I ran a marathon once, and once is all that there is, at least for now. Jess on the other hand, ran her third marathon last month at the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. It was my first time to visit the area and we stayed with some good friends just outside the city. As you may have read, Jess was able to stay a full week, while I was only able to stay for the weekend. While it was a quick trip, it was fun and full of some great experiences. The first night we were there we headed into the city to pick up Jess’s race packet. The city was over-busy with the excess people arriving for the race. After picking up her packet and checking out the expo, we headed out to one of our friends favorite eating spots, an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant that we quite delicious, but proved to excessively fill my stomach to brim, yet I have no regrets as sushi is amazing and it was good!
The next day we headed into SF to do some sight-seeing. We went to many iconic San Francisco sights and finished up our day at Fisherman’s Wharf to have some clam chowder. It was a beautiful day, being able to see some islands out in the ocean (I hear that is a rare sight). Jess and I rented a hotel near the start of the race for that night, as we would be getting up early the next morning and didn’t want to impose on our hosts. We met up with some other friends and had a second (lighter) dinner. It is always a great time catching up with friends, but a small part of me was dreading the early morning ahead of us. While Jess was enthroned in her excitement, I was muddled with the details of the morning.
I was surprised how well I slept for how firm the bed was. We went to bed at a decent time, so I more or less felt rested. We made our way to the starting area. The quiet San Francisco streets a sharp contrast to their packed activity the days prior. Right away, we noticed others (mostly women) dressed to run, some looking a bit chilled in the cool morning air and hurriedly walking to the starting area. A cloudy mist hung near the tops of the buildings. I walked with Jess to her starting area, stuffed her sweater into my backpack and snapped a few pre-race photos.
After leaving her I had four priorities: Bathroom, coffee, see Jess cross the start line and catch the spectator bus to the next cheering area. I decided to combine the first two. I pulled out my phone and searched for coffee shops in the area. The nearest was a Starbucks, just two blocks away. To my dismay, it was under renovations with a sign on the door redirecting me to another location, three blocks away. I checked my phone again, there were two coffee shops before that along the same street, so I headed in that direction. The problem with marathons is that one, they start early, and two, they are usually on Sunday. This meant that both of the nearby coffee shops were closed and the remaining Starbucks was my only bet. Now you may be thinking that I have a caffeine addiction, but it’s more of a romantic affair. I just simply love walking along city streets with a warm cup of coffee in my hand. Unfortunately, there was about a 30-minute line at the next shop, and about the same for the restroom. Actually, there were a few more shops nearby, except they were along the other side of the marathon course, blocked off to foot traffic. I headed near to the start of the race, hoping I could catch a glance of my wife.
After about five or so minutes of waiting, she came by, I almost missed her. Her grin was wide and eyes full of excitement, a facial expression she only has when running in a race. After seeing her by, I headed to the bus shuttles, hoping for another chance a coffee shop/restroom. Neither came. I stood in line at the bus area for about 20-minutes. I eventually boarded and we were off, unfortunately too late to catch Jess at two of the stops. I wished I had a bike, it would have been faster. On the upside, there was a bathroom on the charter bus, so it wasn’t all bad. I had some good conversations with some of the other spectators, some of which in the same boat as me. The final stop for the bus placed me in a location where I could potentially see Jess three times. As the first chance had already passed I headed through the park and made me way to the next area. After a while Jess came by. As I first caught glimpse of her, she wore a ragged look, that brightened instantly as she saw me along the sidelines. She was running in the middle of the road and bolted off to the side, nearly plowing over two fellow runners. She gave me her arm warmers and planted me an extremely salty kiss and headed off with a kick to her step.
I made my way to the finish line. It took a while to procure a good spot near the actual finish line. I eventually made my way clear around the finish area to the other side as the marathoners were finishing along that side. There I waited for a while. I watched many people cross the line. Eventually I could see Jess in the distance. She was once again looking for me. Eying the crowd and then she saw me, and with as much enthusiasm as before, her face lit up and she waved as she kicked off her final steps of the race.
I met her after the finish line, helped her change shoes and check out some swag. She rested for a moment and then we headed for the various booths that were set up around the finisher’s area. She took her photo with the SF Fire Department, snagged some chocolate milk and received a much-needed massage. We eventually met up with our friends at a nearby carousel. After hanging out there for a while and relaxing we headed back to Concord where our friends lived. Our final task of the evening, was to find an In-and-Out Burger joint to celebrate Jess’s race. A good friend from college came by and we chatted for a while, watching the sunset in the distance. It was a great trip, and my time was over. I left the next morning, leaving Jess to have some more fun for the rest of the week, a vacation that she needed.
I hope that you enjoyed this post, as well as the pictures posted in the gallery below.
