I supposed it's time to finish the story. It'll probably take another post, but that's ok, I'm older and deserve to be long winded about this experience.
The week of the race I traveled to Salt Lake City, UT for our annual National Recreation and Parks Association conference. I tried to rest, that didn't happen. I wanted to do my strength video, that didn't happen. I needed to work on my data analysis for a presentation in two weeks, that didn't happen. It was a week full of socializing, walking and trying to determine whether any calls for job applications were being announced. It was a week to reconnect with friends who live around the country. Amongst the busyness I did continue to stretch and did one little run on the treadmill, but the elevation made it tough.
There were two memorable events from the week. One was an unforgettable encounter with God. The other was a pretty fun pre-birthday celebration. The student branch had a social at a piano bar. Some friends requested girls just want to have fun and happy birthday. In fine form, I jumped (or was forced) on top of the pianos and danced. Sometimes in life it is worth it to let our guard down and enjoy the moment. If we live like we are worried of what others think, or are too proud to try new things we often miss out on what could be one of the more joyous moments of our lives. I was turning 30, and by golly I danced on a piano to celebrate.
The thing about the week before was that I felt at peace. Even though I wasn't running or preparing like I felt I was supposed to, it seemed ok. On Friday I flew to San Francisco. I met up with Madalyn at the hotel and then we walked down to the Expotique. I picked up my race packet and we briefly walked through , got a smoothie from the bicycle powered blenders and then wandered over to Nike Town. I bought some race memorabilia and then we went back to the hotel for a while. Later that night I met up with Stephanie, a friend from grad school who came into town to cheer me and her best friend on. I found out that Stephanie's dad was a cancer survivor, lymphoma I believe. We went out to dinner with another friend from grad school and a good friend of mine that I worked with in AK. I hadn't seen Pete in years, and it was great to catch up. Not to mention we ate Thai, delicious!!!!
On Saturday morning Madalyn and I walked around the expo again for a little while and then we took off (using my GPS) looking for Noah's bagels. We wanted to get a bagel to eat before the race and Noah's is pretty famous. We ended up walking down Market street and found the local market near the bay bridge. We listened to a street musician who played recycled household items, he was amazing! Then we decided to take a rickshaw (aka pedi-cab) down to pier 39. We had already walked a long way that morning and wanted to save our legs. The wharf was tons of fun, lots of shops and restaurants and of course the sea lions. We stayed there until my mom and sister landed and drove over to pick us up. We went back to the hotel, hung out for a while and then got ready for the evening carb load pasta party...