Hopper's Hands

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Distance: 6.8 mi. (run/walk... though mostly run!; outdoors)

Today's run went from Fort Mason along the coast to right underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. A beautiful run in beautiful weather. On the chain link fence at Fort Point hangs a placard: "Hopper's Hands". Ken Hopper, Golden Gate Bridge ironworker, is also a suicide prevention volunteer (unfortunately, a valued commodity at the GGB). He started noticing runners and walkers approaching the fence and touching it before turning around and had two placards (one for human hands, one much lower for dog paws) put on the fence. It's pretty cool to see everyone touching the hands before turning around to run back.

There was so much to see on the run (families playing on the beach, owners throwing balls with their dogs in the field, tourists taking pictures of everything) I found myself happily distracted. By that, and my constant soundtrack of Pacha Massive.

Today's run was a little longer than my training schedule called for (4 mi.), but since Thursdays are like my Saturdays, I wanted to take what time I had for a nice long run.