David Bruce: October 2010

Silly me, I skipped right over a California tasting in October of 2010! The sole purpose of that trip was to run the Nike Women's Marathon (pun intended), so the wine tasting memory fell almost to the wayside. As you may know I was prepping for my second marathon, but life happens and I had to switch to the half. What a run, not a PR, but not my worst either. The views of San Fran were breathtaking and I'm glad I ran that brutally hilly course, although I doubt I'll do it again. I'll probably avoid future women's races unless bringing a new runner into the fold. I'm definitely not on my way to Boston, but I like to keep my pace up and it was impossible with so many walkers and ladies who I'm sure didn't start in the proper corrals. It was like dodging tourists on the metro escalators!  Perhaps I should start planning for another full or maybe I'll just start looking into a tri; that is if I can overcome my fear of biking in the city.

Oh wine, right! Well I was lucky enough to spend the better part of 4 or 5 days in San Fran with Karena, my original running buddy from our '07 TNT days. She has a fab spot on Russian Hill and it was so accessible to everything, phenomenal! Such a great hostess too! After the expo, finding my name on the Nike Town wall, race day and a leisurely weekend Karena had to go back to work and I meet up with some Cougs. First up, a catch up lunch with the Dobels-Trisha, Andy and their little one, who is quite tall, Micheal. It had been ages since I saw them! Wait first I met up with Christina, for beers, but I don't remember which day that was, too many fun people that weekend.

Next up was an afternoon with Ainslie; I was already down near San Jose for lunch with the Dobels so I met Ainslie at the park and we headed out on the winding hills of Santa Cruz to David Bruce Winery.  My experience was different from most the VA wineries. It was much more industrial looking, very beautiful but built as a business rather than a home and the standard tasting was only 4 or 5 wines instead of 7-8. The tasting was also very professional, very much to the point, not much leisurely conversation with who ever poured for us. We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bruce and his wines-primarily Pinot Noir-were quite enjoyable. I think I was trying to up my game and threw in some tasting words like "tannins" or something which worked to our advantage and got us some extra sips of the reserve wines. After coming down out of the mountains we went back to San Fran for some crabs on the warf. Oh the buttery goodness! I was dying for some Old Bay, but nobody even knew what that was, not even the chef! Crazy!

Caught running', I miss eucalyptus trees! 

Yes, I ran for my bling that came in a little blue box

Oh right, here is David Bruce