Dori’s Marathon in San Francisco
This weekend Dori, her mom, and I traveled to San Francisco so she could run in the Nike Women’s Marathon on Sunday, the 23rd. Our flight out friday was uneventful, though unfortunately we had to sit in the last row of the plane in order to sit together, so we had to deal with a relatively constant amount of bathroom traffic and toilet flushing noises. On the upside the back of the plane had fewer windows and was slightly darker than the rest, so it made it a little easier to sleep.
After arriving we got our rental car (a brand new Nissan Sentra, with great pickup) and took 101 to 280 into downtown San Francisco. We dropped Pat off at her hotel, and stopped in at ours. After a little rest, we walked down to Union Square to the expotique and fanfare already in progress. We went through to the Nike Store, bought some shirts (all returned later), and practiced our crowd navigation skills. Eventually we had lunch, then meandered back to the expotique for some free Ghiradelli chocalate and Luna bars (we skipped the line for massages).
After returning to the hotel a little later, we asked the concierge for an italian restaurant in the neighborhood, and she pointed us to a place a few blocks up called Fino. Dori’s friend & running buddy Nicole came along, and my close friend David came up from San Jose after work to visit. The 5 of us had a nice meal, but unfortunately our food took forever because a larger group got their order in before us. We were starved by the time everything came, but what came was good. Dessert was equally slow (I am guessing they didn’t freshly soak the ladyfingers on my Tiramisu, so I am at a loss for what took so long). I’ll let Mr. Friedland tell you about his dish seperately, if he chooses.
Saturday morning Dori and Nicole joined the rest of the TNT (Team In Training) crew for a 20 minute warm-up run down to city hall and back. I joined them at a little breakfasty cafe around the corner when they were done. After breakfast we had a little bit of time before the afternoon’s Pasta Party, so we spent it driving around the city (the 4 of us). We visited Lombard Street and Ghiradelli Square, then ran out of time before we were able to get to Golden Gate park. Probably we never had enough time at all, because the park is deceptively close on the map, but to drive there felt like about 45 minutes from the hotel.
The Pasta Party was held at the Moscone Convention Center, which was walking distance from the hotel and a generally amazing space. There’s just something awe inspiring about a room that can comfortably hold 4000 people (Friedland later told me that this is where they hold MacWorld). Of the speakers at the event, the ’survivor story’ was by far the best. The woman who spoke told of her experience with lymphoma and how she became involved in TNT. It was a well delivered, moving speech, that really captures the essence of the TNT mission. The rest of the day after the pasta party was spent relaxing, and doing mostly nothing, in preparation for the big race on Sunday.
Our marathon day started right on schedule at about 4:45am. Dori awoke and ate her runner’s breakfast of a Clif bar and some gatorade and began making her final morning preparations (body glide, sunblock, etc) while I snoozed in. We joined the rest of TNT downstairs in the hotel lobby and took some group photos before heading over to the start on Union Square. TNT had a tent set up for people stretching and warming up, and it was an excellent planning move, since it really made the morning cold a lot more bareable (especially since I left my fleece upstairs).
The crowds around race time were still pretty sparse, almost exclusively friends and family members. Pat and I got a good spot near the start, though despite having my camera all ready, neither of us caught sight of Dori, Nicole, or Sabrina. After fifteen minutes all the runners had passed, so we returned to the Hilton, I packed the remaining items I needed into my bag, and we had breakfast in the cafe on the lobby level. Next we fetched the car and drove over to Sunset, and spent nearly 30 minutes trying to find parking. Eventually we found a spot on Lawton and 44th (I think it was a 15 minute walk to the park from there), and hustled to get to our meeting point.
The SF Marathon course started out at Post and Stockton, on the northeast corner of Union Square, went through the streets towards the water, down the Embarcadero, and up, up, up to the Presidio. Afterwards it came down past the Golden Gate bridge by the Cliff House, then into Golden Gate park, around the loop, and down to Merced Lake, around the lake, and back up to right near the park. Our appointed meeting spot after the start was at the 11-mile point, which was right at the entrance to Golden Gate park. Unfortunately because it took so long to park, Pat and I missed our target arrival time, and had to stay instead near mile 16 and ‘Cheer SF’.
Since this is only the second year of the Nike Women’s Marathon, the crowd populace isn’t exactly what it is in NYC. So they hired cheerleaders. Right about mile 16, Cheer SF, a group of men and women with pompoms and tights were doing throws in the air, pyramids, and generally yelling and cheering for the runners. They were really great, and definitely helped the crowd get into the spirit of things. All the runners I spoke to said how helpful and envigorated they felt after clearing them (and the larger crowd that was just a 1/2 mile ahead at the end of the park). Pat and I went up ahead and saw Sabrina, then a few minutes passed and Dori and Nicole appeared. They were all feeling pretty good at this point - Dori at least was 3-4 miles past the hardest part of the course for her. We got some great pictures of them running by and I got a sweaty kiss. 
After the ladies passed us, Pat and I walked back down to the Great Highway where the runners were off to their last ten miles. We hung out and cheered for people and eventually found a spot near the finish line. We watched runners come in and helped cheer for about 2 hours, and then we caught sight of Sabrina coming up, so we knew Dori and Nicole weren’t far behind.
About 15 minutes later, we caught sight of Dori running up the last stretch to the finish line! We shouted and cheered, and I got some more great shots of her closing in on the end. About 60 seconds behind her was Nicole, and we deployed the sign she made once again. Now that our crew was in, we headed up to the post-marathon complex to find our runners!
We managed to find Dori and Nicole almost immediately after getting into the main area - they were still in the herd of runners clumped at the exit of the course. I got one shot of Dori and Nicole in the crowd that’s fantastic … if I do say so myself … which will surely be framed. We left those two to sort through the crowd, expecting them to come find us afterwards, but they expected us to follow them. After a bit of waiting and some fruitless searching, Dori borrowed a phone and called me, and we met up successfully. Sabrina was off with her sister at the time, so we took all the post-marathon pictures of Dori and Nicole together with salty faces on the bean-bag chairs near the U2 cover band. Dori showed us the much anticipated Tiffany necklace prize and told us all about her race, from the success she had with the hill at mile 7, to the sickness around mile 10 & 11 (damn gatorade endurance!) to the pain of looping Lake Merced.
I was so proud of Dori for accomplishing her goal, and sticking with it for all those months of training, and then succeeding so beautifully on race day. She finished the race with inspirational strength and grace.
David arrived around this time, and met up with us as we began our slow walk back to the southern end of the park and the car. David went ahead and got his car (it was closer), and drove us to ours where we discovered a drained battery, since I had left the lights on! A quick trip to a hardware store for some jumper cables and we were back on the road. We all headed back to the hotel, and David was kind enough to go grab some lunch for all of us while Dori and I spent some time in the room together talking about the day so far. We had a tasty lunch from Santorini (much like our previous night’s dinner), and got ripped by room service for rolls and a soda ($23 with delivery charge).
Later, as the time for the victory celebration approached, I frantically packed my bag in preparation for my overnight flight back to NYC. I had agreed with my boss to return to work on Tuesday, and be available from home on Monday, so I felt it necessary to keep my part of the bargain (despite recently giving notice). I desperately wanted to stay in California another day (a week really), but this was what I had arranged. David drove me to the airport after the victory celebration, and I flew back without event. Dori went out dancing with her friends, but in the end was still disappointed that I couldn’t stay.
Today Dori is in Berkeley with her mom, getting a feel for the town and meeting with some faculty members to discuss some questions she had about their MPH program in Nutrition. She’ll return tomorrow evening.
October 30th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
Congrats to Dori!!!!!