The post about The San Francisco 2nd Half Marathon is finished, but I thought I’d also throw in a post about the trip home.
After the race was over, I picked up my chocolate milk and a banana, and walked back to the Greyhound bus station. There was a bus leaving in about 20 minutes (and not another one for about 4 hours), so I wanted to jump on this next one!
I got to the bus station, and went straight on a bus. Surprisingly (and wonderfully) it wasn’t all that crowded. I got the whole little two-seater row all to myself. P-pow. I fell asleep the moment we started moving. I woke up about an hour and a half later, and I realized that it maybe wasn’t the smartest idea to walk straight from a finish line of a race to a bus where I’d sit for the next 8 or so hours. I was woefully under-prepared. (I feel as though that’s a theme in many of the stories I tell. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to think ahead. Maybe)
I started to feel like Elaine in that Seinfeld episode where she gets stuck on the train. As I looked out the window of the bus, thinking about how cranky, cramped, and crazy hungry I get on those long bus rides – I saw a sign for an exit that had a Carl’s Jr. I thought about how amazing it would be if we could just pull off at that exit.
I am so hungry! And I have to use the bathroom. (And I don’t want to go to the one on this bus!) (And I want to stretch in a bigger area than my seat or the aisle. I want so many things!) Wah, wah, wah.
The bus started getting off at the exit. “Are we honestly getting off an an exit? Are we stopping? What’s happening? Please, please, please be stopping at Carl’s Jr.,” I screamed in my head. We started to turn in that direction. Sure enough, the bus parked for a 30-minute break! I’m gonna go ahead and say that I willed it happen.
I then proceeded to order every single thing on the Carl’s Jr. menu. That’s an exaggeration. But I did get some chili cheese fries. I’d been craving them forever, and they’re the most delicious thing in all of California. (Sorry, New Yorkers! That’s one thing we’ve got that you don’t! Bam!)
I stretched out in the enormous parking lot, used the restroom (not in the parking lot), got some amazing food (and tons of water, plus some snacks from the gas station in case I got hungry later). I got back on the bus and settled in. I was full, content, and prepared for the ride. Good times.