After America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride in June, Liz asked if Phuong and I wanted to sign up for the Diplo 5k run in SF. I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, so Liz signed herself and Phuong up while I was "deciding".
In the meantime, Huy (Phuong's husband, who recruited me to AMBBR) asked if I would be interested in the Foxy's Fall 50k "fun ride" in Davis. He said Phuong was going to do it as her first organized ride and that it was a completely flat ride with almost no elevation. I said yes and signed up to ride with her.
THEN, Liz decided to go to Asia during the Diplo run and Phuong told me that both events were on the same weekend. She was only going to do the ride because she wasn't going to do both, which made sense to me and made me grateful that I didn't sign up for the run!
But THEN, a couple of Phuong's other friends signed up for the Diplo run and I somehow got talked into taking Liz's registration with the promise of a slow bike ride, walking the run, and dancing at the Diplo party... I did want to dance. :)
When the weekend came, Phuong and I found a good pace on the bike ride. It was flat and easy, and not very eventful until we got to the last turn toward the halfway point rest stop. A guy in front of us had stopped to wait for his friend who'd missed the turn and, as I passed him, I noticed that he was bleeding from his face. He had a major nose bleed! I said, "Dude, you're really bleeding." He sort of side looked at me and aggressively said, "I KNOW!!" I recognized him right away. It was Geoff who was on the boat with me at Lake Powell in 2018 and who I had just seen the weekend before with that same group of friends.
"Geoff, you're really bleeding"
"WHAT! I KNOW!"
"Geoff!"
"Yeah, I KNOW I'M BLEEDING!"
"GEOFF! IT'S KRISTEN!"
*Pause, and actual moment of recognition*
"Oh, hey... oh, uh, Annabelle, this is Kristen."
I smiled, shook my head, and started to ride away as I said, "Hi Annabelle. This is my friend, Phuong." Phuong was like, "Hiii... (and to me) how did you meet someone that fast?!"
The rest of the ride was great, we finished strong, had some lunch and some ice cream with Huy (who was on a much longer version of the ride), and headed back to the Bay to get ready to get up early the next day for the "run".
As promised, Phuong and I walked the run, which was the right choice and totally doable. The weather was perfect, and the route went right through a bunch of art on the Big Art Loop in Golden Gate Park, which included Naga, a 100-foot-long, 25-foot-tall sea serpent sculpture! I love art.
After we finished the 5k, we were standing in the GA section of the party with Phuong's other friends and a random guy walked up and said, "Hey ladies, would you like a free upgrade to VIP?"
YES!
What a fortunate way to end these back to back events, and just in time to dance! We accepted the generous wristbands and scooted into VIP just as Diplo took the stage and started to spin. :)
