Long "Run"

Today I woke up to a chilly Saturday morning. My original thoughts of swimming went right out the window! The idea of swimming in a windy rooftop pool sounded terrible. On to plan B.

I decided to go for a long walk/run. Yes, still outside, but I could bundle up and be warm enough. During my past training days, Saturday mornings were our long runs. In non-marathon training weeks I would run an hour and half or an hour and 40 minutes. When training for a marathon a Saturday morning could involve a 3 hour run. Whew... it makes me tired even thinking about it now! Today I decided my walk/run would be one hour walking and 20 minutes run/walk. I headed out the front door, turned on my iPod and set out walking up Jackson Street. I live on the line between the Pacific Heights/Russian Hill areas of Jackson Street. During my walk I travel through Pacific Heights west into Presidio Heights. In Presidio Heights, the apartments go away and the large, single family houses pop up. Some of them are huge and many are simply beautiful. I dream about what it would be like to live in one of these houses. Along my walk, I had to laugh at one sight. I looked up into a tree and wondered, "What is that?" I still don't know the answer, but I call it Tree Art. Three arrows shot into a hanging sphere of stripped wood or bark. Interesting.

I started my run/walk intervals at the 30 minute mark. At 31 minutes Jackson Street dead ended into Arguello. I stopped, looked up the street at the Arguello Gate of The Presidio and for a few seconds tried to decide which way to go. I decided to run into The Presidio. Once I hit the dirt trails, I got so excited! Do you ever have those sudden, unexpected feelings of joy? That is how I felt when I was running up and down the hills and through the trees. I ran more of the 20 minutes than I walked for sure. It just felt good, mind and body. I stopped for a minute to take another picture. I love this area of the trail where it heads into an overgrowth of trees. Once I finished running through the Presidio I had a little run/walk time left. I wondered how far I was going to be off my planned workout time. How far off course did I run? I ran out through the Lombard Gate of The Presidio, then up Lyon Street. My plan was to walk east on Union Street, then up Van Ness to my apt on Jackson. I realized shortly before I reached Fillmore Street that today was the Union Street Fair. Picturing people stumbling out of the beer gardens, I changed my route to zig zag my way back. Up Broderick to Green, up Pierce to Vallejo, finally 3 blocks up Franklin to Jackson Street. Funny thing... right as I made it to my front door my watch read 1:20:00. Good timing. : )