Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Golden Run

Ever have someone suggest an idea and you say "yeah, sure, sounds great". And then, when it's time to do the thing, you think, "what the heck did I agree to? Really, I thought this was a good idea?"

Yeah. That's how I ended up here -


That's me - ready to run on the Golden Gate bridge. Another sorority sister suggested it on a FB group page - what do they say about group thinking, peer pressure, and all that? "While we're in San Francisco, wouldn't it be great...". That's how I ended up taxiing over to the bridge with Cheryl from Philadelphia, Anitra from Richmond, and Toya from Houston, after our conference closed for the day, changing from our pink & green dresses to our pink & green running wear and meeting up with about 30 other sorors, ready to make our way over the water.
Cylia, the mastermind behind the plan

Pink & Green runners & walkers from around the country
And when I saw the iconic red posts from the Wharf earlier, I thought "wow. That's high. And it's over water." When we arrived, I marveled, "yeah, that thing is high. And it's over water. And it's cold." The distance wasn't a problem - 1.7 mile across, 3.4 miles in total - because, as I realized, if I get across, I've got to come back. At the foot of the bridge, there's a display explaining how the bridge was built and the engineering behind it's design. The trivia nerd part of me wanted to read it all. But the scared of falling into the water part of me didn't want to know how it could go wrong.


It's a great view up there, if you pause long enough to look back at the city and across the water to Alcatraz. But I didn't stop for long, my view was in constant motion - did I mention it was high and over water? And cold and windy. And I was praying that I didn't get blown over the railing, which was a little bit lower than I expected a bridge railing to be.

As far as things on my bucket list, "run over the Golden Gate Bridge" has never been on there. But like when I sift thru the sand collected in my kids' beach bucket, this is a pretty, surprising little seashell to hold on to.

The other end of the bridge.

5 comments:

Lory said...

Good for you! Just walking across a bridge is on my bucket list, but the Golden Gate is pretty high so that may not be my bridge, LOL at least not yet. I may have to start with something as low as the Woodrow Wilson, but that's a start, right? :-)

Cylia said...

Awesome me post Soror! Thanks so much for coming!! It was a great experienced definitely enhanced by your presence!!

Unknown said...

SO much fun! Your legs look great!!

Soror Karen M said...

You should have KNOWN it would be crazy if Cylia was behind it :-) I did the Brooklyn Bridge on a nice fall day....#bucket list check

Mommyx4 said...

Karen you are right, I have no-one to blame but myself - LOL!