We're done!
We finished our grand adventure today with a seven mile run. Yes, that's right. 209 buildings in 34 runs, totaling almost 175 miles. The final stats average out to about 6.1 buildings per run, and our runs averaged 5.1 miles (which seems like more than I thought). And, lastly, we hit about 1.2 buildings per mile, or, if you prefer, each building was, on average 0.83 miles apart.
Before I hit the run down, two things you should know about today's run. First, in the spirit of Sesame Street, today's run was brought to you by the letter "c". That's "c" as in "a squared plus b squared equals c squared", because today we took every "hypotenuse" we could possibly take. We began the run thinking we might be able to finish it off, but we knew it might be too far, so we cut every corner we could. We ran diagonally through the Oval four times, cut across grass fields and dirt areas. Yes, paths couldn't limit us. In the end, it paid off, as I had mapped this out ahead of time at about 7.5 miles, and we came in at exactly 7.0.
Second, Ira really dragged me along today. I've been fighting off a cold and I'm still coughing a bit, so the run in the slightly cold air was tough. I definitely felt my limited lung power. There is no way I could have done it today without Ira pushing me.
Our first stop could not have been more fitting: on the last day of our adventure to run to every building in alphabetical order, we began with someplace that is neither a building nor in alphabetical order. The Varsity Lot is a parking lot between the stadium and Sunken Diamond. Um, it is not a building, and there are many other named lots that didn't make the map. Why is this listed, dear map-maker? We were nervous that we wouldn't be able to find a sign, although we did pretty quickly. And, of course, we couldn't actually touch a door, so we touched one parking spot with our hand.
Next is the Varian Physics Building. You'll notice that, alphabetically, it is tough to justify why "Varian" comes after "Varsity". This older building is near the Math Corner, and is one of the only buildings of the "old" engineering buildings that has made the cut and still stands.
We continued our trek to Ventura Hall, which is a cute looking building in the little grove of buildings near the corner of Panama Street and Campus Drive. We found the sign pretty quickly, since it is the closest one to the street. I have no idea what goes on here, but it seems cozy.
We made a u-turn (although we got our signals mixed up and Ira briefly ran left as I ran right) and basically retraced our steps back to the Visitor Center, which is on the corner of Galvez and Campus near the track. We went through the Engineering Quad, cut across the Oval, and took the path between Frost and the new Bing Auditorium. There was a tour starting, so we had to wait to touch the door for a second.
Sigh. We then made yet another u-turn and headed back to Wadsworth, which is the final one of those old creepy "abandoned" buildings off Searsville Road. As we ran there, basically taking the exact same route yet again, we wondered if this would be the last time in our lives we would ever be near the Wadsworth Building. It seems likely. We stopped and stretched there a bit, and I noticed that there was a little plaque on the building in commemoration of whoever Wadsworth was. This building is basically made of aluminum siding, so maybe Wadsworth should get his money back.
We again turned around and headed back to the Quad. This run didn't quite have the variety that some of the early runs did, although, as Ira said, we've basically been everywhere by now. We ran along the front of the Quad and touched the door of Wallenberg (160). Quoting a Stanford website, "Funded by the generous gift of Thomas Welton Stanford, Leland Stanford's younger brother, the building has served as the library, the administrative center, the law school and home of the department of political science during its 100-year lifespan." So, yeah, this is an old building. When you're looking at the front of the Quad, you're looking at Wallenberg.
I was exhausted by now, but Ira kept me going. We headed back to the Law School for the William H. Neukom Building, which is the new building at the back of the Law School with the cool upper courtyard. I was nervous for a second that we wouldn't find a sign, but Ira pointed out that that sign is cleverly inlaid in the sidewalk in metal. This is certainly one of the prettier newer buildings on campus. And, bonus fact: William "Bill" Neukom was the owner of the San Francisco Giants.
I was exhausted, but we pressed on to the William R. Hewlett Teaching Center, another pretty new building near the Engineering Quad. It sort of felt like the end of a marathon by now; we were tired but excited we were going to finish. And, finally, props to the map-maker for the difficult alphabetical decision of "William H." versus "William R." Although, again, why not use last names?
This is a pretty incredible building, though. It kind of looks like a spaceship.
We've known for a long time that our last stop would be Y2E2, and we noted it almost every time we ran by it over the last several runs. This building is technically called the "Yang and Yamzsaki Environment and Energy Building", named after Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and his wife Akiko Yamazaki. We couldn't have been more excited to touch the door to the Coupa Cafe located on the first floor and lumber back to Wilbur Field, holding our arms up like Rocky climbing the steps.
Distance: 7.0 miles (with a grand total of 174.2 miles)
It has been quite an adventure. You might be wondering, "Hey, KMo and Ira, what's next?" Well, we've discussed it, of course, but I'll save that for a future blog entry. (There are other sections on the map, you know...)
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