The Path of Development

Mileage
Today: 5
Present: 458
Count: 68

Sometimes, Mother Nature bails you out. My Mt. Diablo dilemma resolved itself when the mountain caught fire. A curse for most, a blessing for me: Race day delayed. And while I still want to run Sunday, it'll be easier to run smart without the competitive juices flowing.

Part of the fun of moving to a new neighborhood, even if its only a mile from your old one, is discovering new loops. And two months into my stint in Potrero, I'm working on some good ones. The biggest challenge I have is that nursing my Achilles back to health means laying of the hills where possible. Not an easy task since I love the hills and they're all around me.

I'm working on some fun loops that wind me through real estate development in the southern neighborhoods. Sure, I get to cheat and work a bit, watching cranes and steel rise, checking out the who of the new, flourishing communities. Letting the day's decisions bounce around inside my skull.

Weaving through the Potrero Flats, I tick off the lots slated for new construction. Because even the dug in neighbors up the hill can't stop progress forever. Under a stretch of 280 that will hopefully be gone some day soon, into into the maze of half-built, partially complete and fully operational wings of the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. Together with the condos sprouting up around the new campus, this is perhaps the most intriguing of the new San Francisco neighborhoods.

Growing from scratch, a chance to remake a landscape from zero, the scale is perilously too big. When the Yardhouse arrives, the potential for coolness may be doomed. But maybe that's OK. Perhaps this will be, and was always meant to be, just a medical campus and destination for the type of person who is into that. Let the artists have DogPatch.

Out back behind 3rd Street and along the soon-to-be-developed-maybe-never-to-be-finished Pier 70 project and along Illinois, looking out into the dilapidated, forgotten industrial complex of the San Francisco waterfront. So much potential, so much time.

And back up Cesar Chavez, which for an ugly, flat, busy road is actually a great way to finish a run. Uphill, into the wind, cars whizzing by. Strong mind. The strong body will come.

http://app.strava.com/activities/82898682