San Francisco - Day 3

San Francisco - Day 3

Daisy began our day by telling us about "no more monkeys jumping on the bed"...

David had read about a place called Mama's that served great breakfast. We strapped both girls in carriers and walked about a mile and a half, only to find the line out the door and around the block.



With toddlers, you learn that lines aren't a good thing. So we left and began walking back to another little cafe we had passed along the route. We quickly grabbed a picture of us with Coit Tower in the background.



We ended up eating a place called Pat's Cafe. It was tasty and the atmosphere was quiet and lovely.



Daisy enjoyed a snack while waiting for the food to come.



David and I both got omelets that were very good. Mine had avocado, tomatoes, and chicken apple sausage. David's had italian sausage and peppers (I think). Daisy ate my fresh fruit cup. She LOVES fruit. The omelets were served with fresh sourdough toast which was delicious.



Outside of Pat's Cafe




After checking out of hotel, David picked up a rental car and we made a few sightseeing stops. First was Coit Tower in person. The line to park was long so we jumped out and took a quick picture before driving away.



We then went to the top of Lombard Street, known as the "crookedest street in America."

The view from the bottom



We then headed out to lunch, and found a place called Patxi's Pizza, which served deep dish Chicago style pizza. We had to try this out since we love real Chicago pizza. This place didn't disappoint.

After lunch, we drove by the place we stayed on our honeymoon 10 years ago. The place looks the same and we have very fond memories of staying there.

I decided I wanted to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, which was something we were not able to do in 2001. Because September 11 happened the Tuesday of our honeymoon, they closed the bridge to pedestrians. I had always wanted to walk on it. Now that I'm a runner, I thought it would be so cool to run across it. So David let me check something off my bucket list (he wants to do it too, but someone had to stay with the girls). It was wet and rainy, but David dropped me off at the end and he took the girls on a drive. I ran across it, and met him on the other side. I can't thank him enough for keeping the girls (Rose was having a crying fit because she was hungry) while I was able to run the 1.7 miles across.

 Finished and back with the fam...

We then kept driving up Hwy 101 to Windsor, where our friends Dom and Hilary are visiting from France. Hilary's family lives here and they are in town for the holidays.

Dom holding Daisy... don't worry, she warmed up to him after about 5 minutes.

Eating some appetizers and enjoying the relaxing night.

More to come soon...

HCA VA 8k

Last year's Christmas gift to my family was race registrations to do the HCA Va 8k race together. It was today in Richmond, and mom and dad walked it while Cheri (and her friend James), David and I all ran it.

Here are David and I at the start line:

This is David finishing... he's in the maroon top and gray sweats on the left side...

David did so great! He told me it would take him an hour and a half, but he finished in 1:01, which was only 4 minutes after me. If I had known he was so close, I would have stopped to run with him! I am so proud!

Here's the whole family afterwards:

We celebrated with breakfast at Cracker Barrel...Daisy liked playing with Grandpa's medal.

All in all it was a great day. Cheri and I were pleased with our times (she rocked out with 49:21, while I did 57:21) and Mom and Dad did great walking the whole 5 miles. Now they know they can do it, and I hope this jumpstarts them to more years of exercise. The next plan is to possibly do the Susan G. Komen 5k Race for the Cure together in Richmond in May.

Rock n' Roll Half Marathon

Today I completed my first ever half-marathon. What an experience!

First, I want to thank the ladies who helped me train... Sarah, Hannah, Nicki, and Jessamyn. You ladies did a lot of runs with me, encouraged me, and helped me become a runner. Thanks GYRO! :)

A special shout-out also goes to Sarah who loaned me her Garmin Forerunner 405 on several occasions. It was a huge help and it turns out David surprised me for my birthday with my own Garmin! Yay! I can't tell you how much having a gps watch helps when you are tracking distances... and it helps you stay on pace, which is crucial for a newbie runner like me.

Anyway, back to the race! Lisa and I were both running, and David and Daisy drove us to the Va Beach Ampitheater lot to catch the shuttle to the convention center. We left Mike & Bertie's house a little after 5:00am. After some traffic back-ups and our car overheating (yes, seriously), we finally got parked and got in line for the shuttles. They were backed up, too, but we were with thousands of other runners. We got to the start line in time to find our corrals and get ready.

Here's Lisa and I before the race:

Lisa was way ahead of me in corral #10, and I started in #24. Although the race started at 7:00am, my corral wasn't released until about 7:35.

Here I am just after the start... David's brother Mike took this picture.

My race number was 24466. That is an amazing coincidence... because if you spell it out on a phone, it's C-H-I-N-N. How cool is that? My number was my last name. And it was totally random. I was assigned to corral #24 (hence my number being in the 24,000's) because of my own suggested start time. Pretty cool, huh? That gave me a cool feeling about the race. :)

I took this picture during mile #2... there were so many people running and on the race course cheering us on. It was a great atmosphere. I had plenty to look at while I ran.

The run itself was good but hard. I felt good for the first few miles, but I started cramping around mile 6. I took a short 20-second break to stretch at mile 7ish and that helped. I stopped once to use the bathroom at a port-o-john and that helped, too. I was on a great pace for the first half (2:30 pace) but I started to slow down in the second half. The longest I ever had run before was 10 miles, so when I hit mile 10, every step forward was longer than I've ever run in my life. That's a cool feeling but also a crazy one when you know you still have several miles to go!

David, Daisy and the whole family were at mile 11, and I couldn't get there fast enough. It was so good to see them, I gave David and Daisy a quick kiss. Then I was off. The last 2 miles were tough. Really tough. My legs were heavy and tired. I was trying to push harder but I was just slowing down. Miles 12-13 took it to me. But I finished. 2 hours and 48 minutes after I started, I crossed the finish line. And that was the best feeling!

Here I am after the finish in front of the water.

With David and Daisy... Daisy was having a rough day.

It was such a neat accomplishment and I hope to do it again. I'm not sure I could do a full marathon, but that's okay. I am proud of my half-marathon and now I know I'm more of a runner than I ever thought!