Exactly two months to the day after running
The San Francisco Marathon, I found myself again in the Bay Area for a one-night-only visit before heading back to home base. Earlier in the week, I had attended an alumni leaders' conference on the invitation of my
alma mater in
Bike City USA, timed to coincide with a major public announcement of a
historic campaign.
Eager to re-experience the exhilaration felt while running the TSFM 2010 and again soak-in the sights of this beautiful and favorite city by the bay, I donned my running shoes and re-traced the first 11 kilometers of the TSFM route - from the Ferry Terminal Building in The Embarcadero to the Golden Gate Bridge, but with a slight variation.
This time, I was going to follow the running trail that coasts along the city's shoreline and lead directly to the underbelly of the bridge, affording runners with the diversity of not having to run all the time on asphalt while providing them with new and different perspective of the city's many picturesque landmarks as viewed from a different angle.
Take the San Francisco skyline, for example, and better still, the young lady in between the camera and the skyline.... Even the old and jaded can only wonder in total awe and amazement at the extent the adventurous would be willing to go just to have a one-of-a-kind profile pic with the bridge on their FB walls! Fall off that ledge and the icy waters of the bay awaits :-)
And then there were the other sights I missed while running the marathon last July - the Ghiradelli chocolate factory for one. But this run also allowed me to re-experience what had become all-too-familiar...such as again traversing and climbing a few of those killer hills that slow down all runners and give rise to the TSFM's reputation
as
the race even marathoners fear!
As this run was actually a planned 26-kilometer long run in preparation for an upcoming fifth marathon for the year, I did a U-turn at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge and ran the same route for another 11 kilometers, arriving at the other landmark bridge of the city - the Bay Bridge - by dusk. I had driven over this bridge many times before but it would only be my second time running beneath it.
And I would have been remiss if I did not run just another five kilometers more to visit the preparations at and circle the AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, an underdog team whose National League-title clinching playoff game against the Phillies I had witnessed just a few days earlier and who were about to play the first game of the 2010 World Series in two days.
As I blog this, the Giants had just lost Game 3 to the Rangers 4-2 but are still leading The Series 2-1. They only have to play 50:50 baseball to clinch what has eluded San Francisco so far - a World Series Championship. But, as in life, crazy things can happen in baseball.
Like the Giants, time and again, I have kept returning to San Francisco. For the Giants, though, I just wish that they now return from Texas in a few days with new rings on their fingers!
By then my favorite city would forever be grateful. Go, go, Giants!
0 comments:
Post a Comment