What the Hill

The good thing about doing the San Francisco version of the 2-Day Walk versus the Los Angeles version is the weather...it is much cooler in July in SF compared to September in LA (we have likely all heard the droll comment, wrongly attributed to Mark Twain, "the coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco"). The not-as-good thing about the SF versus LA walk is the severity of the hills - and there are a good number of them - on the San Francisco course.

There are a few areas that are pretty steep, kick-you-in-the-backside in terms of incline, and I must report that Holly did a nice job of powering up them. After all, you might recall the fine boot camp session that I put her through the weekend of July 4th! There were few comments and no complaints as we came to each new section of hill, leaned into it, and powered up it...until Potrero.

The Potrero neighborhood is actually some old stomping grounds for me back when I worked for the Big Blender (Jamba) and their offices were in San Francisco. There were a couple of hills that originated down in front of our office and then went straight up for about 5 blocks...I got my share of nostalgia for the morning as we stared straight up Kansas Street, just 2 blocks over from where the old office used to be.

You could hear the collective groans through the walkers as everyone recognized that this was a steep run. I trotted back and forth between our group, providing incessant chatter to anyone who needed it to get up the hill. Barb was in a zone, Sally enjoyed it and Holly didn't answer. When I poked a little bit, I got a very short answer, "I'm irritated right now!" Got it. Sally and I walked up together and did not provoke the Schnoogs any further.

When we got to the top, Holly had a moment where she just had to have a quick cry and get it all out. It was a long and difficult 5 blocks on the 2nd day of a long and challenging walk, she was admittedly done with the whole thing but then felt badly that she was done. Everything was okey-doke, once she got everything out.

I have to admit that Barb was far more comforting to Holly in that precise moment than I was, thank goodness for Barb!!