Welcome to the first two days of The Great Walking Experiment! As I mentioned in my Goal Setting for April post, I am trying out a 30-day walking experiment as originally discussed by Steph over at Back in Skinny Jeans. The goal is to walk 30 minutes a day for 30 days and see what comes of it! Although I am not sure how many walks I will post, I figured I can give you my first two days to see what this experiment entails.

Day 1 - April 2, 2008

On April 2, 2008, the first day of TGWE, I walked about 42 minutes and a total of 2.7 miles. I have plotted my route on Gmaps Pedometer, if you want to see more details on this specific route.

I want to begin by telling you that I live in a bad neighborhood. It is called the Tenderloin, or more affectionately, the ‘Loin. No matter what you call it, it is not the place you want to wonder into at night. There are shootings and muggings and stabbings, drugs and prostitution. During the day time this is kept at a minimum, but is still apparent. Now that I have painted that lovely picture of my neighborhood, I also want to tell you that there are beautiful neighborhoods all around me. For the Day 1 walk, I chose to head to Nob Hill and Russian Hill. Not the most beautiful neighborhood in San Francisco, but much better than the ‘Loin. The greatest thing about this area are the views. You can see Alcatraz and Coit Tower. On top of it, the “Crookedest Street in the World” is found in the area. I stopped my walk about a block short of the Crooked Street, as I knew I would not be able to take the stairs up and down Crooked Street after tackling all the hills from the ‘Loin to Nob and Russian Hill.

The highlight of my day was actually seeing a father and son playing some badminton on the sidewalk. I always take joy in seeing family members having fun with each other.

Overall, this was a great sweaty and heart-pounding walk. The massive hills that I had to climb left my buns, thighs and calves sore the next day. The views from the tops of those hills were also worth the walk. The only con: having to deal with ignorant men’s catcalls and remarks while in the ‘Loin. Once I got out of the ‘Loin such rudeness was non-existent.

Day 2 - April 3, 2008

Today I decided to treat myself to some Blue Bottle Coffee in Hayes Valley. This walk was a bit longer at 2.78 miles and 50 minutes, mainly because I slowed down at more points to take pictures and I had the coffee stop. There seems to always be a line whenever I go to Blue Bottle Coffee. I have also tracked this walk on Gmaps Pedometer, in case you were interested.

I started my walk in an almost opposite direction so that I could get s few hills in and make sure I had at least 2.5 miles in my walk. That meant walking through the ‘Loin, but more specifically the Little Saigon area of the ‘Loin. This is not as bad as the area right by my house. Then I wandered over to Jefferson Square, which is a little park in the area. I walked through it park a bit, but there was a lot of broken glass, so I hopped out of there and on to get my coffee.

Finally arrive at Blue Bottle Coffee, I ordered my Cafe au Lait and heading back past Citizen Cake and the Performing Arts Parking Garage, back up the hill and over to my starting point. It was a beautiful morning!