Obliviously Spectating at the 2011 San Francisco Marathon

This photo taken at about Mile 6 sums up my spectating experience at today's San Francisco Marathon...

A big blur with me whooping and hollering obliviously at runners I may or may not know :P

You can't see from the picture that I am screaming "GO, RUNNERS!" as loudly as I can as I drive across the Golden Gate Bridge on my way to cheer on a couple of my Nuun Platuunmates (Cap'n Cupcake was doing the full marathon and Sargeant Style took on the half) and a few other running bloggers I follow (like Aron).

I had a plan... drive the truck with my bike in the back, park sort of centrally, bike to a few good vantage points, and cheer on and photograph my blogbuds in a couple of locations.

Initially, I had hoped to do my first rah-rahing at the approach to the Golden Gate (roughly Mile 5), but of course the parking lot was closed and of course I had not gotten up early enough to allow for that, so I ventured up to the Avenues at around Mile 11... my husband, who is much more familiar with The City than I am, had suggested this as a good place to park the mondo truck.

After picking my spot, I realized that the course was a split route at that point, with some of the runners coming up 27th Avenue and some up 26th and no way of knowing who was going where! Dang it ...  lucky thing I had a bike! It was around 6:45 a.m. ...plenty of time to see Cupcake (who was shooting for 8:30 pace) and Style (who was looking at finishing the half marathon in a bit under 2 hours).

I whooped and hollered and clapped until my hands were numb and red (really) and my voice was hoarse (sort of). I whipped back and forth on my bike, between 26th and 27th, scouting the crowds for the ladies I knew.

I never saw them :(

The passing runners enjoyed my cheering, but when the 4-hour pace guys came by, I knew I needed to high-tail it to the half marathon finish in the hopes of seeing Sgt. Style cross that line. Even on a bike, traffic and road closures made it slow going, and I missed her. I scanned the crowd of finishers for a pretty woman with a buzzed, bright red hairdo...

Unsuccessful :(

Hustling over the the full marathon course so as not to miss Cupcake again, I found myself at 17.5 miles with a good view of runners coming around a curve and down a hill. I watched and waited. Right away, the 3:40 pace guy ran by. Whew... based on her projected splits, Cupcake would be coming soon! Time passed. Runners passed. The 3:50 guy passed. So did the 4-hour guy and the 4:15. All the while, I whooped and hollered and clapped myself stupid. While this led to some buoyed up and appreciative runners...

these guys aren't looking too inspired and motivated 

because I had to stop clapping and screaming to take the picture ;-)

No Cupcake :(

This put me in a weird limbo... bike downtown to see the finish? go back and get the truck and drive downtown? which would take longer? parking issues? Needing to ultimately get the truck to go home, I went back and loaded in the bike and started driving cross-town. Traffic was a nightmare... of course. There was no way I would get to the finish in time to see Cupcake cross the line and who knew if I would be able to find her in the throngs of people down there...

I just went home.

In the car I get this crazy text...

I saw you at 27th Ave & California! I screamed your name & you barely acknowledged me... isn't it supposed to be the other way around? :)

Cupcake saw me even if I didn't see her!

While I may be losing my sight in my old age, my reputation as a supporter and hollerer remains intact. And bringing the bike was perfect. Unless you are watching a marathon in a city with amazing public transportation... like Paris... I highly recommend doing it from a bike.

Congrats to all the finishers!

Little bit o' running...

I ran last night, yes indeedy...
I ran last night, but I was not speedy.

I can call that a poem, right?

The last time I ran was on April 3rd. That was my Tenner.  Then three days later, we went to France.

I'd call it a vacation, but if you have little kids you know that traveling with them is not really a "vacation." I didn't run a lick the entire time we were there.

Oh, sure I got exercise.

Every single day I had my stair workout, and we also walked about a bazillion miles going all over the place. So I wasn't entirely sedentary while we were away. I wasn't on a lounge chair next to a pool or beach ... lounging. I can't remember the last time I lounged.

Anyway...

Nineteen days of no running was great! I did it guilt-free completely. I wasn't scared of not running or working out (I think the stairs helped ;-) ). I didn't think about my upcoming 7.5-mile race once... except maybe when I was watching the Marathon de Paris and really glad that I won't be running 26.2 on May 15th. All the tightness in my legs disappeared. I felt really good. I was very curious as to how this would translate into running again...

My PT and I modified my training plan due to the nearly three weeks off... I will gladly sacrifice my race finish time for the sake of not getting injured. It is a trade-off and enjoying Paris with my 4 kids and husband was a priority. I spent over a decade sacrificing things in the name of training... I am done with that chapter of my life. Turn the page. So we changed Thursday's 6 into 4 and this Sunday's 10 into 6. I'll do a modified speed/tempo run on Tuesday or Wednesday and a maintenance 5 or so on Thursday or Friday. Next Sunday's whatever will be made into 8. And then I'll get back on the Automated Training Program.

I felt fabulous during my four-mile run. It was daylight. I almost never run when it is light out. I think I had a smile on my face the whole way :)  I saw so much in my neighborhood... people! I NEVER see people! It was so cool :) And someone pruned a tree mercilessly... it really bummed me out :(  Remember... I majored in horticulture in college. So I ran for 4.4 miles in the early evening and took in the sights of my 0.75-mile loop. I ran for about 42 or 43 minutes. I felt fast and spry.

I never realized that I like running to The Doors. LOL  And I found that I really like Etta James' version of "You Can Leave Your Hat On"... sizzlin'. But I still laugh too hard at Flight of the Conchords for them to be at all useful running tunes.  They really hurt my splits ;-)

I was wanting to run the Bay to Breakers in an hour. The would mean a straight-up 8-minute mile average for 7.46 miles. Ain't gonna happen. And that's okay. I want to run and have fun :)

Speediness will have to wait.

Day 5

It's always the darkest before the dawn.

When we used to travel frequently with the kids, we would talk about and remind ourselves that it took 5 full days to regain humanity when going through 9 time zones.

Day 4 was always the worst. It was always that day when we'd look at each other and ask "What the f were we thinking? Why the f are we here? Why on EARTH did we think this would be a GOOD idea?" I think dissolution of relationship probably entered into both of our brains... at least briefly. Every single time. But because we did it so much, we KNEW that it was Day 4. We KNEW that the awful part was almost over and the bliss was about to begin. We KNEW it. We had so much practice doing it.

When Day 5 would start off feeling like the Apocalypse, we would look at each other... knowingly... and say "Day 5." By the end of that day, all hope was restored and life was glorious once again.

We are out of practice.

It's been 5 years since we've done this.

Today is Day 5.

We all woke up kind of scattered. Except Q-Man. He kept sleeping. We had early afternoon plans so it wasn't a problem... yet. In an effort to keep us on the adjusting-to-the-time-difference plan, I attempted to wake him up around 10. He woke up, came downstairs, then went back up and crawled back into bed. I went up 30 minutes later and he said his tummy was hurting. If you read about our 'frolic' at the Louvre, then you know where this is going :( Click there if you missed it. Or don't.

After he threw up... in the toilet YAY! ... not on the floor at the Louvre or in the line for security at the airport... he went back to sleep for the rest of the day. Daddy stayed back with the sick boy and the toddler, which allowed the two older kids and I a grand day out. My husband is really smart and really kind :)

Apparently, that was the only time he threw up all day, and he slept until 3. He feels much, much better. Wonder who'll get it next? No. Don't even think that!

"So what did you do?" you are wondering.

First, we went to the Musée de l'Orangerie and saw the enormous Monet Waterlilies with some of our stateside friends...

They were all I had imagined them to be... 

gorgeous.

Then we went to the Cluny Museum... the National Museum of the Middle Ages. A gallic-roman bath ruin and really, really old castle filled with really cool really old stuff... the kids LOVED it.

Big G found a gargoyle that reminded him of his Louvre experience...

And I found out that Jesus was a breastfed baby!

When we were done there, the kids were hungry. They had something they have never had before... really.

Almost 9 and 11 and a half... and this is the first time 

they have ever eaten something from 

McDonald's.

We walked with the fries through the Quartier Latin and then over the bridge to the Ile de la Cité and...

Baby X's supermodel photo shoot in front of Notre-Dame.

While we were walking around taking in these sights, I saw a lot of people who had run in yesterday's Marathon de Paris... if you missed my post yesterday with the highlight video of the leader pack at 15.5 miles, click here. I could tell they had participated by the way in which they went up and down stairs and kept telling their non-running companions "no... I'm okay. I got it."

As we were nearing home, eating still-warm-from-the-oven bread from the boulangerie (that's bakery ;-) ), Big G remarked, 

"This day just went from excellent to AMAZING!"

That, my friends, is Day 5.

Spectating at the Marathon de Paris

This morning was the Marathon de Paris. This took me completely by surprise and is oddly the second marathon I have witnessed in this lovely city. The last one was a World Championships marathon back in 2003. That one was very different from today's. This one had 40,000 entrants... only a small percentage of whom were super-fast.

I was allowed the morning to myself so that I could make my way around the city unencumbered by whining, hungry or vomiting children. I was so excited. I can't remember the last time I left the house with just a couple of dollars in my pocket, my sunglasses and my camera. It felt amazing!

I jumped on the Métro and headed into the heart of Paris. My plan was to get to the Place de la Bastille (about the 5K mark on the way out and the 13-mile mark on the way back... figured I'd get to see the big pack and the leaders from right about the same spot... just one quick pivot). I had a huge brain fart, though. For some reason, I thought the "République" station was at the Place de la Bastille... the whole French Revolution and the importance of the Bastille in it and the République that arose from it... I don't know actually what or if I was thinking :P So I had a bit of a walk... and had to seriously move it to get to the Bastille in time to see the leaders... or so I thought.

Okay... long walk.

And then I saw the Place de la Bastille...

You can barely see the mob at the foot of the monument...

A little clearer now...

Here's a little video of the people running a 4-hour pace...

I saw the pace guy with his banner so I know this.

Then I tried to get to the other side of the street by going into the subway system... and got lost. I couldn't figure out how to emerge on the correct side of the street, so I just got on a train headed a little further up the course.

The weather was beautiful... for tourists.  I think it was awfully warm and sunny to be considered ideal marathon-weather. I stationed myself on the Pont Neuf, very much at the center of town and roughly the 15.5-mile mark. I knew the leaders were approaching because the helicopter was getting closer. Suddenly, I heard applause....

the first wheelchair competitor.

Moments later, I heard more applause and cheering and this came through...

the pack of leaders.

Can you see that pace car?

1:15:23 

at 15.5 miles into it

(I am in the videos, too. The 'V' of the shadow on the road... my head is close to the point)

Then the battery in my doo-doo camera died. I waited to see the women blaze by... pace car said just over 1:25. Both leader-packs were such a sight to behold. They look effortless at 15.5 miles. I know they are working, but the grace and lightness and steadiness... awe-inspiring and beautiful. For the first time, I noticed that these fast distance runners have really big hamstrings. Not sure how I've been missing that :P

After watching the fastest women race out of sight, I decided to head up to the finish line... thinking I would get to see the winner cross the line. That would have happened... if I hadn't have gotten lost again! Arriving at 2:11 into the race, the first guys were done! So I waited around to see the woman winner. I took the battery out of the camera and tricked it into thinking it had more juice!  Go, me! My doo-doo camera is super lame and I missed the shot of the winning woman crossing the line in 2:22:55! But I did get this shot...

She was in the women's top 10, but I'm not sure where.

You can see how doo-doo my camera is.

I clicked the button when she was at the left of the frame.

Then I headed back to about the 18.5-mile mark... directly across from the Eiffel Tower. I took this picture right after the 4:00-hour pace banner went by. I didn't have a very good vantage point, but there is a single-person deep line of spectators at the curb and then a pretty solid mass of runners between the curbs. I saw a lot of people peeling out of the pack around this part... limping away, walking away with bright red chest spots where their unprotected nipples had chafed to bleeding, practically crawling up the stairs to get on the Métro to go home... 18.5 is a tough spot, and the weather conditions made it even tougher.

Then I went home. This time, I did not get lost.

I want to wish all of you with upcoming marathons and other races (I know Boston is next weekend) the very, very best! I hope the conditions for you all are fantastic, the support/aid stations are in the perfect places, the portapotties are convenient and clean, and your equipment of choice functioning optimally :)

A bientôt!

Marathon de Paris... it's tomorrow!

Ha!

So all of my running followers are wondering if I secretly have been training for this event....

No, actually probably none of them even knew about it happening :P  Shame on you guys!  All obsessed with the Boston... just let the lil' ol' Paris France Marathon skip right under the radar... And no, I am not running it.  I got my stairs and I am happy with them.

Well, this just throws a whole, big monkey wrench into MY day...

Now that I know it is happening TOMORROW, I want to go watch part of it.  I want to see the 40,000 competitors streaming down the Champs Elysées as I photograph the spectacle with my doo-doo camera while perched atop the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde (or is it du Concorde... too late to go check that one).  That is right before the one mile mark... so I need to get there really early to secure my spot atop that monument. I hope security doesn't notice me... those guys carry machine guns!

Ahhhh, nevermind....

I'll just try to get into the heart of town with my sick kid in tow...

Nahhhh, I wouldn't do that... and anyway, he is feeling much better and wants to go ;-)

Okay... it is after midnight... I am loopy.  I am going to watch at least part of this 'surprise' marathon... in a few hours.  And I can't believe I am going to publish this post.

Incidentally, the top 19 guys entered all have sub-2:10 PRs... that's pretty fast, right?

And the top 8 women have sub-2:30 PRs... that sounds pretty fast, too.  Especially since that's how long it took me to climb up those stairs about an hour ago :P

What do  you think will be the most interesting place to watch the Marathon de Paris?