We went to San Francisco for 4 days so that I could prove my continued insanity by running the venerable Miwok 100K (one of my dream races) and so we could enjoy a nice family getaway in one of best cities in America — nay, Earth.
I’ll cover the actual race in a separate blog post shortly, but here’s how the Miwok 100K (which I did finish!) and the whole trip to San Francisco happened: Little Boy had a 4-day weekend due to an orientation for the incoming Kindergarten class. This gave us a golden opportunity to take a long weekend that happened to coincide with a weekend of great races in other parts of the country: Bear Mountain in NY, Broad Street in Philly, and the Miwok 100K in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco.
So last December, I entered the Miwok lottery. I won. “Won.”
We left for San Francisco on Thursday morning. It was an archetypal Boston day (cold, rainy) so it was lovely to land in California (warm sunny, almost unbearably so for our winter-thinned blood). We acquired our rental car and headed north into downtown SF. Since it was 4pm EST and we hadn’t eaten lunch, a stop at Fisherman’s Wharf seemed dire.
View of Alcatrez
We continued across Golden Gate bridge and into Marin, stopping to stretch out legs and do some light hiking/view gazing. It struck me how much more courteous Californian drivers are. I’ve been driving amongst Massholes too long.
Golden Gate Bridge
Our first hotel was pretty nice. Mr. P and Little Boy romped in the pool while I looked for a store to stock up on bottled water. Then we went out for sushi. Another San Francisco perk: there is yummy sushi everywhere.
Hotel Pool
The next morning we headed north towards the giant redwoods around Russian River. We stopped at a state park and toured a grove of giants redwoods.
Redwood bridge
Let's give Mommy a heart attack
Redwood forest jaunt
At Parson Jones, a 1300 year old tree
Then we headed back south on Route 1, stopping at a beach to marvel in the coastal beauty and taunt the waves.
Wow. Just... wow.
Walking to the beach
Running from the waves
Hurry!
We stopped for lunch near Bondega Bay, the backdrop for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Bodega Bay
Then we continued on to our second hotel. I could not believe that Miwok was the next day. I took Little Boy to romp in the pool while Mr. P went for a run. For dinner we went to a fancy Italian restaurant next to our hotel. It was surprisingly fancy — we were wayyy underdressed, as were the ten or so other obvious ultrarunners in the restaurant who were carbing up. They were all so skinny and tan and I already felt intimidated — not by them, but by the race.
I ate pizza for the first time in about six months. It was pretty freaking good and my body sorta buzzed with carbs and gluten. And wine, of course. For the 12000 foot, 62 mile race that I would commence running in the morning, at 5am, I would require moderate amount of wine…
