spaazliciousSaturday, May 07, 2005
The Revlon Run was Fun!
...but I never met up with JenLa or any other knitters. I had a little spaaz drama in the morning. I was already running late, got in the car at 5.20am and said, "What am I forgetting?"
My wallet.
Tore the house apart, not in any of the usual places and it wasn't in the car because I'd had to drive Nick's car yesterday because I picked up a staple in my tire at lunch and heard the mosquito whine of air escaping when I parked in our driveway so I took his car back to work and called him at one to wake him up and he had it patched and had no faith in the patch because he knows how fast I drive so he took it to his work in a safe and level area of the lot and put the spare on because he truly is a wonderful and loving and generous and amazing human being, but the bottom line is that the last place I remember having my wallet was in his car but here it was at 5.20am and his car was in his work parking lot and he was nowhere near it to be able to check it to see if my wallet was in it or if I was truly screwed so I drove to his office (only ten miles thankfully) with his spare key and looked everywhere inside his car and still couldn't find it so I knew I had just wasted a whole chunk of time I didn't have and raced back home and tore the house apart again and still didn't find it and I was just about to give up despite the generous pledges of people like Nancy and Heidi and La and Tara. when for whatever reason (was I going to stab myself?) I opened our cutlery drawer and there it was. I cried with stupid frustrated relief as I staggered out the door almost an hour off target.
The rest of the day went muuuuuuuuuuuuuch better.
But since I was an hour off and the 5K was 130 miles from my starting point, by the time I got to the Coliseum I wasn't even sure if everybody would still be at the K section of the groups meeting places. And I had to piddle, so I chose to stand in a Port-O-San line instead.
And since this was my first event ever and I didn't know what to expect and didn't want to have to carry a lot of stuff, I left with only my race bib, my car key, my driver's license and some cash, no camera, no cell phone, so I have no pictures of some of the fun things I saw at the event. I do have proof I was there though, because at the end there was a Sav-On booth with a sign for pictures and a line. I thought, "oh cool, I didn't even see anyone take my pic, I hope I was smiling" because I saw Kirsten's Fitblog pics of the Santa Cruz 1/2 marathon, but then I realised that it was just a guy with a digicam taking pics of people in front of a banner. But by then I was in line, and I might not be British, but "I know how to queue." (I saw HGttG on Wednesday. Loved it, when the Heart of Gold turned into that flash of Adams' face and the movie ended I nearly cried. I think I'm turning into a crybaby. It's the knitting, I'll betcha.)
So, here's a crappy scan of a crappy photo. (Hey, if it wasn't crap it wouldn't be me ;))
This pic gives me a bit of a clue as to why the lady at my doctor's office kept referring to me as "he." I've never met a boy named Wendy but I'll bet he looks a lot like me.
I do wish I'd brought my camera. I would have taken pics of the two dogs I saw (chocolate lab and siberian husky) and of the woman cussing out her husband on her cellphone while powerwalking.
But wait, here's further proof I was in L.A., every other car in thegarage was parked like this:
It was a very L.A. sort of event. Cellphones, iPods, and digital cameras were everywhere. The runners were supposed to get a start at 8.45am and the walkers were supposed to go at 9am but they put the stand with the celebrities ("The Rock" and Halle Berry) on it right at the Start line so it meant that a lot of gawkers just packed in with their cameras. You couldn't really move to really run 'til a fair ways past the starting line and even then, the first mile was a lot of zigging and zagging through clumps of people walking, slower runners, people who were still warming up, whatever. By my watch, it was five minutes of lumbering through the crowd after the confetti flew before I could actually run. So my first mile was thirteen something, the second 22 something and the finish was 33:28. I'm not sure if that's good or not, but I don't care. It was my first event and I ran the whole time except for the few steps to drink a cup of water so I wouldn't trip. And it felt really good.
The course was nice, very flat, and the finish was great, going downhill into the Coliseum. When we ran through the tunnel we all started ululating and it was really cool. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my Dad would honk the car horn as we went through tunnels (it doesn't seem like anybody does that anymore) and of the Larson cartoon of the geese honking through a tunnel, just the joy of hearing the echoes and being alive enough to be loud.
It was a fun run, and while I didn't like the logjam of people mobbing to take pictures of "The Rock" ("ooh, he looked at me when I waved!" a woman in front of me said) and trying to get through all of that to actually be able to run, I did enjoy the zigging and the zagging to get around slower groups and stretch out my legs, it made me feel very silly. It was great weather, not too hot and not too cold. And Stella was right, the energy of the crowd just carries you along.
And I got to see the biggest pair o' titties I have ever seen on the way home:
Thanks to the ladies of JenLafor getting me involved, and sorry we couldn't manage to meet up. Another time perhaps.
So now we're thinking about the next event. Nick and I want to do some fun events together and do the Bay to Breakers run next year. Check out their crazy rules --esp. in the centipede page.
What?
No alcohol on the course?
Tell that to the guys running with the iced kegs and plastic cups.
No plastic bags as warm-ups?!
And no running naked?!?
Okay, that's just weird.
It's a 10K party with not much running (the "real" runners are seeded and get to go first, this $hit is organised) but a lot of costumes and fun.
And a big ass hill, 'cuz it's San Francisco.
|
My wallet.
Tore the house apart, not in any of the usual places and it wasn't in the car because I'd had to drive Nick's car yesterday because I picked up a staple in my tire at lunch and heard the mosquito whine of air escaping when I parked in our driveway so I took his car back to work and called him at one to wake him up and he had it patched and had no faith in the patch because he knows how fast I drive so he took it to his work in a safe and level area of the lot and put the spare on because he truly is a wonderful and loving and generous and amazing human being, but the bottom line is that the last place I remember having my wallet was in his car but here it was at 5.20am and his car was in his work parking lot and he was nowhere near it to be able to check it to see if my wallet was in it or if I was truly screwed so I drove to his office (only ten miles thankfully) with his spare key and looked everywhere inside his car and still couldn't find it so I knew I had just wasted a whole chunk of time I didn't have and raced back home and tore the house apart again and still didn't find it and I was just about to give up despite the generous pledges of people like Nancy and Heidi and La and Tara. when for whatever reason (was I going to stab myself?) I opened our cutlery drawer and there it was. I cried with stupid frustrated relief as I staggered out the door almost an hour off target.
The rest of the day went muuuuuuuuuuuuuch better.
Excuses, excuses.
But since I was an hour off and the 5K was 130 miles from my starting point, by the time I got to the Coliseum I wasn't even sure if everybody would still be at the K section of the groups meeting places. And I had to piddle, so I chose to stand in a Port-O-San line instead.
And since this was my first event ever and I didn't know what to expect and didn't want to have to carry a lot of stuff, I left with only my race bib, my car key, my driver's license and some cash, no camera, no cell phone, so I have no pictures of some of the fun things I saw at the event. I do have proof I was there though, because at the end there was a Sav-On booth with a sign for pictures and a line. I thought, "oh cool, I didn't even see anyone take my pic, I hope I was smiling" because I saw Kirsten's Fitblog pics of the Santa Cruz 1/2 marathon, but then I realised that it was just a guy with a digicam taking pics of people in front of a banner. But by then I was in line, and I might not be British, but "I know how to queue." (I saw HGttG on Wednesday. Loved it, when the Heart of Gold turned into that flash of Adams' face and the movie ended I nearly cried. I think I'm turning into a crybaby. It's the knitting, I'll betcha.)
So, here's a crappy scan of a crappy photo. (Hey, if it wasn't crap it wouldn't be me ;))
This pic gives me a bit of a clue as to why the lady at my doctor's office kept referring to me as "he." I've never met a boy named Wendy but I'll bet he looks a lot like me.
I do wish I'd brought my camera. I would have taken pics of the two dogs I saw (chocolate lab and siberian husky) and of the woman cussing out her husband on her cellphone while powerwalking.
But wait, here's further proof I was in L.A., every other car in thegarage was parked like this:
It was a very L.A. sort of event. Cellphones, iPods, and digital cameras were everywhere. The runners were supposed to get a start at 8.45am and the walkers were supposed to go at 9am but they put the stand with the celebrities ("The Rock" and Halle Berry) on it right at the Start line so it meant that a lot of gawkers just packed in with their cameras. You couldn't really move to really run 'til a fair ways past the starting line and even then, the first mile was a lot of zigging and zagging through clumps of people walking, slower runners, people who were still warming up, whatever. By my watch, it was five minutes of lumbering through the crowd after the confetti flew before I could actually run. So my first mile was thirteen something, the second 22 something and the finish was 33:28. I'm not sure if that's good or not, but I don't care. It was my first event and I ran the whole time except for the few steps to drink a cup of water so I wouldn't trip. And it felt really good.
The course was nice, very flat, and the finish was great, going downhill into the Coliseum. When we ran through the tunnel we all started ululating and it was really cool. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my Dad would honk the car horn as we went through tunnels (it doesn't seem like anybody does that anymore) and of the Larson cartoon of the geese honking through a tunnel, just the joy of hearing the echoes and being alive enough to be loud.
It was a fun run, and while I didn't like the logjam of people mobbing to take pictures of "The Rock" ("ooh, he looked at me when I waved!" a woman in front of me said) and trying to get through all of that to actually be able to run, I did enjoy the zigging and the zagging to get around slower groups and stretch out my legs, it made me feel very silly. It was great weather, not too hot and not too cold. And Stella was right, the energy of the crowd just carries you along.
And I got to see the biggest pair o' titties I have ever seen on the way home:
Thanks to the ladies of JenLafor getting me involved, and sorry we couldn't manage to meet up. Another time perhaps.
So now we're thinking about the next event. Nick and I want to do some fun events together and do the Bay to Breakers run next year. Check out their crazy rules --esp. in the centipede page.
What?
No alcohol on the course?
Tell that to the guys running with the iced kegs and plastic cups.
No plastic bags as warm-ups?!
And no running naked?!?
Okay, that's just weird.
It's a 10K party with not much running (the "real" runners are seeded and get to go first, this $hit is organised) but a lot of costumes and fun.
And a big ass hill, 'cuz it's San Francisco.
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