San Francisco is know for its hills and stairs.

And, as a wannabe ultrarunner, lo and behold, I need to run lots of both.  Plus, I am anxious to learn this city as well as I knew NYC (it’s developing into a bit of a complex, we have only been here 3 months, and I find myself getting annoyed at myself when I don’t know my way around!).  It frustrates me that I still feel like such a newbie.  And, one of the quickest ways to get a feel for a new city is to run around it.  These hills and stairs are everywhere, and lots of them are in sections I wouldn’t normally check out, unless I had an excuse to go run over there in the morning!

Ergo I am toying with the idea to attempt to run EVERY SINGLE HILL and EVERY SINGLE STAIRCASE in San Francisco.  I’m not sure how big of a project I want to make this.  I’ve done some research, and I think I’ve found them all.  My records have 88 hills (highest: Mt. Davidson @ 925 ft, lowest: Alice Griffen/Double Rock Housing Hill @ 75 ft) and 98 staircases (longest: Vulcan @ two blocks, shortest: Duboce Ave steps).

During this same burst of research I also found 68 parks, which I could also run to and explore.  So that would be 88 hills, 98 stairs and 68 parks.

Sooo….. while I’m fleshing it out, here are some things to think about:

  • Scope: how big of a project do I want to make this?  Start going down the list and religiously check them all off?  Or, just try and hit a new one every so often, but not be obsessive about it?  Do I need to go in an order (highest to lowest? longest to shortest?) or just do them as they fit into my daily milage?  Can I do more than one per run- say, hit off a few staircases AND a hill all in the same run?  Or 1 hill, 1 park and 1 stairway per run?  Each have it’s own individual run?  Hmm….
  • Documentation: Just make a note of it in my journal, or write about it here when I check off a new one, or make up some crazy chart to check them all off in, take photos of the whole ordeal as I go, or what.  Also, I’ve already done a bunch of these (Buena Vista Hill I do every day with the dog, and Vulcan and Saturn staircases I’ve already run), so do those count?
  • Safety: couple concerns here.  I could get lost (probably- not a big deal) and also end up in an undesirable location or even unsafe place (unlikely- is anywhere in SF actually unsafe around, say 7:00am when I would normally be running?)  Would make a point not to be doing this at 2 in the morning, here :)
  • Parks: should I include the parks?  Or not include the parks.  Really, I just need to be running hills and stairs for my workout specs, but if I was going near a park anyways, it might be neat to check them out.
  • Something else Random: Hey, why not.  While I’m even considering this I might as well add in the two steepest streets to my running agenda.  That would be 22nd between Church and Vicksburg and Filbert between Hyde and Leavenworth (both tied at a 31.5% grade).

Okay, well… after a bit of contemplation, I think I am going to go for it.  But, in a… semi-casual manner.  So try and restrain full-blown psychoticness of this endeavor and just try and get them done when I can, but not go crazy about it.  I’ll post here as I check them off and also check them down in my master list in my journal.  I don’t think I’ll be documenting with photos because these are generally faster weekday morning runs (on the long weekend trail runs is when I have time and the slower pace to really dink around with my camera), and don’t really want the distraction.

Then it’s official.  I will be running 88 hills, 68 parks and 98 stairs (give or take, particularly if I discover any new ones)!  I’ll give myself… hmm… a year and re-evaluate?  Should be able to get them all done in a year, but I don’t want to be crazy rushed about this, either.  Let’s put a two year deadline on it.  That takes some time out for weekends and also gives a little wiggle room for travel, etc.  So within two years, I should know the freaking city pretty darn well- at least on foot!