Nurse on the Run

This morning was a fabulous morning…I got to run again!!  Naturally one of the top things on my list of things to do while in San Francisco was to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, and this morning was the morning I got to cross that off the list!  I asked Alyssa and Sandra if either of them would honor me by being my tour guide, and although Sandra is now out of town, Alyssa volunteered!  She picked me up and we drove over to Chrissy Field, which is right by the base of the bridge…running from where I’m staying would have been ten-ish miles, which probably would have been a bit too ambitious to the first run back post-marathon!

It was a little breezy out, but the temperature was actually quite nice for running, and I was able to wear my Big Sur shirt…yay!  Matches my pink shorts.    We took it pretty easy and climbed the hill up to the bridge…before Big Sur I may have thought it was a big hill, but after those hills, I think my mind has been changed forever!  It was a relaxed run with lots of chatting about running (among other things!), and of course we stopped to snap a few pictures…Alyssa hasn’t lived here too long (less than a year!), so she still enjoys the views.  Check it out:

Before crossing.

I post such unattractive pictures of myself.

View from the bridge!

The bridge is HUGE.  I am not.

You can touch in the middle…with the city in the background!

There’s a nice lookout point on the other side which allows for more pretty pictures to be taken.  The area was overrun with Girl Scouts, who I think were doing their “bridging” (at least that’s what their shirts said), which I remember being something like graduating to the next step in Girl Scouts.  I remember doing it when I went from being a Daisy to a Brownie, but these girls were older than six years old sooo who knows.  We got one of the Girl Scouts to take our picture:

Yay SF bridges run!

We headed back over the bridge and down to Chrissy Field, where we spent a long, long time attempting to take jumping pictures.  I’ll spare you the eighty picture attempts, and many thanks to Alyssa for her solid efforts!

Post-run!

Cheeseball running picture.

Jumping picture.  

The best attempt some lady tried at getting us jumping…

More Girl Scouts showed up and then we had to explain to them how to jump as their leaders attempted to take a picture.  We didn’t stick around long enough to find out how many times if took them to get a good picture……if it was on the first try, we didn’t want to know about it!

Saturday, May 7
5.35 miles in 44:14, avg pace of 8:16

Not too shabby for my first run post-marathon!  My legs felt a little bit heavy, but not bad for being a week post-marathon.  Right now I’m definitely all about fun runs and building up a nice base for whatever may be next on the list.  It was a fabulous run and I’m so glad I had the company of a new runner friend from the opposite coast!

Alyssa took me to a beach on the way to grab some coffee…I’m still in awe because we don’t have things like this in Chicago or NYC!  San Francisco is so different from New York…and I can’t tell which I like better!

Beach!!  Even though it was cold.

Still pretty. 

After checking out the beach, we grabbed some coffee at a cute place by Alyssa’s apartment and chatted it up.  A nice run and some coffee sounds like a great way to kick off the morning!  I’m probably a bit too easy to please…

Giants game tonight, and a redeye flight back to NYC tomorrow night…this week is FLYING!