Delayed posting – notes from 22 Oct 2008…

If San Francisco has one thing, it is wicked hills! This is the first time I was in San Fran as an active runner, and couldn’t wait to check out the sights. I still think there is no better way to see a place than to have it rolling by you at 7 miles per hour at ground level. I was psyched to get out. With busy days, I had to get up early which meant I was running in the dark, but the city was quiet and the weather was perfect.

My first destination was the winding hill on Lombard Street. I knew that was going to be a challenge, but I was ridiculously naïve to the challenges before and after. I planned out a route on Powell, Sacramento and Hyde that looked great on MapMyRun, but I was totally ignorant of the hills involved. I mean these hills are insane when you are running them. And my ignorance of the streets meant that after conquering a 2 block demon on one street, I would be rewarded by turning a corner to see another one looming.

Lombard was a bit gimmicky for running, but still fun. I came at it from the top and did the downhill, but turned around at the bottom and did a round of repeats just to say I did it! The most treacherous part was just watching out for the running water from early morning sprinklers. And little did I know what I was in for on Jones street at the bottom – a completely crazy 3 block scramble uphill. A real thigh burner, but I pulled it off. I came back through Chinatown, which fostered pleasant memories of Shanghai.

In the end I did just under 4 miles, but learned that you cannot count miles in this town! It’s all about time and elevation. Was debating whether to go out in Vibrams this morning, and glad I didn’t as I am still in ramp up with them. Coit Tower tomorrow.

I had the chance to hear Alberto Salazar speak today, and he was great.  He had some great stories about the heydays of American distance running (at least on the world stage) during the 80s.  He also talked about his terrifying, but incredibly fortunate in terms of outcome, experience with sudden cardiac arrest.

His comments around the current dominance of Kenyan runners are what really stuck with me.  He said that it will likely be decades before the US competes with Kenya in a meaningful way in distance events, and that’s largely a numbers game.  He cited the common anecdote that so many Kenyans spend their youth running to and from school that they have years of training in the bank when they reach a serious training age.  He shared a stat that by age 18 the average Kenyan schoolchild has run around 30,000 miles more than the average 18 year old runner in the US.  He has visited Kenyan training camps where 300 runners are doing 200 miles a week each.  At the Nike camp in Oregon, they have something like 12 runners doing that.  So his current assessment is that we just need to do the best we can with the few that have the greatest potential.

He also said the best thing we can do to help the US compete with Kenya in the short term is send them buses!