Are You an Olympian?

Yesterday was the Giant Race, which is a half marathon in San Francisco that starts and ends in AT&T park. Before I started, I was googling stuff about the race and noticed something exciting, Brett Gotcher, US Olympic Alternate for the Men's marathon, would be running this race. He is from Watsonville, which is near Santa Cruz, so it was exciting to hear that he would be running a local race! I checked out his photos online so I would recognize him if I saw him.

As we were waiting for the race to start, I saw him, warming up right next to the "Leadoff Hitter" pace sign (under 8 minutes/mi).

I went up to him and said, "Are you Brett Gotcher, the Olympian?"

The guy looked at me funny and said that he wasn't but that he would love it if he were.

Oops. I kind of mumbled something about how he was blond and he looked fast so I just assumed he was the Olympian (what makes someone look "fast" you ask? Short shorts and a running singlet. And flowing blond hair. I guess).

Then we lined up at the start line. I got right in the front. If there is anything I have learned over the past several races, it's that I hate having to pass a bunch of people at the start. So now I get as close to the front as I can. In this case, it was the second "row" of people.

They started the announcements and one of the things they said was that Brett was here and There He Was! The real Brett Gotcher. The funniest part is that the guy I had mistaken for Brett was standing right behind me, so we had a laugh about the case of mistaken identity.

This is the end.

As soon as the event photos are online, I am going to post a side by side, because I swear these guys look very similar!

Here is a video of the start, where you can see Brett (blonde guy, orange shirt, black shorts) and me (blonde girl, white hat, orange shirt, black shorts). What? Is that confusing? No really, I am at about 11-12 seconds. Brett is around the 7 second mark.  So technically, I was only 4 seconds behind Brett!! It's a bit of a blurry video but I thank the person who took it!

Have you ever mistakenly talked to someone who you thought was someone else? Where do you line up: at the start/in the proper corral/anywhere/you don't care?

Pass or Fail

I don't know about you, but when I am running a long run, I can't think very well. Sometimes I decide to do a loop when I am in the middle of the run, but my addition skills are lacking, and I end up running way less or way more than I anticipated. Sometimes I get lost when I am running on trails.

And sometimes, cool things happen to me and I don't even realize it.

At mile 30 during the race on Sunday, I heard a runner coming up behind me and I glanced back to see a tan, fit man coming up pretty fast behind me. As he passed me, I said, "good job", as we do when we are being passed at the end of a long race. I could barely muster a "good job"; I definitely couldn't pass anyone at that point! He said something to me about the walkers (we were in a park on a paved loop around a lake at this point) being in his way. As I ran behind him, over the thoughts of how much my blisters were hurting and how glad I would be to be done, I remember thinking, "that guy has some KILLER calf muscles". I kind of watched his tan, muscular legs as he quickly ran away from me. 

That was the end of that. He looked like every other runner. Shorts, check. Hat, check. Glasses, shoes, shirt. Muscular legs, skinny frame. Check, check, check.

Yesterday the results were posted, as well as some photos on the Facebook group for this race. Guess who beat me by 49 seconds? Guessssss! Come on; I will wait.

....

....

If you guessed Oprah, you were wrong. She only runs marathons. Plus, I am faster than her!

If you guessed Scott Jurek, you were wrong also. But that would have been cool.

And you wouldn't have been off by much.

In case you don't know who Dean Karnazes is, he ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, is a famous ultra runner and wrote a few books about running. He also hails from the Bay Area, but I have never seen him around. So I am a little star struck!

Have you ever met a celebrity (and yes, being passed by one counts!)? If you could meet one (living) famous person, who would it be? What would you say to them?

One Year Ago

One year ago yesterday, I wrote this post because I had just chopped off all my hair in the name of Locks of Love.

At the time, the cut I wanted was something like this:

source

This is what I ended up with:

Not quite the same. In the last year, I have gone through H with this darn head of hair, trying to grow it out long enough to put in a ponytail so I can keep it out of my face so I can run. No clip could tame it.

And then finally, about a week ago, success! No clips needed. I could put it in a ponytail. All on it's own! I was ecstatic. I had been waiting almost a year for this.

So hurray, right? Now I will finally leave it alone. But no. Not really. It was growing out all uneven and it looked like a rat's nest. I attempted some home repair, but only made things worse. So yesterday I bucked up and went to Berkeley to be a hair model. For $20, you have someone who has never cut hair before is in training practice on you. So that is how I got a new do.

This is what I wanted. Ironically, I had forgotten that last year I also wanted to be like Katie Holmes. Apparently I want whatever she's having, hair-wise. However, I have a pretty bad cowlick and bangs like that are a far away dream to me. I bet her stylist flattens hers down every day. My stylist only knows how to do pony tails.

So I got this instead. Notice I am already clipping it back. I hate having hair in my face.

So, just when I could finally put my hair up, I chopped it back off. Figures. What I thought was funny is that March 5 last year and this year both were chop of your hair day. It's my Hair-iversary. So --  Happy Hair-iversary to me. Here's to growing the new do out faster (and with less clips) than the old one.

Do you cut your hair often? (in the last year I went once) Have you ever been a hair model? Have you ever donated to Locks of Love? 

Also, I was featured over on Who's Your Editor yesterday! Pop on over and check it out when you get the chance!