The G Running Diary

A Beautiful Day: 12/15/04

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Maybe it's just running slowly that makes things go better. Or the weather. Or the venue. As it was, the Hunter S. Thompson Fear & Loathing in SF turned out perfectly. Don and I talked about doing some food shopping during the run, because we'd visited the Ferry Building farmer's market previously and knew we had to go through there on the run. Then Don had the great idea that if we started early on the run, we'd have enough time to shop without rushing. Although getting up at 4:30 am is not very appealing, the idea of having an extra hour for the run won me over.

It was dark, cold, and foggy at the top of Twin Peaks where we started. We were the only ones there at 6 am. So, we set off wearing three layers each, and wondered if we could find our way off the hill. We made it down, and immediately realized we didn't need all those clothes. We stopped to adjust.

The City was coming to life, and I noticed homeless people sleeping in doorways and out on the curb. Don was already taking lots of pictures. The first part of the run was all downhill, so it was great to have an easy warmup. The first pitstop was a park on Dolores. I remembered it from last year. Then on Caesar-Chavez, I waved to the street that goes up to my sister's house, and we crossed under the freeway to the next section. We turned up 3rd Street where construction was going on to put in light rail. At one point half the road was completely dug up. We looked over to the water and saw ships, including a giant cruise ship. Then we were suddenly on the waterfront. The day was now beautiful. Any fog that was around earlier had moved offshore. The run was going by pretty quickly. We could see the Ferry Building up ahead, time for our shopping stop. At this point, a couple fast guys caught up with us and asked where the aid station was. I pointed at the farmer's market--what more could you want? They were not amused, and not interested in stopping.

I definitely wanted some form of lavender, and ended up getting a great smelling sachet. Then we went to get tamales, vegetarian and vegan versions, and home made tortillas. Those were solid and very heavy. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad that we could only buy what we could carry. I wanted to get some of everything! Finally, we were out front of the building and other runners started to come by. We were buying spices because they were easy to carry. Wendell came by too, which was good. He was crewing for Sarah and had said he would take our shopping packs for us.