Chris works the late shift at work tonight meaning he will not be home until about 9 PM. Last night during class at the gym Amanda was like skip work tomorrow and work out with me. I laughed, cause that is not a possibility and then she was like, what time do you get off, 5 right? I’m like yup… She said, I guess I can wait until then to do my back workout. I told her I was in. So tonight we have a girl date at the gym to work our backs. This is actually perfect for me because I spent last weekend in Grants Pass visiting my sister and niece and nephew so I did not work out last Friday-Sunday. I only mention this because it means that I am not quite burned out yet. Normally Friday is rest day because I’ve been going for 6 days straight. As of right now I am only 4 days in and still feel like I have energy left. It also eases some of my guilt from not getting to work out with Amanda on the weekends. If we do a great workout tonight then I can get on a plane tomorrow morning guilt-free.
Not that I actually would have felt guilty or let that interfere with the awesomeness that is traveling. But nonetheless, I am down for a great back workout tonight. Then tomorrow is rest day as I walk around San Francisco. I don’t have any major plans for San Francisco but have no doubt that I will find things to do. Our flight leaves at 7:30 AM. If you want cheap flights you have to travel early, and it’s quite okay because it’s good to get our bodies used to waking up early as our actual run on Sunday is freaking EARLY. We start running at 6:30 AM. Nonetheless, we should get into San Francisco about 9 or so in the morning. We have to get to our hotel and then find the expo center to attend packet pick up. Other than that we are free tomorrow. However, we want to go to bed early because of that whole waking up crazy early for us. We have to catch a shuttle from the finish line to the start line between 4:30 AM and 5:30 AM. Don’t want to wait until the last minute on that one and of course that whole waking up and getting ready thing. Bed early.
If we run between 6:30 ish, well honestly since they release in waves we probably won’t start running until 6:45 or 7:00 who knows. But with all the hills and such I am calculating at least 2 and a half hours of run time… maybe more who really knows. This means we will be finished though at 9:30, 10:00 at the latest. Then we have the rest of the day to do whatever we want. Of course we are tired after we run, but not so tired that I won’t want to enjoy some San Francisco locations.
Monday morning we wake up and have tickets to Alcatraz. We already have those tickets, so that is going to be fun. I’m excited to go see Alcatraz. Then afterwards I think we will hang out at Fisherman’s Warf and check that out a bit. Our flight leaves San Francisco at 7:30 PM or so on Monday night, back into Portland at 9:30 ish.
Hopefully the public transportation system in San Francisco is as easy as most people claim it is, as I did not rent a car and plan on using mass transit for most everything. I am sure it will be fine. It does not matter what we do in San Francisco I will have fun, as I always have a great time in these running environments with fellow crazy running people, exploring new locations with Chris. Yup, I can honestly say that a series of factors have made the most amazing difference in my life. Chris got medication, actually is taking drugs that I think have helped tremendously, we went to tough counseling session after tough counseling session to really explore some of the ridiculous crazy behaviors and holy shit, he started running and having the runners high and that helped everything. I did not believe that things could or would ever get better but suddenly six months later I am so ridiculously happy.
Running is my God send. It has made Chris and I close in a way that nothing over the last ten years has ever done. It gives us these amazing unique shared experiences. It helps that he actually loves it as much as I do. It gives us these great trips to look forward to and these awesome shared memories.
So now let’s discuss the reality that this run does make me a little nervous. Those freaking hills are a bit intimidating. But of course nothing is going to stop me from doing it, but I just have to figure out how to squelch those little nerve bubbles in my stomach. When I near that Golden Gate Bridge I am seriously going to cry. There is just something iconic about it and the experience of running it. It is such a symbol to the reality of what I have struggled with for so long. And now, here we are a year and a half past my heaviest weight and I am still going strong, still active and healthy and HAPPY. That is freaking tear inducing.
I read something I wrote about a year ago on this blog yesterday where it talked about my fear of running organized races. Basically how I knew that maybe I should try one or that it should be the next logical step for me but at my core I was scared. And here we are, a year later, headed to San Francisco to run 13.1 miles across an ultra-hilly city. I am most proud of the reality that I am pushing aside my fears to tackle these epic feats.
I am so proud of the life I am building for myself. Which reminds me of that quote by Fitzgerald…
I have started over so many freaking times in my life, but today I am proud of the life I am living. I will keep working and striving to make this true or else dig deep down to find that strength to try again.
So tomorrow bright and early, before the sun even rises, I will be up and headed to the airport for another very exciting chapter of my journey. I am so thrilled and can’t wait to share the story of my run with all of you. This is what life is all about after all. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend! And come Sunday morning at around 7-10 AM Pacific Time, think of me running across the hills of San Francisco; loving and hating every excruciating minute of it. I will post a picture on Facebook when I’m done with my new bling of course. Happiness.
2 comments:
You are amazing! I hope it was awesome and you had a great time!
This makes me so happy for you! I wish I had an exercise of some sort to do with my husband. Other than going to the gym at the same time, he is too fast for me at most things. LOL
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