Adventures In San Francisco Pt 2 - One Day Till Race Day
As I previously posted, I have decided to post about my adventures in San Francisco one day at a time. We continue the adventure on Saturday 10/17/09.
I woke up relatively early (for me) and took a taxi to Pier 39. I then walked to Fisherman's Warf for breakfast.
I walked by each vendor twice before I picked my breakfast.
I finally picked the very last stand. I told them I wanted their biggest crab. They cleaned it and heated it for me.
I also ordered half a dozen oysters.
I then found a place to sit down and eat. This little bird kept watching me...hoping I would look away so he could steal my food.
He became upset that I was taking his picture and not giving him food.
The remains of my breakfast.
I then bounced around taking pictures of various things that amused me. Oh yes, and I bought a lovely hat on Pier 39.
<
As I was walking back to Fisherman's Warf for lunch, I came across a boat that was boarding for a 1 hour tour. On a whim, I decided to go.
We went underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
Then we circled Alcatraz.
View of San Francisco from the water.
Crab pots!
After the boat ride, I had some clam chowder in a Boudin sourdough bread bowl. As I was walking around I spotted this starfish.
Here is a video of pigeons fighting over an onion ring. No, I didn't give them the onion ring.
I then took a taxi back to the hotel and walked to the Team In Training Inspiration Dinner (carb loading party). I already posted a video of the main hall. Here is a video from when I first entered the building.
Honored Teammate (cancer survivor) Virginia and her husband Van.
After the pasta dinner, I went back to the hotel. My roommate and I got into a mild argument. She wanted to get up TWO HOURS before we needed to meet up with the rest of the team downstairs. Two hours???? We needed to be downstairs at 5:00 AM. The race does not start until 7:30! We don't leave the hotel lobby until about 6:00 AM! Getting up at 3:00 AM is over-kill!!!!!!! I wanted to get up at 4:30. Half an hour is plenty of time to eat some oatmeal and put on my race clothes. Neither of us wanted a shower because we knew it would be cold outside. You don’t do your hair before a race. You don’t put on make-up before a race. So, half an hour is enough. But, let's pretend half an hour isn't enough. Say it takes you a full half hour just to put on some running clothes. Okay, then eat your breakfast downstairs! After we check in, we sit around and do nothing for an hour! I tried to compromise. I suggested we get up at 4:00 AM...an hour before we need to meet up downstairs. She continued to insist that she wanted to be awake before that. She said that she wanted plenty of time to poop. I told her there would be plenty of time to poop. She didn't need to get up at 3:00 AM to ensure that she had time for a proper before-race poop. She explained that she wanted to poop in the comfort of the hotel room. She didn't want to poop in the lobby restroom. She didn't want to use an outhouse at the start of the race. I told her that after we check in downstairs we would be waiting around for about an hour before leaving the hotel. There would be plenty of time to go back up to the hotel room and poop. She insisted that her body would automatically wake up early because of race nerves and she didn't want to have to just lie in bed. She wanted to get up and move around when she woke. I finally told her that getting up an hour before we needed to be downstairs was as much as I would compromise. Getting up any earlier was ridiculous. If she insisted on getting up any earlier I would be really pissed at her. She reluctantly agreed on getting up an hour before the meet up time. I set my alarm for 4:00 AM. Still too early in my opinion, but whatever. I laid down to sleep. My roommate was not ready to go to sleep yet. She asked me if she could turn on the tv while she got her race gear ready. I told her I was trying to go to sleep. She told me it would only be for a little while. She said she needed ambient noise as she laid out her race clothes. Not wanting to argue, I told her to go ahead. The tv did not get turned off for over an hour. She kept the volume low, but it still annoyed me. I have had a lot of hotel roommates through-out the years. I have never had this problem. We have always been on the same page -- get as much sleep before the race as possible. Oh well.
As usual, I had trouble falling asleep. I never sleep well before a race. I did not achieve sleep until some time after 12:30 am.
To Be Continued.
I woke up relatively early (for me) and took a taxi to Pier 39. I then walked to Fisherman's Warf for breakfast.
I walked by each vendor twice before I picked my breakfast.
I finally picked the very last stand. I told them I wanted their biggest crab. They cleaned it and heated it for me.
I also ordered half a dozen oysters.
I then found a place to sit down and eat. This little bird kept watching me...hoping I would look away so he could steal my food.
He became upset that I was taking his picture and not giving him food.
The remains of my breakfast.
I then bounced around taking pictures of various things that amused me. Oh yes, and I bought a lovely hat on Pier 39.
<
As I was walking back to Fisherman's Warf for lunch, I came across a boat that was boarding for a 1 hour tour. On a whim, I decided to go.
We went underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
Then we circled Alcatraz.
View of San Francisco from the water.
Crab pots!
After the boat ride, I had some clam chowder in a Boudin sourdough bread bowl. As I was walking around I spotted this starfish.
Here is a video of pigeons fighting over an onion ring. No, I didn't give them the onion ring.
I then took a taxi back to the hotel and walked to the Team In Training Inspiration Dinner (carb loading party). I already posted a video of the main hall. Here is a video from when I first entered the building.
Honored Teammate (cancer survivor) Virginia and her husband Van.
After the pasta dinner, I went back to the hotel. My roommate and I got into a mild argument. She wanted to get up TWO HOURS before we needed to meet up with the rest of the team downstairs. Two hours???? We needed to be downstairs at 5:00 AM. The race does not start until 7:30! We don't leave the hotel lobby until about 6:00 AM! Getting up at 3:00 AM is over-kill!!!!!!! I wanted to get up at 4:30. Half an hour is plenty of time to eat some oatmeal and put on my race clothes. Neither of us wanted a shower because we knew it would be cold outside. You don’t do your hair before a race. You don’t put on make-up before a race. So, half an hour is enough. But, let's pretend half an hour isn't enough. Say it takes you a full half hour just to put on some running clothes. Okay, then eat your breakfast downstairs! After we check in, we sit around and do nothing for an hour! I tried to compromise. I suggested we get up at 4:00 AM...an hour before we need to meet up downstairs. She continued to insist that she wanted to be awake before that. She said that she wanted plenty of time to poop. I told her there would be plenty of time to poop. She didn't need to get up at 3:00 AM to ensure that she had time for a proper before-race poop. She explained that she wanted to poop in the comfort of the hotel room. She didn't want to poop in the lobby restroom. She didn't want to use an outhouse at the start of the race. I told her that after we check in downstairs we would be waiting around for about an hour before leaving the hotel. There would be plenty of time to go back up to the hotel room and poop. She insisted that her body would automatically wake up early because of race nerves and she didn't want to have to just lie in bed. She wanted to get up and move around when she woke. I finally told her that getting up an hour before we needed to be downstairs was as much as I would compromise. Getting up any earlier was ridiculous. If she insisted on getting up any earlier I would be really pissed at her. She reluctantly agreed on getting up an hour before the meet up time. I set my alarm for 4:00 AM. Still too early in my opinion, but whatever. I laid down to sleep. My roommate was not ready to go to sleep yet. She asked me if she could turn on the tv while she got her race gear ready. I told her I was trying to go to sleep. She told me it would only be for a little while. She said she needed ambient noise as she laid out her race clothes. Not wanting to argue, I told her to go ahead. The tv did not get turned off for over an hour. She kept the volume low, but it still annoyed me. I have had a lot of hotel roommates through-out the years. I have never had this problem. We have always been on the same page -- get as much sleep before the race as possible. Oh well.
As usual, I had trouble falling asleep. I never sleep well before a race. I did not achieve sleep until some time after 12:30 am.
To Be Continued.