Thanksgiving in San Francisco

San Franscisco is a cool town and one of my most favourite places to come in the USA. I drove up here from LA last week to finalise my greencard application and to spend some time up here with close friends who live up this way. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I thought it would be a great place to spend thanksgiving.

I have been staying downtown just above the Presidio in Pacific Heights with my close friend Kristina Pollack. Whenever I am in San Francisco I stay with Kristina and her brother and getting some great running done through the Presidio and down along the trails that surround the bay and beaches by the Golden Gate bridge and around into Bakers beach. Over the weekend I headed out east with my bike and decided to get some solid riding done in the nice weather up and over the beautiful mountain ranges that surround the east bay. One of the key climbs out that way is Mount Diablo. The east bay is home of triathletes Wendy Ingrahm and Chris Lieto and is famous for its incredible riding and great running trails. I ventured out to stay with a friend, Paige Dunn and go riding with a few of the guys who live out that way.

 What an incredible backyard for riding your bike in. It was absolutely spectacular and I was really impressed with the amount of beautiful rididng that was available and the lack of traffic. The Mount Diablo climb from the Walnut Creek side was just brilliant. I took my camera and snapped a few shots. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will have another crack at the mountain before I head home after thanksgiving.

I have uploaded a few pictures from the ride to give those of you who have never seen this climb an idea to how lucky these cyclist who live in this area really are. It is just breathtaking and I really enjoyed my few hours on the bike.

This is a short blog as I get ready for thanksgiving. I will be spending thanksgiving with my friends Julie and Lloyd Talbert and Paul Amey here in San Francisco. My family is back in Australia and I am still here in the USA for 2 more weeks. As a non American I must admit of all your holidays celebrated here in the USA, thanksgiving is my most favourite. The food that you eat over the next 4 days is unreal and the pumpkin pie is one of the greatest desserts that has ever been invented. I love the stuff. I need to get a few more rides in over the next couple of days to burn off the calories that I will consume on Thursday. Bring it on.

Have a great thanksgiving.

Macca

Comments

[Diego Santamaria]

Hello Macca!

This is Diego from Spanish. I´m a triathlete from Spain. I have your blog between my favourites and I gotta say that it´s so amazing to know about the life of one of the best Ironman triathletes. It´s cool to know how the life a pro triathlete is. Where are you training, the places you are visiting.

Next year you will do a great Hawaii course (I hope it could be a exciting race against Eneko Llanos :D) I have to show that i´m spanish!! And then the best will win.

I´m still an olympic or half ironman distance man, but maybe soon (in a couple of years) I will see you around in an Ironman. Of course, only in the start line, then I will say:

Bye bye Macca, wait me in the end line!

[Sarah]

Yup, it's gorgeous there. So much so that every time I'm there I find myself looking for jobs. Dangerous - especially now that I'm in love with my bike and want to conquer any hill that I find. Glad you got to celebrate Thanksgiving. You can have my share of pumpkin pie, I'm all over the apple.

[21stCenturyMom]

I can see that mountain from my house!

I really can. And now I really need to hop on my bike and try the view the other way around.