Asking a runner their favorite place to run is a loaded question. It’s like asking a mother to pick her favorite child. Baring the mundane sameness of tracks, each run is different with its own combination of difficulty, scenery, and memories creating ever shifting opinions of it.

In a poll of runners across the country by Runners World magazine, San Francisco was voted the number one running city in America. Despite being a rather compact urban area, SF manages to offer a versatile set of places to run. Whether it’s the relaxing and scenic paths along Crissy Field, the suspenseful causeway across the Golden Gate Bridge, the windswept vistas of Lands End, the rugged hills of the Presidio, or the secluded paths and hollows of Golden Gate Park, SF can cater to anyone from the casual jogger looking for a good time to the hardcore fitness enthusiast looking for the next burn.

I find myself very privileged to run these places on a regular basis and I’ve gained a deep fondness for many of them. But one place has inexplicably wormed its way into my heart as my favorite spot to run. Now, by conviction and personal preference, I am a mountain runner first and foremost, all my favorite runs are in the mountains and it’s the place I feel most at home running. And yet my favorite spot to run in SF is a flat little stretch of beach next to the road, Great Highway.

Great Highway starts at the top of the Sutro baths and winds down the hill to Ocean Beach. It runs along the beach to the mouth of Golden Gate Park where the windmills flank each side, keeping a watchful gaze over the water. From there it flies along the gentle rise and fall of the path between the beachside bungalows and sand dune preserves before coming to a end at the San Francisco Zoo. The entire route is short, barely three miles from end to end, but it’s a flat three, which a rarity for hilly San Francisco. Though it can’t rival the views that the commanding heights of Lands End provides of the ocean, the entire way is a breathless vista of the Pacific ocean stretching out in front of you. Indeed, it’s a great place to witness the varied temperaments of the ocean from the mild mannered surf on a cool foggy morning to the wild and ferocious spray of a windy, warm, and sunny afternoon.

The run provides an excellent demonstration of just how alive the city is. Families prepare for a day at the beach, people take a walk up the path, cyclists bike down and back, surfers carry their boards out to the water waiting for that one perfect wave, and runners enjoy that pleasure of an easy run in a great place. It’s also a place where some of the more peculiar aspects of San Francisco and California life are on display. Just the last week I was taking a run down Great Highway when, what do I see, but a fleet of Volkswagen Westphalia vans parked out at Ocean Beach like four wheeled tents. There must have been 30 or more and the surfers who brought them seemed to just keep popping out of the sand.

There is so much that goes into deciding a favorite run, how hard it is, what we see on it, what memories we have of our time there, and then there are those little places that just seem to strike a cord and resonate for some unknown reason. For me that little place is Great Highway. It may not be the most scenic or longest run, and it requires a fair bit of distance to get to, but it has its little charms and has become my favorite spot to run in San Francisco.