Pride
Last weekend was Pride weekend, filled with the Tranny March, the Dyke March, the Pride Parade, music, costumes, nakedness, dykes on bikes, window dancing, and drinking. You know me, I never pass up an opportunity to dress up. I moved a stack of chairs and my small table that acts as my desk in the guest room to get to my costume trunk. I weighed my options for taking things completely over the top to just a little bit. I chose to go somewhat lowkey with just the pink bob wig. I showed up at the run site at 6:45 expecting to see lots of people in costume but only the volunteers seemed to get into the spirit.
I figured that the wig would only last a couple of miles, but it was chilly and misty so I kept it on to keep my head warm. We had a 10 mile route called"The Return to the Legion of Honor." We did a similar run back in March the first time we ran 8 miles. We ran a 1 mile warm up and then headed up the hill. The goal for the day was not time, it was to feel how far our bodies had come in the past 3 months. The hill lasts for 2 miles, with little reprieve. We walked down the really steep parts because I have several people in my group that are recovering from injuries. There is was no need to pound down the hills and make everyone's knees sore. We finished the last 5 miles running alongside the Ocean. The AIDS Marathon has started training new recruits for the Florence and Honolulu full marathons as well as the Disneyland half marathon so we passed a ton of people just starting out. We cheered in other groups and I got lots of shouts for the wig.
I came home, showered, and ate before getting dressed up for the opera. Alexis and I saw The Marriage of Figero, a classic yet upbeat and fun opera with recognizable music. It was Alexis's first opera and I think it was a great introduction. Afterwards we headed to Espetus, a Brazilian churrascaria, to gorge ourselves on fifteen types of grilled meat. Just a quick trip on the bus found us back at my house and changing again to head to the Castro for the Pink Party - or Saturday night during Pride. Instead of explaining I will just add some pictures for your enjoyment.
The Gods must be watching
Everything seems to be my way this week. Although I'm sure saying that means I jinxed it. Monday night I went shopping and the gods must have been watching. I found everything I was looking for and more - and everything fit and was on sale. I ran outside for my maintanence runs this week and they both went smoothly. I had a date with Joel on Tuesday night that was great. We talked for hours with no awkward moments. We are going to try to talk or get together again on Sunday evening after both of our weekend guests are gone. I got to watch "So You Think You Can Dance." last night AND got my house clean.
My friend Alexis comes in today and we are going to bum around in the city for the weekend. This is Pride weekend and my program rep for the AIDS Marathon wants us to "look pretty" for Saturday morning's run. I may have to break out the pink wig and silver eyelashes. On Monday I head to Atlanta for the week. I will be visiting colleges and tearing up the city with my friend Libby.
I'm sure I will have tales to tell upon my return, but I will be away from my blog for a bit. Check back the week of the 4th of July.
Ooooops
I am a consistent early riser. It seems like no matter when I go to sleep my body decides it is time to be up around 6am. So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning at 8am. Now imagine the jolt of adrenaline that shot through my body when I realized that my alarm was supposed to go off at 5:30am so I could get myself up and to my run site by 6:45am. I jumped out of bed only to have my brain catch up with my body and tell it, "You are not going to be able to make it to the run." I checked my alarm and yep, I set it for pm instead of am. It didn't take my body too much time to decide to get back into bed. My brain took a little more convincing but, lo and behold, the next time I looked at my clock it was 10:45am. WHAT?!? I can't remember the last time I slept past 8 or 9 in the morning. So, although I would have liked to run the 8 miles with my group this morning I think my body was telling me something. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, especially since I can run that distance on my own today or tomorrow.
Are dating and hiking connected in some way?
So let me set the stage for last night's date. I got an email from this man letting me know that he is a 2 inches shorter than me butI decided to follow through with our plans anyway. We were to meet at a hot dog stand in Union Square. Bascially I didn't go into it with high hopes and I wasn't dissapointed. He decided that we should eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Now, I don't have anything against that restaurant, but really? We are in San Francisco - home of amazing food - and in Union Square - one of the highest concentrations of restaurants in the city and he wants to eat in a chain restaurant on the top floor of Macy's. There was a nice view, but I've seen it - remember, I live here!
We waited in the bar for our table and I found myself flirting shamelessly with the ballet dancer sitting next to me and the bartender. Once we sat down I found myself flirting with the gay waiter. I was pretty sure I wasn't feeling a connection with my date if I would flirt with anyone else nearby. Don't get me wrong, he was a very nice man and we had a pleasant conversation, I just don't see us going on any more dates. After we paid my date didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave. I scooted my chair out a couple of times wondering if he would get the hint. Finally I got up and went to the bathroom and when I came back I didn't sit back down. I put on my jacket and nudged us in the direction of the door. When we emerged on the street I headed my way and he headed his. I actually needed to stop at Nordtrom, but it was in the direction he was walking so I decided it could wait.
Today I only worked a half a day and then met my friend Allison for lunch and a hike. It was a lovely afternoon of getting lost. First we couldn't find the parking area for the trailhead. Then we missed a couple of trail junctions and ended up having to back track. The piece de resistance was when we ended up on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere with no idea where we were. We had to hike uphill for about a mile before we hit a paved road, where we still had no idea where we were. We finally flagged down a car who gave us a lift (2 miles) back to the parking area. I'm not sure where we went wrong, we even had two maps (although they weren't very detailed). Needless to say, we now have a funny story to tell, which is my favorite kind. I'm not sure Allison will want to go hiking with me again.
Its all about balance
So yesterday was a bad day for running, but a good day for dating. My legs decided that they weren't happy with running at about 10 minutes. I decided to give them a break and ride the bike for the remaing 20 minutes. Its all about compromise!
On the other hand, I went on my first date last night with Kevin. He answered my ad on craigslist and we have had several fun email exchanges. We met at The Irish Bank for a drink and some dinner. It was a lot of fun, we laughed our way through 3 1/2 hours together, and we are planning to see each other again. There are tentative plans for volleyball and possible hiking in the future, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.
Tonight I'm meeting Kashif. We'll see how it goes.
Disney was my downfall
I excitedly boarded the bus for Disneyland with the senior class. All my favorite kids were on the bus that I was "chaperoning" and I actually was looking forward to the trip. As we got farther into our 7 hour bus trip I knew that I was going to have a tough night ahead of me. We arrived at California Adventure for the 10pm-12am time slot and then we headed over to Disneyland until 6am. We rode rollercoasters at California Adventure and then rode the various themed rides at Disneyland. I started yawning at midnight, was losing steam at 3am, and was pretty much done by 4am. I started to notice my throat was sore around 3:30 and it just got worse as the night/morning went on.
I slept most of the way home on the bus, but you know that you never really sleep well in a moving vehicle unless you can lie down. I got back to my house a 4pm and was in bed and asleep by 4:30pm. I woke up for about an hour around 8:30 - just enough time to make a few phone calls and eat something before heading back to bed. I was up at 5:30am to head to GGP for my run.
We had 23 miles on the plate this morning. I wasn't sure how things were going to go for me because my throat still felt like I had swallowed broken glass. We started our run and I kept waiting for my body to get into the groove. At about 4 1/2 miles we met up with Coach Scott out on the course and I chatted with him about how I was feeling. He asked me to stop at mile 6 and see how I was feeling. Mile 8 was the same water stop, so I could join up with my group on their way back to GGP. I hung out for the 30 minutes that it took for them to run the 2 miles and realized that I wasn't going to make the whole run. I ran with them for the next 3 miles and then headed back to camp. So, overall I did 10 miles and I'm happy with that, especially with how I felt and still feel. I just didn't see the point of killing myself when I have already completed 20 miles. In 3 weeks, for the 26 mile run, I will run somewhere between 20 and 23 and call it good.
I came home and spent several hours in bed and have been lazing on my couch since then. I'm going to take some Nyquil and head to bed in the next couple of minutes and hope that more sleep will get rid of the sore throat. I just hope this isn't the start of something bad.
Off to Disneyland
I just looked back at some of the most recent titles of my posts and realized that this blog is becoming less of a marathon diary and more of a personal diary. I can only imagine that it will continue this way since I just posted ads on craigslist.com and match.com to try out the online dating thing. I'm sure I will have plenty of good stories to regale you with once I start actually going on dates.
I guess as my training goes forward and 8-10 mile runs seem like nothing I will need to find other things to talk about on my blog. Thank goodness my social life is picking up! I'm off to Disneyland for Grad Nite with our senior class. There is nothing like not sleeping all night, hanging out with 66 teenagers, and riding ridiculous rides, bookended by a six-hour bus ride both ways to get me motivated for a long run. For all of my whining I'm actually looking forward to this trip. I love the seniors and have never been to Disneyland, so it can't be that bad, right?
1 upping Barry Bonds
Last night I went to the Giants/Marlins game with my friend Jessie. We sat in the top section, right behind home plate, and could see the entire park and the Bay beyond it. I drank beer, ate garlic fries and thoroughly enjoyed myself. And, Barry Bonds hit number......
Not to be outdone, this morning I broke the 10 minute mile barrier and ran most of my 3 miles at a 9 1/2 minute pace. Could the past 24 hours have gotten any better?
There is more to life than running
I don't even know where to start with this week. I guess I should get the running piece out of the way so I can talk about all of the other fabulous things I did. Tuesday morning I got to run outside with Allison for the first and probably the last time. We have been talking about it since I started my training program but just found the time before school let out. My calves were acting up after walking around Carnaval in flip-flops and then 4 hours of dancing in them after that, but we made it. I only ran 1 maintanence run this week because I was at a conference all week. My Saturday morning run was cake. It was only 10 miles and I wasn't too worried about it going in. We wound our way through Golden Gate Park and I kept my group on pace even though they didn't want to be. We finished in 2hrs 7min and everyone was relatively happy with it all, even though I pushed them.
I spent most of my week being social. I attended a conference in San Jose where I didn't learn much but networked a great deal and made new friends. I see us as the new generation of college counselors and admission folk and feel lucky to be a part of the group. Many of them live in the city, and it never hurts to know more people to spend time with in SF. We hung out at a social at San Jose State on Wednesday night and then prowled downtown San Jose on Thursday night in a DaVinci Code inspired pub crawl. We danced until the wee hours of the night and then I headed back to the dorm room where I was staying.
Yesterday felt like a marathon. After the 10 mile run one my fellow trainees asked me to hang out. I met Phil the first day of training and then later helped him and a bunch of boys pick out running clothes. Imagine a straight girl giving gay guys fashion advice - ok, it was more like practical knowledge about running apparel but I still thought it was funny. So, I picked Phil up and we went out for dim sum - nine plates of dumplings and other goodies later we headed to Safeway for cookies and drinks to take to the beach. We spent 2 hours hanging out at the beach on a gorgeous day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and just enough of a breeze to keep us comfortable. It was great people watching with kite flyers, people playing football and frisbee, and surfers. We decided to go for a drink and Phil thought it would be fun for us to go to a gay bar. I'm always up for anything so I agreed. Little did I know that the night would end five hours and four bars later. I finally pooped out at midnight and left Phil with some of his friends.
Today I am headed back to El Rio for more salsa dancing! I feel like I'm finally back to my old self. I'm meeting people, planning social situations, and having a blast. Watch out San Francisco!
