New Neighborhoods

Today I went on my first run in my new neighborhood. There is a great park nearby with hiking trails, so I thought I'd go check it out. I should preface this all by saying in my old neighborhood, it is mostly flat. There are some hills in the Presidio, but they tend to be of the long, slow climbing sort. In my new neighborhood, there are short and long steep hills everywhere. You can guess where this is going . . .

I set off through the neighborhood, only to be stopped by a friendly neighbor, Connie, who has lived here since 1974. She had LOTS of stories to tell. I chatted for about 15 minutes and then had to make a mad dash before she launched into another trip down memory lane. I make it to the park and find a nice, flat fire road. A nice half mile jog and then I start getting into single-track paths, then some very muddy spots with alot of poison oak. So I think I'll head to drier trails up higher in the canyon. Soon I am at the top with lovely views of the canyon and the neighborhood. I follow the trail up a bit more, thinking I would come out near the major road the loops around the canyon taking me back home. I pop out in what I later discover is called Diamond Heights. Amazing views of the Bay and downtown, even.

Being that I am training in peak week, I take on the hills running them at first, then jogging, then walking. Then just stopping for short bit. Unfortunately, my navigating kept leading to dead-ends at the tops of very steep hills. I tried to run them all, but after some lung coughing up, I try another approach to get home. I start following the cars, figuring they would at least get me to the main road. Several more steep hills later, I find myself near a police station. I was about to go in and ask them how to get home, but then luckily spot a bus stop. This would have been awesome news had I had my bus pass with me. Ah well. But it was at least good news, as there was a bus map! Despite all the hill running, I wasn't too far off base, actually. It was probably a 2 mile run back home, and my overall run was probably just 4.5 miles, but it felt like an eternity with all of those hills!

Ah San Francisco!