I've finally done it. I've finally taken advantage of the opportunity to run across the Golden Gate bridge and head up into the Marin Headlands, and it was fantastic!!!

I've had opportunities before but they were always quashed by bad weather or the foot path across the bridge being closed for some event or another. Today the weather was great but the foot path was closed (for the Presidio 10 which I wasn't going to enter as it's redonculously expensive and I wouldn't have been able to hit the Headlands then)… but I came prepared as I knew this already. I did my research before hand and discovered they put on a shuttle bus to cross the bridge when such events are on. I discovered this morning they're mostly used by cyclists and today was no exception… I was the only sweaty body in the van that wasn't a cyclist. It wasn't for long and all the cyclists got in so I wasn't stealing a seat.

I ran from my AirBnB, through part of Golden Gate park, along the edge of the Presidio, up to the Golden Gate Welcome Centre before squeezing into the van for the short hop across the bridge and then headed for the hills, and boy were they hills. I literally covered every meter between sea level - I even got my toes wet - all the way up to just short of 250m above sea level and saw all the sights along the way and once I'd finished having fun in the hills and on the trails I ran across the bridge and all the way back to my AirBnB. I didn't see any of the coyotes I was warned about though I did see deer.

Look What I Saw

The Painted Ladies Me & the Golden Gate Bridge from up high Golden Gate bridge from even higher Steep descent down to the Point Bonita Lighthouse Deer Sea side veg Down at sea level The trail back to SF Woodlands in the Presidio Beware of coyotes Golden Gate Bridge side-on A big strut

Check Out the Hills

Check out that elevation profile

I didn't worry about HR too much on this run as I knew this would be a challenging run and that it would be stop-start for photo ops but I did try to keep things a little contained… after all I was planning on running nearly 40k on an empty stomach without carrying any water. This worked really well, though I took the opportunity to grab a few mouthfuls of water at Vista Point before heading back over the bridge.

Where Did I Go?

Here's the route I took for those interested…

All in all, a great morning out. I've done the one and only thing I wanted and "needed" to do today. Think I'll go chill like a San Franciscan, though I won't be doing the whole Sunday queuing for brunch thing.