🚴🏻🏃🏾🏊🏽🚶🏼 Looking to get active during DjangoCon US?
Getting active at DjangoCon US
Having talks means a lot of time spent not moving while watching talks. It’s important to take care of your body as well as your mind, and a good way to do that is to get moving.
If you would like a little social motivation (or an excuse to share your accomplishments), we’ve created a Strava group as we had in 2021. It’s a different group from 2021, so you’ll have to join again even if you joined last year.
Once we send invitations to attendees to join the conference Slack instance (invitations will be sent out to ticket holders by Friday, October 14), join the #outings channel if you’d like to join or plan a group exercise.
At the hotel
The San Diego Marriott Mission Valley has a heated outdoor pool and hot tub as well as a fitness center.
At the fitness center, you’ll find:
- Elliptical machines
- Stationary bikes
- Free weights
- Treadmills
In past years, some of this equipment has been placed outside on the covered section of the pool deck, so you can get a workout in while catching some fresh air.
Walking/running/hiking
The San Diego River Trail is accessible via the walkway adjacent to the Trolley behind the hotel. Use the path drawn in yellow to access the trail from the hotel if you would like to take the stairs down, or use the orange section to take the ramp down to the trail from the trolley platform. It’s approximately 7.1 miles (11.4 km) from the hotel to the end of the trail at the beach if you feel like catching a little coastline action.
If you want something unpaved, Tecolote Canyon Natural Park & Nature Center is about 6 miles from the hotel (10-15 minute drive) and has some stunning scenery with lots of exits (mostly uphill on the way out because it’s a canyon) that you can bail out at. Make sure you bring a lot of water. It’s great for taking a taxi (or Uber/Lyft) to the nature center on your way in, then hiking for as long as you like, then catching a ride back once you’re done without having to hike all the way back.
Mission Trails Regional Park has 65 miles of trails, the majority of which are open to hikers and mountain bikers. Some of the trails are quite steep, so know your limits!
Torrey Pines State Nature Preserve has about 6 miles of trails right on the ocean. The park is free to enter but parking does cost money. It’s about 15 miles (20-25 minute drive outside peak hours) from the hotel.
Balboa Park has over 60 miles of trails varying in difficulty, length, and elevation. It’s accessible via city bus and only about 3-5 miles away (depending on your choice of entrance) from the hotel.
Bicycling
There’s a lot of quality biking in San Diego. In previous years, several attendees have had luck with Stay Classy Bike Rentals, although there are several rental services in town.
It’s about a 7.25 mile (11.7 km) bike ride from the hotel to the beach. We’ve made a GPX export of the path from the hotel to the end of the San Diego River Trail, including navigating around the one gap in the trail, and back. You can use them to help yourself navigate using many smart devices, although neither Apple Fitness nor Google Fit support importing them natively. If your smartwatch/bike computer uses a proprietary format, there’s a chance you can use GPSBabel to convert to your device’s format.
If you’re looking for longer rides, there’s lots of flat riding around San Diego Bay and continuing on to Chula Vista, and there are lots of hills to the northeast of the Marriott. Build your rides and share them with us on Twitter.
If you’re looking to abandon roads and go do some mountain biking, Mission Trails Regional Park has 65 miles of trails, the majority of which are open to mountain bikers.
If you want gravel riding, you’re probably going to need to go up to North County, where local community Gravel Stoke has charted a few routes.
There are also a few road, mountain, and gravel routes at Black Mountain Bicycles.
Swimming
If you feel like open water swimming, the Pacific Ocean is not far away! Keep in mind that average sea surface temperatures are around 65° F (18.3° C), so gear up appropriately.