Today's 16.8 mile training walk

I had another great training walk with the Warming Hut Hotties today!

We usually don't know the route for the day until that morning when we all arrive.

However, Thursday afternoon, Hottie Linda (fearless leader of the Hotties) posted the following status on her Facebook page:

Planning a wicked hard 16 mile training walk for Saturday: Lyon Street Stairs, thru GG Park, uphill behind UCSF Parnassus, around Twin Peaks, Vulcan Street stairs, back to the Presidio and down to the Warming Hut.

It sounded uber-cool - lots of great stairs, lots of steep hills, 16 miles!
But wait minute... aren't we supposed to be "winding down" before the big event in two weeks? ;)

Well, the walk was great, but boy, it was quite a walk!

First of all, the weather was totally wacky today. It was overcast, foggy, dark, and surprisingly warm and muggy! It wasn't hot by any means, but we're not used to humidity or mugginess here. I think I took my jacket off within the first 30 minutes.

It was also wet. The fog/drizzle made for the wettest training walk that I've had yet. By the time we got to the half-way point, I realized I looked like a drowned-rat (as my Mom would say). Really not attractive.


Today's Route


Today's Stats

Did I mention all the stairs and hills? I laughed when I saw that the fourth line of our directions was to "Turn Right onto Lyon, go up the stairs!"

The Lyon Street Stairs are very pretty, plentiful, and very steep! It was quite the way to start the day.


The first section of the Lion Street Stairs
Thanks to Graham Godfrey for the photo - mine didn't turn out well

We walked through the Presidio, through Golden Gate Park (passing the De Young, CA Academy of Sciences and the Japanese Tea Garden), onto Judah and Parnassus. (Which, yes, is another hill)

We had a quick break, then went up the stairs up Medical Center Way, onto Laguna Honda.

After another break at Tower Market on Portola Drive, we walked down Portola, onto Ord, and UP the Vulcan Stairs!


San Francisco Skyline from Portola Drive

We walked up and over 17th Street, down to Stanyan, back into the Presidio, and eventually back to the Warming Hut.

Linda had noticed early on how many of the Hotties had on Pink today, so she put everyone in order of shade of pink and I took this cute picture. :)


Pink Hotties!

Tomorrow, we have a 12-mile training walk, another 10-mile next Saturday, a Sunday to rest, then the big event starts on Friday, October 1st!