earlier.
After we had our race packets and free sample Luna bars, we went across the street to NikeTown where they have every racers name on the windows.
Suzanne outside Nike Town with the racer's names on the windows
It took me a little while since I started on the very right window and I was all the way on the left. I was so excited when I found it that I yelled out loud “There I am!”
Poor photo set-up - casting a funny shadow over my name
There I Am!
After pursuing through the overcrowded, overpriced and abundantly small apparel at NikeTown (again, I here it was better on Thursday and Friday) I decided to not buy anything and hold out for hopefully liking the finisher’s T-shirt.
It was getter towards mid-afternoon and Suzanne and Holly decided to make their way to the grocery store for tonight’s dinner and head back to her apartment.
As Danielle and I were making our way to meet up with the others (we had split up at the Expo) I mentioned that I wasn’t feeling the best and Danielle pointed out that we hadn’t eaten lunch! Oh yeah, somehow in the excitement of the day we hadn’t done that yet. We stopped into Blondie’s Pizza for a slice and then made our way back to the hotel. Somehow, for thinking we were going to have a relaxing day, we only had an hour to freshen up and relax before going to Suzanne’s for our pre-race dinner.
It was so nice of Suzanne to offer to make us dinner! Pre-race pasta dinner in a restaurant can get greasy! She made Caesar salad, noodles with 2 types of sauce and bread with a choice of plain or buttery garlic. It was perfect. It was topped off by her offer to drive us back to our hotel instead of taking a cab. She’s the Best!
Holly showed us the sign she made for Suzanne at dinner
Before we left we snapped this picture of our whole team together (minus Andrea, of course).
The Whole Team: me, Rachel, Hilary, Kristin, Danielle and Suzanne (minus Andrea)
Back at the hotel, Danielle, who had moved into my room to take Andrea’s spare bed and give the other room a little more space, and I started getting “race ready.” I told her I have an issue with pinning on my bib and I will do it over and over again until it’s just perfect. I realize that any other person will pin on their bib in less than a minute and it will look exactly like mine. It did take me a very long time, but she was working on her camel back set-up the entire time so I say we’re even. Eventually we turned out the light in hopes to get a decent sleep before the early morning.
Pinning on my bib for the ???th time
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