The Commoner's Halloween

Here are five things from today.

There were no students on Halloween today so there was no Halloween fun.  

Today was also the Giant's Parade.  I think this is Barry Bonds.  He was not in the parade but he was at the parade.  I was not at the parade I was at work hearing about great things that presenters do in their lives.

Today officially ends the drought. It won't stop raining and I'm just glad it wasn't a Santa Cruz Friday or a San Jose State Friday or worst yet a Santa Cruz to San Jose Friday over crazy Highway 17.  Now that we have rain it isn't going to stop.

Some days I have to muster up all the New York Italian I possibly can.  Some days you have to remember you are really tough and can pretty much keep going because you are New York Italian.  Today was definitely one of those days.

Goodbye baseball we will see you in the spring-in the meantime we have a long winter to get through.  

The Commoner and the San Francisco Giants

Even though I spent some time as a hockey fan and even though I LOVE football-I was raised a baseball girl.

Three things save me from going crazy from not living in New York and living here in this strange little town.

First of all -I really like the city of San Francisco.  It's a pretty world class city.  It's beautiful, it has great food, it has culture, it has a great football team and it has the most beautiful baseball stadium in the country.

Everybody who says what should we do in San Francisco -a Giants game ranks right up there with the Golden Gate Bridge.  You don't have to like baseball and you don't have to like the Giants.  But if you go -you will have a great time and guess what?  You will walk out a Giants fan.

So on a day -when my new school kicked butt.  I went to class and was emotionally moved by the biographical presentations of my very young class mates, and I was still exhausted by the marathon and all that it entailed.  The best thing of the day was this.

So in a season where they lost an 11 game lead and played pretty crappy for half of the season.  Baseball showed us one thing

Not all of 2014 sucked. Some of it was pretty good.

The Commoner is Back To Real Life

Ugh I'm tired.  Here are some highlights from recovery Day 2.

Woke Up at 4AM because it's really 7 AM.

Slogged -that's right slogged back to work

Had fried zucchini at Margianos-Not this zucchini but you get it

I heard the Giants lost by a lot.  I didn't see the game I was at Maggianos

Good Friends

Hey Sons of Anarchy-tonight was a boring episode.

Good night everyone.

The Commoner's Flight Back Home

Is it strange that there is no internet in Reagan National Airport but there is internet on the plane?

I could not watch the Walking Dead last night but thanks to my friend Julie for messaging me the details and the twitter verse for their insight.  Yes I DVRed the episode but I won't be able to watch it until like a month from now.

The girl on the plane next to me was super stuck up.  I called her stuck up shoes.

She didn't quite look like this but she could have

Taylor Swift I will never ever download a song of yours so can you get off the tv?  With your selfies and good looks?

This marathon I went with a bare head and it was actually better.  My head is free-but a little sunburned

This airplane is so small and hot and crowded and the flight attendants are super catty about each other

We are watching Godzilla and there is no Godzilla in the movie.  What is he anyway a monkey a dinosaur?  Not sure

Maybe he was a puppy.

The Commoner and the Marine Corp Marathon

This race was hard.  So much harder than Chicago.  I did NOT look like this at the end

I looked like this

I knew there were hills but I did not expect this to matter all that much.  It did it mattered a lot and I was a full 26 minutes from my goal pace. I blame my Garmin for that-more later.

Let me tell you the story in pictures.
But first
I wasn't sure how a race of 30,000 people would start a race without a wave start but we did and it was organized and roomy and awesome.  Marines -tell everyone else how you did that.

More notes from the start

• Way millions of port a potties meant I went to the bathroom 3 times with no lines before the start.
• Marines are awesome
• The sky divers with the flags made me happy
• the fly over was cool
• Sean Astin -Rudy gave a Rudy type of speech which was awesome for a hobbit.
• America is a badass country and I wouldn't live anywhere else.

So pictures.

This is waiting for you at the finish and each and everyone of them will shake your hands and thank you for running-and it starts at that famous .2 uphill.  Thank us?  No thank you

I finished and I actually way beat the bridge-so this will be my Facebook cover photo for ever now

The start is based on the honor system.  I really expected to finish with this goal but that didn't happen partially because this was the hardest marathon ever

This is us-in the dark-waiting to start.  It was the most relaxing start ever.  For a nano second I thought the security was really lax-until i remembered the thousands of marines hanging around.  Most secure marathon ever.

Super proud to be American today

Last week firemen -this week Marines-who will cheer my running next week?

Official picture to follow-but you finish here.  Again -America is badass

Some people can run on feel.  If I do that I run 15 minute miles. I can not run without a Garmin.  I simply can not.  My fully charged Garmin died at mile 20-I had no idea how to manage the rest of the race without it.  I'm mad and will be complaining to them.  This Garmin has always been a problem....

And this is the medal.

Rob said all along he was retiring from the marathon.  I love the marathon and until the Garmin incident I was on pace to make my goal.  

There are only 3 marathons I will consider running and they all chose by lottery.  If I got into this one again  I would train harder and hire a coach.  I'm old -it's hard.  Every injury I ever  had and a few I didn't know I had acted up on this run-to do it again I would need more help.

Oh and The Giants won which was a nice surprise at 415 AM and I'm not going to lie-I though of Hunter Pence often and gave my self Hunter Pence inspirational speeches many times during the race.

The Commoner is an East Coast Native

When you have been lucky enough to spend the first 35 years of your life on the East Coast you probably have seen all there is to see at least once.  So I don't feel the need to spend time here in DC site seeing.  I have no desire to site see actually.  I have trained 5 months for this race-so no pressure to walk the streets.  I know this kills my California friends but really-I've been here done this.

I walked by the white house to see Barack but I think he wasn't home because he didn't answer the doorbell.

Anyway my attraction to mass transit (blame it on growing up down the block from the Long Island Rail Road) means I will happily sit on the metro and ride it.  It's really beautiful

It functions like BART but it has more routes like the New York City Subway-but look at this station!  It's gorgeous.

So today involves many freak outs.  My calf is tight among other things.  A metro ride to the start-, also a movie with Brad Pitt, and pasta for dinner.

Don't think that I'm relaxing in between eating Entemans Coffee Cake and pasta, I still have a rough draft of an assignment for class and also an article to dissect for my Masters Project.  No rest for the weary.

On a random note-I've noticed tights are in fashion in DC which is awesome because that means when the weather cools down Tights will be in fashion in California.

What on earth Was the Commoner Thinking

Good God-really 26 miles? Running? I'm crazy.  But here I am in our Nation's capital.  It's not quite as marathon crazy as Chicago was but I guess when you have a country to run there are other distractions.

It started with my favorite terminal-terminal 2 with the candy store.

Remember how cheap this flight was?  Awesome I even upgraded to aisle seats because that is now an upgrade.  

I packed very carefully so I wouldn't have to check my luggage and lose it but they took it from us at the gate in LA even though there were plenty of overhead space available.  

But my Aasics were on my feet and i figured I could buy anything else I might need if the luggage got lost.

Well here's what happened when I sat down based on my Facebook collection

If this guy next to me spills his ice tea on me (again) or on my laptop you will definitely be seeing me on the news.
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Danielle Canez, Kimberly Seanez, Kathy Tanner and 6 others like this.

Bob Wetter Cough on him. Say sorry I just got back from Africa.
Yesterday at 5:44pm · Edited · Like · 1

Therese DiBartolo Phillips Great Idea!!!!!
Yesterday at 4:20pm · Like

Madeline Mariottini Just say to yourself "What would Sophia do?" Or maybe not. Lol
Yesterday at 4:45pm · Like

Therese DiBartolo Phillips Sophia was always like a mini-me!
Yesterday at 5:00pm · Like · 1

Therese DiBartolo Phillips He now has his half filled bottle standing upside down on his little tray table. I'm going to start coughing any moment now.
Yesterday at 5:09pm · Like · 3

Therese DiBartolo Phillips He now has an open can and a wide shaped cup with cranberry juice. This is the most fun ever
Yesterday at 6:40pm · Like

Therese DiBartolo Phillips and.....they are going to the marathon-i'll be behind this guy at every feed station I know it
Yesterday at 7:12pm · Like

Julie Chadwell Fontaine If you'd worn an isolation suit onto the plane I bet you'd have that whole row to yourself! Maybe you can pick one up at walmart for the trip back!
23 hrs · Like · 1

Therese DiBartolo Phillips i will have to because this guy drove me crazy and I needed a good defense from all of his brightly colored beverages and flying elbow

23 hrs · Like

Turns out that guy was actually running the marathon and was actually not a young kid but a grown up person.

Embassy Suites said our room wasn't ready so they sent us to the Renaissance where I had an allergic reaction.

But here are some pictures of my day

Umm They haven't been in a really long time.  Someone tell them that please?

Rob bought a Marine Hat that says Ooorah -I think that's what you say

There weren't many photo ops at this expo.  It felt like an armory.  Because it was.  Marines who looked to be either 90 or 12 were working it.  My favorite the Marine who loaded up my bag with packets of hair conditioner like it was Halloween so he could leave his post.  Marines are awesome

We went for a small walk.  Not really site seeing on this city tour-unless its on foot Sunday.  But we went looking for the Whitehouse which we really couldn't find.  Kind of like the time when we lost the Space Needle on our Seattle run.  We found the Washington Monument though.

While DC is not awash in Dunkin as say Chicago or Boston, There is one nearby so of course.

Inspite of being so fragile RGIII for many reasons is my favorite football player.  He plays here.  This is what his stadium looks like

See those spots on that stadium?  That's where he plays and its a dump.  It looks like Oakland Coliseum.  RG3 needs a suitable place to play.  Mr. Obama get on that.

This is a no frills kind of Marathon apparently.  I didn't get to chose a girls version of the giveaway shirt but I never had a brown shirt so it's cool.

I bought a great jacket.  I ate entemans Coffee cake.  I'm looking for pizza tomorrow.  I'm also looking for something to do that won't make me tired but will occupy my mind.

What was I thinking?

The Commoner is Not at The Chicago Marathon

Last year was this

That's the end of the race.  I look good! Even my teeth are white. 
I'm not running Chicago this year-I'm running Washington DC.  I hope I look like that this time too.

I was looking at my finish award.  I came in 30,000 ish. This race only has 20000 people.  So I'm nervous.  

So it's almost my birthday.  I've aged 10 years this year.  It was a really hard one.  But let's talk about some things that went great this year.

I went to the Tour of California and realized those guys ride a marathon every day for weeks-take a break and go somewhere else to do it again in another tour of somewhere mountainous and beautiful

This is my Bay to Breakers Swag.  My first and most favorite race. This year was awesome.  Remember the naked runner?  

This is the color run.  I wasn't feeling particularly colorful but I can not resist a race

This is Buster Posey-The Giants are pretty magical in October.  I have a theory he could be the next Derek Jeter.  He just has to hit better when it clutch time

I got to go to New York this summer.  The goal was visit the family, eat pizza, eat donuts and hang out.  This is my cousin Pat.  He runs the New York City marathon every year

This is the snake on my trail.  This is the angel who appeared from no where and saved me from it.

This is us at the Pat Benetar and Rick Springfield show.  It was so much fun

This is me searching all the streets of New Orleans for a voodoo doll.  The real kind that gives someone a stiff neck.  Don't worry-it probably wasn't meant for you.  

This is us at the Giants game!  Go Giants bring back the cup!   I mean win the world series

These are the goats that trained with me for the marathon.  I loved those guys.  I now have an obsession with goats.

I think this is San Jose state.  Pretend it is.  I spend so much time there working on my masters.  I've grown so fond of all the very young people in my class.  This year I will graduate.  Not sure what I will do with the free time.
This has been a pretty weird year.

Being 50 was a weird year.  It was a hard year.  But looking at these pictures.  I have to say-it was a pretty good one.  

I didn't run Chicago this year but it looked great.  Washington DC I'm coming for you!!!