fog |

Life is a roller coaster ride
Time turns the wheel and love collides
Faith is believing you can close your eyes and touch the sky
So shine while you have the chance to shine
Laugh even when you want to cry
Hold on tight to what you feel inside and ride

– Lyrics to “The Ride” by Martina McBride

Kicking off a New Season in San Francisco

Today is officially the last day of summer and the first day of Fall. A beautiful time for me and a wonderful time in San Francisco. I believe if Mark Twain had stayed for the Fall, his famous quote would have read, “The coldest Winter I ever spent was the Summer I spent in San Francisco, but the warmth of its Fall Sunny Days and Foggy nights give the city it’s charm the makes it so beautiful.”

This is now the time to enjoy its 40 hills, its 49 square mile (some say its officially47) and some of its over 3000 wonderful restaurants. Tourists are gone, the weather is at its best, and if you want to venture up to the Napa wine country, it is time to see the Fall crush of the grapes which many say is the best time to visit.

Someone asked me recently, “What is with the midnight runs?” They really aren’t at midnight, but I have to admit they are later than most people run. They are also somewhat of a sore point with my wife as she doesn’t like my running in dark clothes with no identification on me. The truth of the matter is that while I am running sparsely populated streets at night, I do run a pretty regular route, I run on sidewalks and even some of the parking valets around know my schedule well enough to tell me if I’m running late, early or slow. Last night I was even able to tell the valets at Spruce Restaurant the score of the late night ESPN game.

Running the streets of San Francisco is where I do my best thinking. Sometimes those nagging issues you’ve been dealing with for days or weeks just somehow find a solution at mile #2 when you’ve got that lactic acid building in your leg, but you stretch it out running up the steep incline on Upper Fillmore imagining you are Rocky only to find Gino’s liquor store and the last patrons of Jackson Fillmore coming out of the trattoria with sated appetites instead of a big statue at the top of the stairs overlooking Philadelphia.

It is my favorite time to run in San Franciso. The end of summer in San Francisco usually means our hottest days are coming. It means nights filled with low lying wispy fog that drenches your face during your runs. It also means those deep fog horns blaring throughout the night. During the day the fog blows out to sea and the days are filled with 80 degree weather. My dad used to call this fog, San Francisco’s natural air conditioner. It is so refreshing and almost is like our Spring in many ways. In fact with baseball season ending and football season beginning, it is like a whole new season, especially in San Francisco, home of the 5 time champion 49ers. Growing up going to games with my dad it was the time of hope and new beginnings. To me it still is that way. Now it’s with my own son.

Running the streets of San Francisco, with foghorns blaring I just smile to myself thinking about the great time I had at the ballpark with my son earlier in the day, introducing him to the people who have sat around us in the same seats for 30 years. The same people who gave me cookies and milk when I was his age now give them to my son. My son has no clue how he’s just living my life from 30 years ago. Cheering on the 49ers, high fiving strangers after a great play and eating terrible food that give you a stomach ache when you get home. It’s a cyclical pattern in life and yet it is a new beginning.

I can look back 30 years, but these days while I celebrate a year since my wife’s breast cancer surgery, I also look back a year when I was playing nurse to my recovering wife. It still isn’t over with her pending surgery coming. This will again hopefully be the last surgery for a while. This is one cycle I don’t want to have repeat itself. A year can make a huge difference both good and bad. There is no doubt in my mind that my wife and I are stronger than we were before.

So back to my running, I’m not an extremely spiritual person as I’ll go to church for special occasions, but running has been my place of worship and my confessional. Each run is my own search for the truth. I don’t run with others, justw ith my thoughts. It is where I ask myself if I truly believe. It is where I push myself and question my actions and where I look for the answer to many of life’s questions. It is my solitude that allow me to begin a new day every day with renewed energy. There is a running commercial where the person has to get through that first mile before they reach that special runner’s place. Yes, that the runner’s high. It is true for me like many. I feel better after an exhausting run that before I left. San Francisco has a part in that. It is that friend that is with me on every run. Its streets are the paths in life that I go over time and again. Yes Fall is here in San Francisco and my motivation is higher than ever.

San Francisco is the longest lasting love affair of my life. Her beauty inspires me anew each day and I am very thankful to be able to live here on the edge of the continent in what I feel is the heart of the world. ~Nicole ,sfheart.com

The last couple of weeks have been a bit nutty from me. I think it all started with my annual check -up ( I got a clean bill of health by the way) but as soon as it was over, I got sick. I had a rash, a hacking cough, a fever….no it wasn’t “swine flu” although I had just taken a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco where I was about the only person not returning from Spring Break in Mexico. In the end I think it was just the winding down from all the stress of making sure that I was healthy for my check-up that my body just relaxed and broke down. The stress had been hitting me hard and now it was just taking over my body in its weakened state.

Today, after two weeks, I felt like something came over me. I wasn’t sure. My wife went in for her 5 month appt for her study and was given the approval for more medication to lessen some of the side effects. A relief for her too I guess. She still wants to revisit her physician and see if he can make a few more corrections. These days, these decisions I leave to her. She wants to remove me from the clinical aspects of our marriage. In her view it is like my not telling her what hue of lipstick or what pair of shoes to wear. We then proceeded to make summer plans and take care of the millions of little things that have been bothering us. The Comcast cable issue, summer camps for kids, and all those little things we’ve been meaning to coordinate around the house, but just haven’t asked each other to help.

Then despite working late, skipping lunch, having a late dinner, and barely getting home in time to tuck my kids into bed, I had that burst of energy. I still have been coughing and I just knew I had to get out and run. I needed to have a healing run. In fact I had a major coughing fit just as I put on my shoes. I was dreading this run. While recuperating from this cold I joked with my wife that we really were getting old. I now had more medications on my bathroom counter than I can remember ever having. I joked with my wife that i need one of those daily pill boxes that my mom has.

It was a beautiful foggy night that San Francisco is so well known for. The damp mist on my face was so refreshing. I ran further than I had on any run this year and I set personal bests this year for the mile, 3k and 5k distances. It was truly amazing that despite my sickened state that my body could perform so well. It had to be that home-cooked weather. The damp streets from the fog, along with the blurry street lights created a dreamlike feel as I ran up and down the hills. It felt so good and all my thoughts raced in and out of my head. By the time I completed my circle back home I could have gone longer but it was already midnight. I felt stronger at the end of the run that I did at the beginning. My cough is suddenly gone and I don’t feel any shortness of breath.

It is amazing how much I needed this run. Not just for the energy, but mostly for my mindset. I think the San Francisco weather is like that comfort food for me. It’s healing effects on this native son are like my fountain of youth! I felt like Tony Bennett was singing to me as I glided through the streets, window shopping and gathering in the view of the fingers of fog as they reached under the Golden Gate Bridge and curled their way across the bay. It was like a lullaby that your mom sings to you when you can’t sleep. Sometimes it is the power of the soul to heal. The power of the mind helps rejuvenate your passion and your spirit. Those comfortable surroundings which lessen our worries are better than all the medicines that can be prescribed.

Speaking of sleep, I better get some. Long day tomorrow.

Tag Archives: fog

Foghorns, 49ers, and Fall

Out of the Fog