Trina's page of Blogginess: Today's 16-mile Training Walk

a.k.a. "Trina and Three Lindas", or "The greatest surprise at 6:30am!"

today's route

Wowee!! 16 miles today, plus 20 miles from yesterday = 36 miles for the weekend. Awesome!

What a special day it was.

Our Warming Hut Hotties who are participating in the SF Susan G. Komen 3Day in early September had their 20-mile training walk to Tiburon today.

The rest of us, who are walking in the Immediate Impact Breast Cancer Walk at the end of September walked 16-miles in San Francisco today.

Unfortunately, due to various injuries (and lots of them), illness, vacation, and life in general, several people weren't able to make it today. Only 5 Hotties were able to make it to the walk today, but what a mighty 5 we were! We were Sandy, Linda I, Linda E, Linda G and me. Yep, 5 walkers, and 3 of them named Linda. That's not confusing at all! Sandy had to leave us at the Conservatory of Flowers (Mile 14.5) so it was down to Trina and Three Lindas, which I decided should be the name of our band. :)

The best part of the day was a glorious surprise who arrived at 6:30am this morning: Lizelle came all the way from Fairfield to help us out with route support!! :)!!
Lizelle is a Warming Hut Hottie who has walked for the past 3 years, but is traveling way too much for work this year to be able to join us. She's a busy lady! She flew in from a business trip on the East Coast yesterday afternoon, and spent the rest of the day shopping at Trader Joes and Costco to buy food for us today. AND she drove over an hour from Fairfield and arrived at 6:30am to meet us this morning. She had asked Marcia and Linda not to tell me that she was coming so that she could surprise me. I haven't seen her in several months, and I had been missing her so much. Thank you, Lizelle, for the route support, but most of all, for being the wonderful human being that you are. xoxo

The route we walked today was similar to one that we did about month ago - a really great walk, filled with great and challenging trails and some hills. We walked through the Presidio, through the Richmond District, through Golden Gate Park (where we could hear what we assumed were early music checks for "Outside Lands"), into the Sunset, with a quick break at the UCSF Student Union.

We walked onto Stanyon, where there's a small set of wooden stairs that go up and turn into the Historic Trail. SO COOL! If you've never been, you should check it out. What a magical spot in the middle of San Francisco!

We walked amongst the tree, and sloshed through mud for length of the Historic Trail, which followed around Mt. Sutro. We came out around Clarendon, onto Laguna Honda, and eventually to our lunch break at Mollie Stones Market on Portola.

After feasting on all of the delectable treats that Lizelle had brought, we went back onto Portola, down a small path that led to Turquoise Way. There's another tucked away trail at 52 Turqoise which leads to the another fantastic trail/canyon tucked away in Glen Park.

We walked around Glen Park, and made our way to Noe Valley where we had our next rest stop at the Whole Foods market on 24th Street. We walked UP Noe STreet, into Duboce Park, onto Scott, to Fell, and into the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. We went into the park, and had our last stop at the Conservatory of Flowers.

From the Conservatory of Flowers, we walked through the park a bit more, onto Arguella which went back into the Presidio.

After the walk, Lizelle and I had a great time catching up over a Grilled Cheese sandwich and a couple scoops of ice cream at the Ice Cream Bar on Cole Street. This is becoming a very dangerous habit of mine after completing 16-mile training walks.

Lizelle!! The best surprise at 6:30am!!!

a pretty Library on 9th Ave

funny fliers we saw posted everywhere around 9th and Irving

a neat sculpture in front of the library at UCSF

the entrance to the Historic Trail

Lizelle's amazing stash of food that she brought to feed all of us throughout our 16-mile day! (yes, there were plenty of leftovers. We were plenty hungry, but she brought so much food for the five of us!