San Francisco Airport Brisbane Run

San Francisco Airport - Brisbane, CA (I copy and paste my blog from my other blog www.fitfromfat.blogspot.com - the pictures don't come over, so sometimes I have to edit it to make sense....if you go to the other blog you will see all the photos.....)

I was going to run last night from my hotel on the San Francisco Bay in Brisbane across the peninsula and down to the beach at the Pacific Ocean. I started thinking about it being Friday night, and the higher likelihood of drunks driving and I decided instead to set my alarm and wake up early to do my run.

It is not always so easy getting up early and loosening up to go running....the bed beckons the body to obey and return to it's cozy embrace, but it has always been rewarding when I sever the ties of slumber and sieze the opportunity to start the day on my terms. Today was no different.....the sunrise in store for me was all the reward I needed. Before I got to sunrise, I ran down the railroad tracks for awhile...

Then I ran by a skate park with kids thrashing on their boards at 6am! I almost stopped to ask them why they were out so early, but my zentuition (I want to copyright that phrase right now!!!) told me they were having fun, and didn't need my fuddy duddy old butt poking in....

I was going up and up and up for a long time, although never too steep. I knew I could run outbound a little longer than halfway timewise, because coming back to the hotel would be primarily downhill.

Once I got close to the start of the San Bruno Mountain State Park, where I was hoping to get in time to run a mile or two on the trails, I saw a trail off to the side of the road that also seemed to lead to the state park, so I bushwhacked my way down to it and started out that way. I was real pleased with myself, escaping the concrete jungle and getting onto a dirt path early and was thinking how clever I was, while everyone else in San Francisco was out making noise and driving here and there, I was under the trees running on dirt. I felt so peacefully alone along this trail, and then I turn the next corner to see....

Apparently someone is living on this particular trail. I thought at first maybe it was abandoned, but there were too many signs of recent activity and the lines to the tent and everything were still taut, as if things were tended to somewhat. Whoever lived there wasn't there at the moment, so I just took a few photos and didn't linger. I never know WHAT the next turn is going to present to me when I running, that is for sure.

When I hit the actual trailhead at the start of the park, I chose the Summit Loop Trail and would see how close I could get to the top before time would force me to turn around and descend. The restraint I was working under was that I was supposed to be back at the hotel by 8am in case I get called out for flights. I had decided that I could run until 705am outbound and still have time to make it back, since I would be going more directly back, and also more downhill.

The trail at times gets very narrow and the plants along either side brush against my calves as I climb....at other times it widens out and is more free. It would switch back and back so that it never got overly steep, but it was always going up, up....At one point it went through a wooded area where it split off and was called the Eucalyptus loop, leading me to ponder whether the trees were Eucalyptus....there were no Koalas, so I can't say..

Near the top, I was rewarded with a beautiful view of downtown San Francisco. I was thinking about Bobby Bostic and wondering where he is down there. He is the guy that won the North Pole marathon contest and ran it earlier this month. If I get to stay here and get released early enough tonight, I am going to try to talk him into running a little with me.

I made it back to the hotel at 756am, and that included a detour into a donut shop to see if they had raisin bran muffins, which they didn't, so I went empty handed back to the hotel and got a breakfast of an egg white omelet with mushrooms and spinach, a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and a bowl of fruit!

I am going to post the first teaser here to an idea I had the other day. I read an article in WIRED magazine which is going to have me trying some whacky ideas to improve my performance on the longer runs, but which I think may have a significant impact on decreasing my fatigue after running 2-3 and more hours. I won't let on exactly yet what I am talking about, but those who run with me more than 3 hours will probably find out, and maybe help me test my ideas, and the real test will come this August 4th!