I am in San Francisco for my nephew’s graduation from the University of California in Berkeley. There are about 14 of us here. His parents live in Mexico and most of the family came from Mexico.
I left Saturday morning with my mom. I don’t always enjoy traveling to CA because of the long flight and the time difference. I think I’ve been to CA about 6-7 times.
After getting our luggage, picking up a car, and meeting my niece and her grandmother, we make our way to our AirBnB in San Francisco. My nephew got us a place in the Mission District where he lives and where he got another place for his parents and other family members.
Our place is nice. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, large combo of living room and kitchen. My nephew warned me about parking and yes it is terrible here. On street cleaning days, the cars park temporarily on the sidewalk and wait for the truck to drive by and then they park their car on the street. Also, they are serious about composting here in California!
That evening we did a little sightseeing and then went to Lombard Street. The view from the top is pretty cool!
The next morning I went out for a 3 mile run. Interesting things I saw along the way. I saw a lot of homeless people, a lady peeing on the sidewalk, and so much garbage on the sidewalk too. The owner of the AirBnB said that this area is the hottest new area in San Francisco. Umm, OK?
Later on we went on a Mother’s Day Cruise. It was cold and windy but still was great to see some beautiful views of San Francisco.
Graduation was Monday afternoon. Isn’t that a weird day for a graduation? We took a Lyft for the 30 minutes drive to Berkeley. We wanted to get there early to get in line to pick up the tickets and also to get good seats. The graduation took place at The Greek Theatre.
The past few days has been an exciting time for us. We are proud of our nephew (first in my side of the family but his dad also has a Ph.D.). Next graduation is his brother in June 2019 from the University of Seattle.
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
• I am going to San Francisco on Saturday. My nephew graduates from Berkeley with a Phd. in Economics. I am very proud of him! The whole family is proud. I’ve been to San Francisco a couple of times and am excited to go again.
• I purchased an Oster Belgian Waffle Maker and made waffles this weekend. I am disappointed with how they turned out. I thought it would be easy to use/make but I had some trouble with it. I’ll just stick to making pancakes. Do you have a waffle make ? What did I do wrong?
• This week was Teacher Appreciation Week. I am kind of disappointed to say that only 1 student gave me a note today. No one else said anything. Sigh. Oh well. I guess I cannot expect to always get something from my kids, right? I mean, throughout the year I do get lots of notes, cards, and pictures from them.
• The other day I was listening to the radio and they were talking about showers. They were asking people if they showered in the morning or at night. Interesting topic. One caller said he showers at night AND in the morning. Huh? I cannot remember what his reason was for showering at night but he said he showers in the morning because it helps him to wake up. As for me, it depends on what I am doing. If I run in the evening after work then for sure I shower at night. But if not then morning shower is fine with me. Sometimes I do shower every day (or take two showers in the day) in the summer because it is so hot and I sweat a lot. What about you?
• Not too many exciting items to talk about this week. Lately I’ve been really tired and am wondering if something is wrong with me. Last Saturday I took TWO naps! I am loving this warmer weather and the fact that I am running in shorts and a tank top.
• How is it May already? I am loving it! A few more weeks of school till summer break. Somehow we skipped Spring and went right into Summer. We’ve had a few very warm days. Haha, now I will be complaining that it is too hot here.
• There is some construction in front of my house. It started back in March and no one could park between 7am-3pm. Not a problem for me. I am gone before 7 and get home after 3. Early this week there was a new sign letting us know that there is no parking before 5pm. What? Where the HECK am I supposed to park? Luckily they’ll be done before I am on summer break.
• I am going to San Francisco in a few weeks because my nephew graduates from the University of Berkeley. I made some changes to my reservation and knew that it would “cost” me some extra points. Not a problem. However, I was not expecting to get a message letting me know that it would “cost” me even more points. I then went to change my mom’s reservation and sure enough got the same message for her. Seriously? Things move pretty fast and fares have changed already? TWICE? Make up your mind.
• Any “Scandal” fans? Not sure if I liked the ending. Actually I was kind of disappointed with it. I am upset about what happened to David. I mean, really? He was one of the nicest and good guys on the show and that was his ending? As for Cyrus, man, could not stand him. He is the perfect example of someone you don’t need in your life.
• I posted that last Friday I signed up to be a donor for Be The Match.I received a call early in the week and in so many words was told that they were only taking applications for people between the ages of 18-34. (I am older than 34). But if I was still interested in being a donor, I could apply again and pay for the swab kit myself. I just went online and there is a form that can be filled out to order a swab kit (I think it is free). Kind of annoying that I have to order one when someone from Be The Match already did a cheek swab.
I feel like April just started. How is it over so soon? As of yesterday, I have 5 weeks left of school.
• Training went very well this month. I had a good month in April. Some days we had decent weather and it was nice enough to run in shorts. Though there was a day or two that we did have a little bit of snow.
• Ran 110.51 miles. Another month over 100 miles. Total to date is 410.01 and that put me at 34% done of my yearly goal.
• Total time running was 21:42. Not quite a whole day but pretty close.
• Ran another race. Instead of running a marathon, I did a half marathon. It wasn’t my day. You can read about it here.
• 21 days of running. I run 5 days a week and have been loving it. My rest days are Monday and Friday which is good because those are the two days in which I am the most tired. I will begin training for a half marathon (ZOOMA Great Lakes or Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver) but haven’t decided which one and how to train for it.
• More great quality session workouts. These workouts are my favorite. I love the variety and the challenge. I did GREAT in all of them.
• I sort of kept up with Rachel’s challenge. I didn’t mind too much the pushups or the tricep dips. The burpees/jump squats are the worst.
• I am a ZOOMA Great Lakes Ambassador. I am excited for this opportunity and looking forward to running another half marathon in WI.
• Looking forward to 2 races in May. I am excited to be running the Chicago Spring Half Marathon and 10K (register today w/code “BRCHISPRING18” & get $10 off the half/$5 for the 10K) and the Soldier Field 10 Mile (use “BRSoldierField” to score some bonus RAM Racing sunglasses).
Overall, I am proud of myself with how I did in April. I did all of my runs which made me very happy. The only thing that didn’t go as planned was my race on Saturday. Not a big deal anymore and life goes on.
So how did April go for you?
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
Disclaimer: I received a free entry to the Illinois Marathon part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!
Whew! It was an interesting weekend. The weather was perfect after battling with Mother Nature with the never ending winter. However, my race didn’t go as I planned. I didn’t run the marathon but instead ran the half marathon.
Let’s go back to Friday before the race. I worked for 1/2 day and then drove to Champaign. It took me about 3 hours to get there. No big deal.
I arrived at the Activities and Recreation Center to pick up my bib at the expo. The expo was pretty small. I didn’t buy anything but did sign up to be a bone marrow donor for Be The Match.
Found a picture of the course and saw Abe Lincoln. 🙂
Later that evening I went out to dinner with some friends at Old Chicago Pizza and Tap Room. I had pizza and pretzel sticks. We didn’t stay out too late and I think we left around 9pm. Earlier in the day I got my stuff ready for the race and that night I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed.
The next day my alarm went off at 5am. I got ready and then went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a bagel. It was cold. I knew it would warm up and was glad to see lots of sunshine in the forecast.
I parked in the lot and stayed in my car to stay warm. Finally I got out to use the port-a-potty and to check in my gear. I saw a few friends and we talked for a bit and got more excited about my race. I took one huma gel at about 6:50am. The plan was to take one every 4 miles.
I ran into Amanda (another BibRave Pro) and it was great to finally meet her. Then it was time to run!
My plan was to start running “slow” and then pick up the pace after the 13 mile marker. I was enjoying the warm sun and soaking it all in. I was FINALLY running a marathon that I had trained for a very long time. Training that took me outside running in very cold weather this winter. Finally everything was coming together.
I took another gel at mile 4. Still feeling good. I made sure to drink water at the water stations. Then after mile 6 my stomach began to hurt. I felt like I had to use the bathroom. I decided to walk a little and hoped that I would feel better. I didn’t. I kept walking and knew I was in trouble. I could feel my heart beating fast but couldn’t understand why since I was WALKING. I then got very tired, had some trouble breathing, and struggled to run. There was some wind but nothing worse that what I had encountered during my training. I wasn’t cold since I had a jacket. By mile 9 I knew I wasn’t going to finish the marathon.
I was in tears and was so mad. I was angry because I trained so hard for this marathon. Angry because instead of allowing this anger to push me to keep going, I was allowing it to mess with my head.
Yep, I went left.
The finish line was inside Memorial Stadium. I got my medal and went up the stairs to the Great West Hall to get some food.
I didn’t stay there too long and then went back to the hotel to shower. Afterwards I met a few Oiselle gals for brunch at Big Grove Tavern.
I spent the weekend trying to figure out what went wrong. Did I panic? Did I get nervous/scared? Was I a wimp and decided to take the easy way out by running 13.1 miles instead of 26.2? Did I start off too fast? Too many questions and honestly I am not even sure I will figure it out. Below are my splits.
Thanks to Athlinks I added another race to my profile. I have now run 158 races (69 half marathon)!
By Monday I decided to just let it go and stop thinking about it. Regardless I still ran a half marathon and I should be proud of it.
I thought the race was well organized. The half marathon course was pretty flat. There weren’t too many spectators and the ones that were there did a good job cheering for us. The best part was seeing a guy on a unicorn bike blowing bubbles. 🙂
For now I don’t plan on running a marathon anytime soon. I am signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon but plan to transfer my bib, so if you are interested in a bib, let me know.
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
