Running in San Francisco

In the past couple months I have been doing a lot of running in San Francisco.

Embarcadero : Ferry Plaza, Pier 39, Fort Mason

This weekend I spent time following Embarcadero from Pier 14 to Fort Mason. It’s basically 5 miles round trip. I like it the most because of the people and activities in that area. After my run I stopped at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market to eat lunch and to buy a few things for dinner.

The local crafts market is setup right across the street and is great to browse through if you have time. If you’re not there to run, you’ll find plenty to do. It’s a good people watching spot and if you need a nice place to read I definitely suggest one of the cafe’s in the plaza or the park beside the crafts market.

Market : Hayes Valley, Castro

The very first area I started running was Hayes Valley to Castro Valley. It’s a technical run given all of the car, dog and people dodging you have to do on this 4 mile run. You’ll also be looking at several hills as well. This is basically a Market Street run.

Hayes Valley is a great district. Tons of shopping, eats and in the evening you can catch a theatre performance from your choice of venues. The Orpheum, Herbst Theatre and War Memorial Opera House are all very close by. The SF symphony performs at the Davies Hall.

On Market there are plenty of great restaurants and shops. Cafe Du Nord is a good independent music venue. A lot of great talent (even local) flows through here. Not found on this route but The Independent off of Divisadero (cross street : Hayes) is another great place for live music.

Great Highway : South Beach, Golden Gate Park

This is a straight shot. The hardest decision you’ll have to make is deciding the distance you want to run. I have run this several times and this past weekend was the warmest yet. You’ll enjoy the cool ocean breeze (on a warm day) and the view is wonderful.

I like this run for the view and the option of turning into Golden Gate Park to add flavor to your run. This is best run in the mornings. The wind kicks up in the afternoon. Depending on your distance you can reach the San Francisco Zoo and feed the penguins if you’d like.

For food I usually dine at the Cliff House (dinner) or Louie’s Diner (breakfast) back up on the hill.

Crissy Field : Presidio, Marina

On Wednesday 15 of us from eBay ran this 3.5 mile course in the JPMorgan Corporate Challenge. I have mixed feelings about this run. I did a trial last weekend and the weather was pretty nice. It’s probably a matter of picking your weather conditions based on the time of day you run. When we did this run at 6:45 in the evening it was very grueling for a 3.5.

I will definitely do it again. I may switch it up and start from Fort Mason and leave out the Crissy Field loop. The one part I am excited about is doing a bridge to bridge run at some point. Starting at the Bay Bridge and ending at the Golden Gate Bridge would be a lot of fun. It’s about 6 miles each way so it’s definitely a graduated run.

Next…

The Half Marathon across the Golden Gate is coming up on November 11th. I will be running trials there and I will also be headed to new areas in SF. Next weekend I will be running in SOMA and Giants Stadium area. I may head back to Embarcadero as well since I like it so much.

Image source: Yahoo Maps

rob.