San Francisco {The Final Installment}

After running the race and getting ready at the hotel we headed down to the wharf. We were starving for lunch so we headed over to Boudin Bakery. We had ran past it in our race and could smell the sourdough bread, so tempting. So of course we wanted to try it out for lunch. I got their tomato soup in a sourdough breadbowl. Yummmy! We sat outside while eating our lunch, it was a perfect day.

 

After lunch we walked around Pier 39. We did a little shopping. (Most of which was at a candy store).

Me at Pier 39. Not sure why I decided NOT to smile for this picture. Trying to be serious?

We stopped by and looked at the seals. Man they were so stinky. As soon as you started to walk towards them on the pier you were overwhelmed by their stench. They just lied there, didn't do anything interesting but it was still neat to see them like that.

Looking back at the city line from the wharf. What a beautiful city San Fran is.

My sister in law Lindsay and I just HAD to take a picture of us together because we were practically matching. Yep, pinkish/purplish pants and a dark striped top. Too funny.

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I love this picture. I was so bummed that the fog was too heavy during our race for me to see it that I was so ecstatic when I finally did get to see it while walking along the pier.

Then we had a little mother-daughter photo sesh:

Sis in Law Lindsay & her cute mom

Aunt Cathy & Cousin Brooke

Me & My Mom- Yep, it was so windy that I was practically eating my hair. Whatevs

After walking around the wharf we headed to Chirardelli square.

My mom and I shared a chocolate malt shake for dinner. It was the best chocolate shake I have ever had. A great way to end the night.

I would love to go back to San Fran and do a few things that we weren't able to like Alcatraz, Chinatown, etc. We were going to try Alcatraz but it was sold out. Bummer. Until next time San Francisco!

NWM Tiffany&Co Finisher's Necklace

When my aunt asked me if I wanted to run the NWM half marathon with her she told me that all finishers would receive a Tiffany&Co necklace. As soon as I heard that I was in! Upon crossing the finishing line at the race we were met by firemen in tuxedos handing us our Tiffany&Co boxes. I was very patient and waited until we got back to the hotel to open it. I guess I was just savoring the moment. I didn't want to ruin the perfect little box that it was in. The necklace is a silver chain with a "dog-tag" that is two sided. Here it is:

 

I love wearing it! What do you think???

San Francisco Day Two {Part One}

On the morning of the race we woke up at around 5:30 to get ready and head downtown to Union Square. The race started at 7am. We got dropped off downtown and started making our way to our "Pace Corral". Since there were so many runners they placed you in a "corral" according to your pace. We walked to our corral and my Aunt Cathy decides to take a short cut down an alley. I was a little sketched out and told her that's where the scary people were. She said, "All the bad guys are gone and asleep somewhere." To which I replied, "No, this is where they LIVE!" Literally two seconds later she almost stepped on some homeless guys that were sleeping in the alley we were walking in. Needless to say we started walking quite a bit faster to our pace corral! As soon as we got there we couldn't believe how many runners there are. I can't even describe what 25,000 runners looks like all in one place. Just imagine it...so many people! We got in line for the porta-potties and waited for the race to start.

 

We didn't actually cross the starting line until about 13 minutes after the gun went off. There were so many runners it was almost impossible for me to run as fast as I really wanted. I was dodging in and out of runners. I had alot of energy and was amazed at how much of a difference being at sea level made. I wasn't gasping for air at all. I don't think I got out of breath once the entire run. We ran downtown t and ran along the coast. There were a few streets that were very steep and narrow. This was nuts because imagine thousands of runners trying to run up a hill all at once on a really narrow street. At one point they even put us on a path that was even narrower than the street. I just ran on the grass at that point, trying to dodge runners. You would be running up a hill and all of a sudden a few runners would decide they wanted to walk up the hill. I just about plowed through them! At mile 6 there was a pretty good sized hill for about a mile. I run hills at home so it wasn't really anything that I am not used to. Tip: Always train with hills. It prepares you for everything. We ran past the Golden Gate Bridge but I never saw it because the fog was so thick. It literally felt like I was running through at cloud at some points and I was sopping wet from the mist.

My mom was waiting at mile 11 and snapped this photo of me:

She hurried and went to mile 13 and got this super blurry pic of me. I thought it was a hilarious picture.

At the finish line they had firefighters dressed in tuxedos handing us our Tiffany&Co boxes. Inside the box was a pretty silver finishers necklace.

Me & My Tiffany&Co box

I went and got my runner's goodies and waited for my sis in law & aunt to come across the finish line. We were pretty excited about our Tiffany's boxes, can you tell??

Just an idea of how many people were at the race. This isn't even ALL 25,000 runners.

We finished! We were supposed to be flexing our muscles but Lindsay and I ended up being the only ones who posed for the picture.

My Cousin Brooke & her mom Aunt Cathy

My Support Team- Love you MOM!

After the race we had to walk back to our car which was about 3 miles away from where the finish line was. I was freezing because I was so wet from the mist. I am the only person I know that gets goosebumps on their face. So weird. Once we got back to the car I finally opened my Tiffany&Co box.

We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready to spend the rest of the day at the Wharf & Ghiradelli square. Overall the race was a really fun one and I would definitely do that one again. The only downside was that I wasn't able to run as fast as I wanted but I enjoyed myself so isn't that what really matters? I finished in 2 hours which is pretty average for me. At some point I would like to beat my PR (1hr 52 min)....someday.

More about our day at the wharf next....

San Francisco {Day One}

My trip to San Francisco didn't really start out as planned. I had planned on leaving for San Francisco on Friday afternoon at about 11am and meeting up with my Aunt Cathy & Sis in Law Lindsay. I was also flying standby. (I have family in the airline industry, so I thought I would save some $$$) Well, let's just say after spending the ENTIRE day in the airport and lots of tears I didn't make ONE flight out on Friday. My mom decided to help me fly out the next morning so we woke up at 3:30am and headed back to the airport. We didn't make our first flight but made the 8:30 am flight and off we were to San Fran! We got picked up from the airport and we  all decided to head to downtown SF.

 

Can you tell how happy I was to finally be in San Fran?

(Sis in Law Lindsay, Me, & Mom)

 

 We headed to Union Square because we needed to pick up our race packets. There was a really long line so we decided to grab lunch first.



 

 

 

My Girls Trip companions!

 

We were starving and had no idea where to go or what we wanted to eat so we stopped at one of the first places we saw that looked and sounded good: Cafe Bellini.  I spotted crepes on the menu and knew that is what I wanted. I ordered a Chicken Pesto Crepe. After a long wait, we got our food and it was delicious. Even though we waited a really long time to get our food it was still delicious. My Aunt Cathy told me I need to work on re-creating that recipe so you just might see that up on the blog if I don't fail! ;)

 

Me & My Cousin Brooke - BFF's since birth. We used to call eachother and plan out our outfits so that we could match.

After lunch we headed back to Union Square to get our race packets. The line was TWICE as long and wrapped around twice. It did move pretty quick though. 25,000 women running in the race so of course the line was going to be long!

 

Lindsay, Me, Brooke & Aunt Cathy 

 

 

After we got our race packets we walked around and did some shopping. There is SO much shopping to be done in San Francisco. After walking & shopping we went to dinner at Chevy's Mex and my mom and I shared a meal. We didn't want to stay out too late so we went back to the hotel to get some zzz's in before the big race. 

 

 

 

Friday the 13th

Friday was "FRIDAY the 13TH" and I had signed up with my friend to do a Glow in the Dark 1/2 marathon. I was freaking out a little that the we were going to get rained out. It rained on and off all day long on Friday and right around 7pm the wind was strong and the rain was coming down hard. The race was supposed to start at 9pm so we were just praying it would clear up by then. We got there about an hour early because the race people suggested it saying there were TONS of people. Well, there were quite a few people but it wasn't as crazy  as they made it sound. We lined up at 9pm and waited for them to let us start. At about 9:05pm the announcer came out and said they were going to get started late. Well, they didn't blow the horns until 9:30pm. You could tell it was their first race because it was a little unorganized but it was still fun.  And just in time for the race, there was a break in the weather. Lucky for us it actually cooled down the night for us!  We ran in the dark on a pretty difficult hilly course and got sprayed in the face with sprinklers a few times. When I started out I was wearing some glow in the dark accessories and at mile 1 they were already starting to fly off of me. My friend and I were laughing so hard because the glow in the dark necklaces were bouncing so high I was practically eating them. It was pretty nuts running in the pitch black night. {The moon was not visible so it was even darker than usual}  Half the time I was worried about running into someone or tripping, thankfully neither of those happened. Right around mile 10 I started feeling sick. It was all my fault. Since we were running at night I had debated about what to eat that day. My friend said she was going to eat a light pasta dinner. Great Idea! But instead the last thing I ate was a cupcake at around 3:30pm it was delicious but... I may have thrown up a little. :/ I still finished in 2 hours which is fine with me and hey! I took 4th place in my age group... WAHOO.

Me, Jaron & her husband Matt and a friend Tyler

Girls did the 1/2 marathon, Boys did the 5k

Getting our glow on!

It was fun times...still not sure how I feel about the night races though. Although I am sure I will do another one.

XOXO,
Whitney

Currently Crushing: Running Gear

I had so much fun linking up last week with Framed Frosting's Current Crush that I decided to link up again today!

Today I am currently crushing on:

Cute Running Gear

It all started when I went to The Salt Lake Running company last month and saw some adorable mint running shorts and a mint running top. Then two weeks ago at Target I decided to buy myself a running skort, which I absolutely love. It is gray with neon yellow under shorts. Here are a few items I am drooling over right now. If only I had all the money in the world, which I don't, so for today I will just window shop!

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A girl can dream! See you next week!

XOXO,

Whitney



26.2

I cannot believe that my marathon has already come and gone. I registered for it back in November and had 6 months to prepare which felt like a lifetime. I was already running quite a bit before but I followed an 18 week training schedule to help keep me on track. All last week I was nervous as can be. I tried to keep myself busy by running errands, working on a bunch of DIY projects, and baking! When Friday (Marathon Eve) came, I could not distract myself. I could hardly eat lunch and had to force myself to eat dinner because I knew I needed the carbs and protein. The marathon was up in Ogden, UT. I live about an hour and a half a way and there was NO way I was wanting to get up that early and drive that far. Conveniently my Aunt who lives about 15-20 minutes away was also running the marathon with me and she lovingly let me stay the night at her house. (I blame her for making me sign up in the first place!!) I was worried about not being able to sleep because let's be honest I NEVER sleep before races, even when I do half marathons that I feel comfortable doing. My nerves and anxiety just keep me up all night. Luckily I took a 1/2 of a sleepy pill {best decision ever} so that I was able to get some sleep. We woke up at 4am, got ready and headed up to the buses. We stood in line waiting to load the buses and nervously made friends with two older men/seasoned runners. I think the worst part was waiting. I just wanted to start already and get it over with. Once we got up to the top of the canyon the sun was already starting to rise. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was so glad to get going. I absolutely thought that the first 13.1 was going to be a breeze. It wasn't. My knee starting bothering me around mile 3 which was so odd because I never have problems with my knee but I just had to push through the pain. At miles 14-16 there was a pretty good uphill section that was killer. Just when you are really starting to get tired you have to run uphill!! The rest was pretty much downhill, which you think is going to be easy but it really isn't. You have to control yourself and you are using different muscles. At mile 19 I was ready to be done, I tried to occupy myself with the beautiful scenery but my tired legs were screaming at me. Then mile 22 came and I started seeing more and more spectators. Every time I saw some spectators it would give me a little boost to keep going. I also might have teared up a little when I saw people cheering me on. I knew the end was near and people rooting for me was just what I needed. I saw my Uncle at mile 25, he encouraged me to keep going and I got another push to keep going. JUST KEEP RUNNING!!! When I started coming down the main street in Ogden I knew I only had about 1/2 mile to go and I could see the finish line. Just as I was about to cross the finish line I saw my amazing family cheering me on, holding up posters. It honestly means so much to me to have had that support. I am not sure they understand how much I needed that. While I was running I had to keep telling myself I could do it and was fighting the voice in my head that was telling me "You cant't do it, Just quit, this is TOO hard." To see my family there supporting my craziness really meant the world to me. Once I finished I walked through the runners station then found a shady tree and practically fell down onto the ground to rest and wait for my family to come find me. I SWORE up and down that I would NEVER EVER EVER do a full marathon again. My stomach was killing me and my legs were so tired. WHY would I ever want to put myself through that misery again? I have heard everyone says that after they finish their first marathon. It really was the hardest thing I have ever done and now I know that I CAN DO HARD THINGS. I am so glad it's over and for now I will just stick to my half marathons. It was a great experience overall. You really learn alot about yourself, how to persevere and just keep going.

My cute little cheerleaders

The Finish Line

Just about to cross the finish line

 26.2. DONE&DONE. Thanks for the poster Nicole! Ha ha.

XOXO,
Whitney