Climbs and Crossings

The Course: Just keep turning right until 2014.   I ran 41 laps for 43.7 miles in 12 hours. I made 164 right turns. I saw at least twice that many people taking selfies with the Golden Gate Bridge.  I made two mistakes.  The recap: Lap 1. Hour Zero - High Noon - The Start - Current Mood On Top Of The World - The grin spread across my face as the group of us, everyone with their hands on their watches, waited for Wendell to count us down to the start. "Norphel came out yesterday and ran the course, so he knows where he's going...follow him." And then we were off, "Have fun out there" . I had never faced a start line like this one. There was no finish line in front of me, only time. Lots and lots of time.  I didn't realize it was possible for Runner's High to kick in three seconds into a run but WOOOO-WEEE! The earbuds went in, the music went on, and everything was beautiful...the air, the sun, the bay, the bridge.....

Waking up in San Francisco this morning proved to be the best way to tackle my 12 mile scheduled training run. The weather was clear, sunny, warm, zero wind, and zero fog. A perfect San Francisco day. I took off in the general direction of the bridge from near Fisherman's Wharf. After a few hills, and working my way to higher ground, this was my first glimpse of the bridge...the teeny tiny red thing out there. It was at this point, lots of other runners started appearing, seemingly headed somewhere, so I followed. The land opened up, I was closer to the water, and apparently on the right path. A paved path ran right along a narrow beach where TONS of people were out with their dogs, running, romping, frolicking in the sand and the water. Staying on this path, the bridge was getting larger and larger in front of me. I ended up directly underneath the bridge, in a parking lot at Fort Point, at a dead end. I stopped in the middle of the parking lot to survey the scene, wondering ...