A week ago today I was running 13.1 miles along San Francisco Bay, over the Golden Gate Bridge and to Fisherman’s Wharf. I didn’t run as fast as I normally would, but the whole thing went by a lot faster than I remember other half marathons going because I had my friend Al at my side.
How did we prepare for our run? With pumpkin spice pancakes, nachos, pizza and cake — tools of the most hardcore athlete. How can you not indulge a bit when you’re in the best foodie city ever and you’re going to be burning 1300 calories in a single morning?
I’m so glad we started the weekend at Crepevine. It is a requirement to go there every time I’m in San Francisco and I always get the pumpkin spice pancakes. In fact, I think I have about three different pictures of pumpkin spice pancakes from Crepevine on my phone right now. The fact that Al doesn’t even like pancakes all that much and thought they might be the perfect pancake speaks to how awesome they are. Thick, fluffy and almost underdone in the center with just the right amount of pumpkin flavor and smooth, firm top. I have tried other things at Crepevine and every single thing has been fantastically delicious.
Al introduced me to Suzie Cakes the day before our race so we could purchase our celebratory cake. We ordered a slice of marble, a slice of vanilla celebration and a chocolate mint cupcake. We may have also wandered back to The Grove where we lunched on nachos so we could get a slice of their carrot cake as well. Suzie Cakes was good, but I still haven’t found a bakery outside of Publix that I crave. Although, I did get a little obsessed with the celebration cake, which was a funfetti cake with blue vanilla buttercream. I wish I’d taken a picture because it was about six layers of cake and icing that tasted like a sugar cookie. It gave you a toothache it was so sweet, but I found myself going back for another bite and another bite… The carrot cake from The Grove was decent, but I am a carrot cake snob, and I’ve had better.
The race itself was beautiful. It started by Crissy Field and then proceeded across the Golden Gate Bridge and back before finishing at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf. The views were amazing. You could see Alcatraz in the distance and San Francisco has one of the best skylines period. I was disappointed that they didn’t close a lane on the bridge and we had to run on the sidewalk, which made it pretty congested. I believe there were about 5,000 people running. There was a mix of pavement and gravel and it wasn’t nearly as hilly as I feared it would be; the elevations was totally manageable in my book, but I run in Georgia. Considering this was the 11th year of the race, I was surprised by how unorganized the water stations were and they appeared to run out of water at the finish line. But I will say the medal was cool, the t-shirt was cool and we got aluminum water bottles too!
How did we celebrate our finish? I know I mentioned the cake, but we didn’t have it at the finish line. The race finished on Fisherman’s Wharf so we walked to Boudin Bakery, which is a MUST for any foodie in SFO, especially the carb-loving kind. The smell of fresh baked bread is intoxicating because the giant bakery is always operating and you can watch all the bakers in action through windows. There is a little museum you can visit for $3 (or free if you eat at the restaurant) that I recommend for foodies and American history lovers. Both the café downstairs and the bistro upstairs have awesome food, though I will admit the clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl is a little disappointing. We grabbed (I kid you not) three different loaves of bread and snacked on that while riding the bus home. (Boo to you U.S. Half Marathon for not having any bagels or bananas at the finish, just cold egg and meat hand pies)
This is getting to be a marathon-sized post. And I don’t do marathons, so stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow.
Adventures of a Hungry Redhead 
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