An earthquake, Dave and Big Kahuna... My Weekend Trifecta

As long as earthquakes don't do any real damage, I think they're kind of fun but a little scary at the same time... kind of like a roller coaster! Friday night Lindsay and I were sitting on the couch watching tv when the apartment started to shake. Next thing you know, Lindsay has jumped over to the spot next to me, and we're grasping on to eachother's arms. I know Lindsay freaks out a little during earthquakes so I kept repeating "It's going to be okay" over and over. I think I freaked myself out doing that though because tears started running down MY face! I'm such a dork (or as I texted Claudia later, "fork")!

Saturday I ended up not going out for a run with the Diablo Valley run team, but instead ran with Lindsay, who was out with her walk team in Moraga. Well, we didn't RUN the whole time, there was some walking in there on the uphill sections, but I think we did a pretty good job! We ended up going a little over 5 miles, and managed not to pass out in the heat! While we were out there we also ran into Claudia and Amy who were on their last team run with the Tri team!

After the run I went home, showered, got some things prepped for Big Kahuna the next day, and then met up with Amy at 4:30 to go to see Dave Matthews!! This year Dave was playing at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley and it was all open seating, which means the first ones there get the best seats. We got there right when the gates opened, and even though we had to wait in a long line to get in, we still got seats with a really good view of the stage-- the Greek Theatre is small enough that most ALL the seats have a good view of the stage! Boy it was HOT on the stone benches though! The concert was fantastic, as usual, and even though I didn't know every single song they played, I thoroughly enjoyed each song. I even made a celebrity sighting... Peter Coyote!

My celeb sighting, Peter Coyote

By the time I got home from the concert and took a shower (so I wouldn't have to the next day) it was 12:30, and I had only 3 hours until I needed to get up to get ready to go down to Santa Cruz :( 3:30 my alarm went off, I got dressed, and then headed off to Claudia and Rocky's. We got down to Santa Cruz around 5:30 and headed down to the beach to find Phil and the rest of our cheering squad. We saw Phil coming down from the transition area, and then walked down to the swim start at the beach. At 7:05 Phil's wave took off and the race was ON!!!

After Phil got in the ocean, we ran over to the other side of the pier where the swimmers would be coming out of the water. It took him 45 minutes to swim the 1.2 miles and then he was off to the transition area to get ready for his 56 mile bike ride. We were able to walk up this little hill a block up from the beach and see him as he rode from the transition area. At that point he was looking really good! After seeing him, we knew we had about 3.5 hours until he'd be coming back so we went to the car to change in to some cooler clothes (it was only 8:00 and already getting really warm) and grabbed a bite to eat.

3 hours later we were back at the top of the hill waiting for Phil to come back. About 45 minutes later, and a few false alarms, we saw Phil coming down the street and he still looked like he was doing well! We ran across the street so we could cheer him on as he went out on the run portion of the race. Just a few minutes later we saw him running towards us. I was kind of worried about how he'd be feeling... it was HOT out there, with no cloud cover and he'd already done a long swim AND bike ride. If it were me, the LAST thing I'd feel like doing would be running a half marathon. But Phil didn't look like he felt the same way :) He was smiling, and running well as he went by us!

We knew the run would take him at least 3 hours, so to kill the time we walked down to the Boardwalk. We took a photo in the photo booth, had a corn dog and giant beer, rode on the Giant Dipper and then rounded out a day of bad eating with a chocolate dipped soft serve ice cream. Yummm :) By then it was time to head down to the finish line along the beach and wait for Phil to run in. It seemed like the ultimate insult to made these athletes run along the sand, dodging sunbathers and playing kids, for the last half mile! But when Phil came in, he STILL looked great! He had a smile on his face (and very good sign) and was still running :D Final clock time was 7 hours, 20 minutes (official chip time was 7 hours, 15 minutes)! After his grand finish, we all ran down to congratulate Phil and see how he was feeling. After talking with him, I'd never guess that he just finished a 7 hour plus Half Ironman... he looked and sounded better than I do after just a marathon!

Since it had been a pretty long day, after we talked with Phil for awhile, we headed back to the car and got back on the road. I finally got home around 4:30 or so, but after being up for 13 hours, with only 3 hours of sleep before that, I felt like it might as well be 10:00 pm. :( A shower and a nap did wonders although I still felt worn out from being in the sun all day!

CONGRATULATIONS PHIL!!