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.