I Left My Bib in San Francisco

I drove up to SF at 4 am this morning for tomorrow’s  40th Anniversary San Francisco Marathon.

More often these days in encountering tough traffic wherever I go; sometimes it’s tempting to just get out of my car and run to where I need to be… it would take only a few minutes longer and be less stressful.

I made it to the expo by 11 am and grabbed my bib. I hate to admit this but I turned into *that guy* when I realized I was in the fourth corral.

“What?!” I thought to myself. “I’m a SECOND corral guy! THIRD at the worst. I’m not a (sniff-sniff, scoff-scoff) FOURTH corral runner!”

And then I thought about the past month or so of running … and I thought about my blog posts … and I realized I’ll be LUCKY to keep pace with the fourth corral.

Humbling.  And a reminder that the universe seems to be telling me that this moonshot of mine is perhaps indicative of space dementia.

Here are shots from the morning’s pickup.

        

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Afterwards, I met up with Tim and Renee for DUNKIRK in 70mm.

Discombobulated from parking snafus in the city by the bay ($6.25?  For an HOUR? At a METER?!), I failed to snap a selfie with them. So here’s a doctored one.

Renee is running her first half marathon tomorrow. She’s going to do great, and not just because she’s assured a PR. Run, Renee, Run! Run, Tim, Run!

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I grew weary of the city traffic and maneuvering thus ambled around my airbnb’s neighborhood weighing my carbon load options.  As indecisive as any, um, indecisive person… there must be a perfect exemplar of this… uh… ya know who I mean… um… anyways, as indecisive as that when it came to cuisine or restaurant had me strolling in and out of various establishments repeatedly.  I ultimately went with a place that had a fair number of patrons, not too long of a line, and a large fill-your-own-water-jug.

The race starts at 5:30 am over at the embarcadero but I’m coming from Pixarland, aka Emeryville, aka “the rottenest city in America” per the then Emeryville local and future Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren… and that means I have to cross the Bay Bridge which throws a toll and timing issue into the commute.

I’m setting my alarm for 3:15 to allow for traffic and walking from my prepaid parking lot.  Seems far too early given my FOURTH corral doesn’t start until almost 6 am.  Sigh.  I hate being *this guy* but I’ve brought it on myself.

The streets of San Francisco are calling.