Wors World
All About Wor

While here in San Francisco I noticed that there are a lot of steep streets (like Duh!).

Firing up Google I found this :

Crookedest Street – Lombard

Steepest Street – Filbert

Wow!  The steepest and the crookedest streets in San Francisco and the Western Hemisphere.  With Tracey (@WorPet) having a nap and the opportunity to tackle these 2 streets within a five mile run was just too great so I planned a circular route, donned shorts, t-shirt and my trusty Asic Gels and I was off.  I took (as I always do) my iPhone and listened to my usual 90’s house mix tracks….

Overall, the experience of the run was great but the highlights run obviously, were the corkscrew at the top of Lombard and Filbert Street.  My usual routes at home have hills but not like these, both of them are really, really steep hills (30% ers) and my assault on the Para 10 featured a couple of beast hills but I reckon these hills have them beaten.  The day after the run I could feel my legs aching much more than the day after the Para 10.

Anyways, here’s a bunch of pics I took while on the run along with a bit of commentary at each point of interest:

The Start

The corner of Mason & Geary – looking up Mason (I actually forgot to take these pictures when I set out so took them after I’d returned)

Looking back to Geary

Down Mason to the sea

Columbus and Lombard (looking up to Lombard)

Looking back on the “easy” bit of Lombard

and looking up at the “Corkscrew” that is the top part of Lombard – so steep they made the road like this to allow cars to negotiate it.

As I sprinted up here using the steps (no doubt I looked like a crazy man) a group of young Europeans shouted “Rocky, Rocky” as I dashed by and I wish I had the theme tune from Rocky playing on my iPhone.  With that happening, there was no way I could  stop ‘til I’d reached the top even though my legs were feeling like rubber bands.

Anyway, I made it to the top and took these shots looking back from where I’d come…

As I look at these pics now, it’s clear that I made a poor job of them as they show the steps I ran up rather than the corkscrew road, but my excuse is that I was too exhausted to take a good pic…..

From the top of Lombard to the sea.  A couple of days before Tracey and I had rode the Powell trolley cars (Tracey inside and me hanging off the front in true “The Streets Of San Francisco” style)

From here I ran down the winding road (not the steps) and up Leavenworth ‘til I found the sign for Filbert St

Looking up Filbert, I just missed the car cresting the top in a scene right out of “The Streets of San Francisco” – shame.

This like Lambert is a real killer of a hill.  I had to run on my toes as the road is too step here to get your full foot flat.  Tiny little strides and lots of them got me to the top.  The view from the top of Filbert

After Lambert and Filbert the relatively small hill that is Hyde Street seemed easy although my legs were very heavy.  I continued on beyond where I planned to go and found myself on Market St.  From there it was a gentle up hill climb back to Geary & Mason where the Hotel Frank is located, 4.7 miles featuring the steepest & crookedest streets in San Francisco (and the Western Hemisphere) .  A shower, change of clothing and across the road to Lefty O’Douls for a well deserved beer ….