Boy, I can't believe you leave in two weeks. Time really flies by. Hope you stay well and not get sick. Take some sanitizing wipes on the plane with you and wipe down everything. It may look silly but I swear by it.
Good luck this weekend. Hope the fog lifts so you can have a scenic view this year.
I never thought of taking the wipes on the plane! I bring them w/ me to wipe down the hotel rooms, just never thought about that before.
The weather was evil this year. I checked the weather app and it said no fog. I got to Union Square and no fog. Race started and no fog; there was some along the bay itself covering the posts of the Bay Bridge, but you could see the towers. And by the time we got to the Marina Green, the fog was there and I think thicker than last year and as we went along. No GG Bridge, no ocean, and when I was finishing in GG Park, you could actually see little whisps of fog rolling throughout the trees. I was a little bummed, b/c b/w SF and Nike races, I've never run in the sun and was looking forward to a little change. It was cool though b/c all you heard along the Marina and on the other side of the bridge were the barge horns.
Running-wise, I was happy w/ the race. Not too hard, not too easy, and the hills weren't nearly as bad as they've been in the past. But that's about the only good thing on the day. I am definitely over this race. The necklace is really simple and I love it, and that's about it. It took forever to cross the start line. Mile 5 water stop ran out of water by the time I got there and 2 other stops, 9 and another ran out of water, but then hooked up a hose to a fire hydrant and were giving out water from there. After the horror stories of RnR Vegas from 2 years ago, no thank you! I'm surprised they did that. I was just glad I had my fuel belt so I didn't take any water. I think the worst 1 was the Mile 11 stop. That 1 was more the volunteers ~ it's a 2 lane street, b/c you can drive through the park, but they raked empty cups into 1 of the lanes so you had to merge down to 1 and the volunteers were standing 1/3 of the way in the lane so it really bottlenecked. And on top of that, they were really obnoxious and saying stupid things. It was just bad. The other problem this year, maybe it was just me, but the runners. I run/walk and always make sure I'm closer to the right side so when I start to walk, I'm at the edge of the course and check to make sure no one is behind me. That didn't happen. I know it's a big group race and predominately TNT, but I can't tell you the number of people 4,5 across and more than once I had people cut across vertically. Vertically! Why they were going to the sides and w/o any regard for the other runners, I have no idea. And a couple of times, it was the TNT coaches. I know people who aren't TNT mention before that they've had problems w/ them in the past, but I've never experienced it. Like I said Nike is mostly TNT, and the past 3 years, even though I wasn't they cheered for me and last year when I had problems w/ my hip on the hill, they asked if I needed help. But this year, I see what they mean. This year, the coaches were different. Like I said I got cut off by a couple of them, they'd cheer TNT and no one else. The 1 time I did hear a coach cheer for people other than TNT it was a sarcastic "Well I guess other althetes as well."
After you cross the finish, you get your necklace and then your race shirt. Necklace ~ no problem. Shirt... had to stand in line for more than 15 min waiting to get the shirt. Problem w/ that is standing literally a minute or 2 after you finish is not good, legs started to cramp up. The other was that it was thick fog and right on the ocean, and the foil blankets were not until
after the shirt pickup instead of before, so you got really cold really fast. You did get a carton of chocolate milk which was good. Merch tent looked crazy so I was going to check out the store when I got back to the start. Next as bag pickup. My bus was all the way at the end, but the past 3 years it has been so no big deal. The problem there ~ the kids inside the bus were doing something and not paying attention and I was calling out to them for 4-5 min before they even noticed me. Next fun time was the line for the shuttle. No organization at all and best of all, about a 50 min wait! Good thing was that it was constantly moving. But then it took the bus a little over an hour to get back to the start! So all in all, it me 2 1/2 hours from the time I crossed the finish line to get back to the start.
It's sad, b/c this race was always a shiny race (if that makes sense). I'm definitely over this race now. It's not b/c I'm looking forward to NY and comparing the 2 either. This was the 10th anniversary for the race, so you would think small things like water would be figured out by now. And, I don't know, maybe b/c disney does special things for their anniversary races, I was expecting a little more given it was the 10th.
I'm a little sore today. But I think that's more from the after race than the race itself. When I first get up from sitting, I'm sore, but after walking around a few minutes, I feel okay. This week is nice and easy. My long run is only 9 miles!
My big task this week is to make my to-do list for the weekend. Not my packing list, did that last weekend.
And I still have to figure out what to do while I'm there, so I'm headed over to the library for a travel guide this week. Dinner reservations are made for Sat, so at least that's done. Now the stalking weather.com begins...