I’m spending a few days in San Diego, in La Jolla to be exact. The weather here is just fantastic, better than the Bay Area for this time of the year. Whenever I travel, I take my running shoes with me and explore the surroundings. It’s so cool. I’ve discovered places like Tampa, New York, Boston - or Taormina (Silicy) or Paris (France) on the more exotic side.

This morning I went on a run to explore UCSD (University of California, San Diego). I used Google Earth to prepare a bit, this is a big campus, so there is lots to see and it should be fun.

For those of you familiar with the UCSD campus (my hotel is about half mile away from UCSD), I started my run on Gilman Dr, on the south end of the campus, and heading towards the medical center. After a mild climb, I made a run to the left and took a campus loop road, which took me to the north end of the campus after a few turns. There, I tried to do a few loops on the track, but it was closed. I therefore decided to head south east.

Then it got pretty confusing. Ater 35 minutes of jogging, I was hoping to get back tot he hotel quickly and followed signs to the UCSD Medical Center. Unfortunately, I realized a little late that it’s a HUGE medical center, with lots of buildings everywhere - far, very far from my entry point on campus earlier. I crossed the Emercengy admissions, then landed on the Miramar housing complex. Not sure what happened at that point (I was totally lost), but I was lucky and got back on the La Jolla Village Drive, and a few minutes later I was at the South entry again. All in all, it was a fun 55-minute run. I’ll see if I can find a better route around campus tomorrow.

-xavier