San Francisco – Tracy Tran

San Francisco, Style

Selfie Time: Spring is Here

Spring is in the air in San Francisco, and I’m embracing it. I’ve beenÂ running regularly inÂ my neighborhood (pretending I could make Bay to Breakers), taking long walks to the water during lunch, and making weekend travel plans (Tahoe, ho!). It’s sad to say, but my mood isÂ heavilyÂ driven by the weather. Is it really so simple??

This week we had a super hot spell, and people were FREAKING OUT. Er… literally.Â Â Yesterday and today on the way home I’ve witnessed strange incidents of aggression. Yesterday a homeless man started banging on the windows of the streetcar, yelling at another homeless man that had boarded the car. “That’s my blanket! Fuck you! I love it. You don’t deserve her!” Today two passengers got into a fight on the train and had to be thrown off. It’s that heat, man.

And you know it’s spring when men start yelling at you on the street. I try not to worry or plan my outfits based on fear of being harassed, because it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. I always get hit on when I look like shit or have been crying, honestly. It’s like some radar that creeps have for helplessness and disinterest.

Anyways, whenÂ it’s hot out you gotta be comfortable, so dresses and sneakers it is.Â My current favorite no think dress is this simple black dress from Uniqlo, which I wouldn’t really brag about except it is quite sturdy and cool, and it was CHEAP. Less than 20 bucks! Actually, everything in the Ines de la Fressange lineÂ at Uniqlo is super simple, but really quite nice once you try it on.

This heat doesn’t last much longer but I’m definitely going to milk it. Hope you’re having a hot one too.

San Francisco

Commute

Quite a lovely brisk day today after two days of gloomy rain.

Art, San Francisco

Opera in the Park

Opera in the park > Symphony in the park.

Longer, stronger, and there were food vendors!

Bicycles, San Francisco

Bay Bike Share- It’s here! It’s here!

When I went to Montreal a million years ago (ok, four years ago), I was enthralled with their “Bixi” city bicycle share. The bright red bikes were tantalizing, and I wanted so badly to rent one and pedal down the physically separated bicycle lanes, pretending that I was French Canadian.

Alas, it was my first solo trip for pleasure. Also my first solo trip abroad. I didn’t have the nerves yet to risk biking in another country when I didn’t even know the local word for “HOSPITAL”. The years passed and I’ve changed my tune. I love traveling alone, and I love biking while traveling, whether I’m in DC or Cambodia. I haven’t had an international accident yet, fingers crossed.

So needless to say I’m pretty psyched about the new Bay Area Bicycle Share, which launched today! The stations in San Francisco are in tourist hotspots (downtown, Chinatown, along the water), which makes sense, since the bikes are intended for short trips- 30 min or so. I’m honestly not sure how these bikes help with the “last mile” problem, since all of this area is covered by public transport, but whatever.

I took the above photo the other day. I think it explains San Francisco pretty well. All the walks of life are represented 🙂 . The Asian businessman with an open container of beer, the Civic Center rabblerousers, European tourists, random teenagers, commuters. We’re all here, and we all want to poke and prod the gorgeous new bikes.

Prices seem pretty reasonable- 9$ for a day membership, 22$ for 3 days, and then you can also do a full year’s membership for 88$. Having a membership offers you unlimited 30 min rides during your time period. I have a bike but I have to admit I would love to try BABS out. Good for those nights I don’t want to drag my bike out, but need to get around fast.

Health, San Francisco

My First 5k

I forget when it was, maybe two months ago, when Ryan said he felt like running. I’d been running on and off at the gym, or mixing it into my weekly workout schedule here and there. But I never felt like a particularly accomplished runner. Nor did I really enjoy it, unless I was listening to Major Lazer or running while traveling (my favorite travel memories involve running for some reason).

Anyways, to be supportive I got the Ease into 5k iPhone app, which I thought sounded suspiciously like a knockoff of Couch to 5k (turns out it’s made by the same developers). It gets you going by mixing in running + walking. Some time passed, and I felt like I became a more consistent runner. Still, I didn’t feel the fire. So after a month of running I suggested that we do a race. We signed up for the Giants RaceÂ (benefiting Project Open Hand), which I picked because finishing the last leg in AT&T Stadium sounded awesome. Also, garlic fries! Lou Seal!

I thought about blogging about my 5k training, but to be honest I didn’t really do anything all that spectacular. Just ran 3-4 times a week, and did whatever the app told me to.

I wasn’t set to finish the app by the time of our race, so I felt nervous. But while we were in Santa Cruz (the week before the race), we stumbled onto the 10K Wharf to Wharf race. We ran with the 50,000+ crowd for about three miles and then broke off. I realized then that our 5k would be just fine.

As part of our swag bag they gave us cool shirts, but also these really scary bobbleheads.

I won’t bore you with the details of my race, but I will say that running in a mob of 8,000 men women children and strollers was a HOT MESS. I was walking/dodging strollers for the first half of the race at least. They had corrals for the different paces, but it wasn’t enforced at all (hello strollers and kids in the sub 7 minute mile section???).

All in all, it was fairly interesting. Look how happy I look crossing the finish line?

I was totally listening to Blurred Lines.

Yea, I’m kinda tempted to get the first one on a mug.

Afterwards we got beers and hung out.

And then the results came in later that day (33:05 minutes, 10:40 pace). I feel pretty good about finishing 1500th out of 8,000 people (even though that is hard for my brain to visualize). I think Ryan was 3 minutes faster, and 800th. Wild the difference a few minutes can make.

Toying around with the idea of doing a 10k, although I’m not really sure if I want to. Because that would take actual training. :p