Flatlander Ed

Running Before the Storm

Spring Hill City View Neighborhood of Pittsburgh

It was early. It was raining. It was forty degrees. This would be the best weather we would have for a week. I HAD to get out there and run! My office was close by and if I got done early enough, I was hoping I could sneak in and change into my office clothes without too many people noticing.

“Running before the storm” is ingrained in my mind as a wild time before a major storm comes bearing down on you. Perhaps it is from all those nautical adventures I read as a kid. But that expectation of something calamitous coming crackles with energy. Starting near my building on the Northshore, I knew I wanted to ascend into the labyrinthine Spring Garden hills to get some elevation. I wasn’t EXACTLY sure the best way to do it, so I zipped up into the Northside grid, with its flat streets and alleys in a regular pattern. My goal was to hit Tripoli Street which crosses I-279. The rain was beginning to come down hard. I passed one woman with a purple raincoat and umbrella walking her reluctant chocolate lab and a couple of dudes with baggy jeans and flannel shirts waiting for the bus.
Tripoli Street is flat and took me high over I-279, already filling with headlights coming into Pittsburgh. I made a left onto Chestnut Street and started up the hill. OMG! What a hill!

The blue dot is on Tripoli as it finishes crossing I-279. That sharp left is Chestnut. The mountain of elevation is going toward High Street.

I continued up and up, my theme. It was pouring at this point and mini Mononagahelas ran down every street. I made sure the dead-end sign on Leister Street was correct, backtracked and ran up Hunnel. The neighborhood is varied with some nice houses, decent yards, and vertigo inducing hills. Below is a picture of Hunnel Street in more pleasant weather.

Wooden stairs on the side of Hunnell Street with green trees and white houses on the very steep street. — Hunnell Street Wooden Stairs in the Spring

Up and up I ran. Woessner Street was cute. It did NOT have a dead-end sign on it and I felt like a roller coaster approaching the big drop. (That’s the middle peak on the elevation chart.) It ended in a circular asphalt pad at the top. No actual street intersected it, just narrow Wessel Way alley. Down the alley I went, saying “Hi!” to another hardy soul walking her dog in the rain. I began to plot my way back; Rhine Street, Mathias Street, Lappe Lane (below the cemetery), Buente Street, Overbeck Street and finally down Solar to catch a way across 279. I crossed it on Guerst Way, which is a pedestrian bridge. Back in familiar territory again, I resisted the urge to run up Rising Main and got to my office early enough to change. I basked in the warmth of the office and the run as the rain changed to snow and the storm blew in.

Run All The Streets 0017: (that’s right, 17)

footnote

If you regularly follow this blog, you may have noticed that I skipped a few runs. I went from “Run All The Streets 0014” to “Run All The Streets 0017”. Don’t worry, I will be sharing those runs and the remainder of my January 2019 runs in summary blog post. While there’s usually something notable on every run, I run more than I blog, so instead of letting them pile up for posterity, I’ll just do a catch up blog every now and then. Thanks for reading.

Skinny Southside Sarah

Map Highlighting the Southside Flats Neighborhood of Pittsburgh — Southside Flats Neighborhood of Pittsburgh

One of the cute things about the Southside Flats are the street names. They are not the aboreal type. They are not formal last names like “Wilkins”, or “Forbes”, but friendly first names; “Mary”, “Jane”, “Sarah”. I think this fits the Southside Flats in character. If they were people, all of these sister streets would be wearing skinny jeans with fashionable rips in them. As it is, they are narrow, relatively straight and have copious “fashionable” potholes. So on a rather chilly January, I felt compelled to run around Sarah Street, all the way to the end.

Much of the Southside Flats is a mixture of narrow houses, newer condos, warehouses, corner bars and a coffee shop or two. This is the area between Carson Street and the rising mountain of the Southside Slopes. Sarah Street threads her way though these streets, making a little jog right when she hits 10th Street and finally ending at the 9th Street side of George K. Cupples Stadium, which is an 8,000 seat football field used mainly for high-school games. At any rate, Sarah comes to a screeching halt there. Not having enough of a snowy, dark, run, I decided to cross over Carson Street and continue.

Thus, I ended up on Cabot way. Cabot Way was narrower and long. This section of the Southside flats looks less friendly. The warehouses look bigger. Carson Street on the right seems to get higher and higher. The dark river is closer.

Lights of downtown Pittsburgh on a foggy night as seen from the Terminal Building across the Monongahela River. — Light of downtown Pittsburgh from the Terminal Building on the Southside

But the potential creepiness is tempered by the lights of downtown across the river and the general emptiness of the area. I saw nothing too scary, beyond a young guy coming out of his apartment clearly drunk. Quiet, beyond the padding of my feet and the occasional car. Cabot Way continues all the way to the parking lots at Station Square where I passed a young couple strolling home. Turning around, I went up and down a few of the steep, cobblestone streets which go up to Carson Street. Then, I ran on Terminal Street, which has the feature that it becomes an elevated walkway between buildings. It has an interesting history.

Snowy railroad buildings at night. — Snowy Railroad Tracks

I made my way toward Sarah Street, along Bingham Street, Wright’s Way, and Carey Way. When I finally met up with Sarah again, I was tired and getting cold. So, I got in my car, revved up the heat and went home. See ya later, Sarah!

Slushy Snow on a Sunny Sunday

Map highlighting the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. — Greenfield Neighborhood Pittsburgh

Map of the Squirrel Hill South neighborhood of Squirrel Hill South. — Squirrel Hill South

On this chilly, snowy, slushy, sunny Sunday I went back to Greenfield. In my earlier blog post, Greenfield: Land of Hills, I recounted my run along the southern border of Greenfield. Today’s run started in the middle of Squirrel Hill South and continued along the northern border of Greenfield. So, what’s the difference?

The biggest difference was elevation. I ran mostly on Beechwood Boulevard. Beechwood winds for five miles from Greenfield Avenue to Fifth Avenue, mainly following the contours of hills instead of going directly up and down them. This run had half the elevation gain per mile of the earlier run. (72′ of elevation gain per mile in contrast to 147′ of elevation gain per mile). BIG difference. Another difference was the tenor of the street. The earlier run was in a compact residential neighborhood with little traffic. This run carried me from wide-open residential areas with bigger houses to streets busy with traffic going to the Waterfront or to the Parkway East. Finally, weather was also making an impact. It was on the colder side and there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. This made for slick footing. Thankfully the sun was out!

Run All The Streets 0012: Slushy Snow and Sun

There Must be a way Outta Here!

Terrace Village section of the Hill District Neighborhood

Theme music.
This was definitely a “run all the streets” run. I had intended to meet up with Steel City Road runners, but found myself in the wrong place at almost the right time. I also found myself in North Oakland, an area dominated by the sprawling University of Pittsburgh . Medical buildings, athletic facilities, dorms, frat houses are juxtaposed with older homes clinging to the hillsides and run down apartment buildings with gravel lots for back yards. This run was relatively long and eventually meandered to parts of Bloomfield and Shadyside, but I’m going to concentrate on one area, Terrace Village.

I got to Terrace Village as a side trip. I was running along Fifth Avenue when I decided to run up Carlow‘s main driveway, Dunseith Street. Where did someone find THAT name? Apparently it’s a small town in North Dakota, among other things. Anyway, Dunseith Street travels through the heart of Carlow’s small campus. I ran up it to Allequippa Street, then to Robinson Street. On a whim, I went down Wadsworth. At this point, Wadsworth looked like a short driveway into some new construction. I figured after 100 yards, the road would end and I would get back to Robinson. Wow, was I wrong! Wadsworth opened up into an area of modern, new construction. It was unclear whether it was condos, or graduate student housing or what. A planned community, at any rate. There was a rental office, a little playground, a health center. The houses were attached, but generally large, two or three stories with new double-paned windows and fresh siding. The sidewalks were even, unbroken and every street corner had shiny street signs. And it was large. Lots of streets to run on with many cross streets. I’ve been in Pittsburgh a long time and had never been in this area. I was also surprised at how many streets were back there…Wadsworth, Eckstein, Oak Hill Drive, Burrows Street. All these streets looked just about the same. Had I gone through a portal to the suburbs?

Then I took a right onto Bentley Drive. I had the expectation that I would go down the hill, hit a cross street and come back up to the Oak Hill Apartments. Hmm, not so fast! I went to Kirkpatrick Street, rather desolate at this point in its travels from the Birmingham Bridge to the Middle Hill. I came to Kennard Playground, a large grassy field surrounded by a fence. Oak Hill was above, and that’s where I wanted to be. But how to get there? I followed the fence around to its end, hoping at any point for the fence to end. Eventually it did, coming tight against the hillside. No “official” way to go on. But, I wasn’t the first one with this idea, and, sure enough, squeaking past the last fence post, I found a faint footpath leading up the hill. I popped out in the backyard of one of the beige and brick end units and trotted to the sidewalk, continuing my run. And so I wandered around and around Oak Hill; Bentley Drive, Jamal Place, Benson Place, Turner Place, Burrows Street. One more turn on Burrows, and poof! I was out of the suburban portal and back into Oakland. I ran on a few hilly alleys, Dunbar Way, Decre and made my way further into Shadyside.

And now, some backstory. Years ago (1 Billion, to be exact), I was preparing to move to Pittsburgh and a friend of mine from Pittsburgh described the area past Pitt as a truly dangerous ghetto. After being at Pitt for several years, that section of Oakland was off the periphery of my personal map. Following my run this morning, I spoke with a few people about that neighborhood. It turns out that Terrace Village, when I came here, was indeed, a dangerous place to be. Here is some of its unofficial history. During my run, Oak Hill seemed to go on forever, however nice it is now. I felt hard pressed to get out of that neighborhood and I would bet that many residents felt the same way before it became rejuvenated.

Run All The Streets 0011: Terrace Village, Oakland

Proceed to Warp 10!

Map of Upper Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA — Upper Hill District

This was a short, exhilarating, heart pounding run. But first, ever watch Star Trek? From its start in the 1960’s as a campy TV series to its glitzy big screen movies, such as 2016’s Beyond, Star Trek has moved words into the general lexicon that just weren’t there previously; just look at “Beam me up” and “warp-speed”.

With those random thoughts bouncing around my head, I set out to join the Steel City Road Runners for their Saturday run. I was jogging through the Upper Hill, trying to warm up. The Upper Hill is a part of the Hill District neighborhood. The Hill District stretches from Downtown to Oakland. The Upper Hill is a small round area on the crest of hill right above North Oakland, the University of Pittsburgh, and above the Bloomfield Bridge. The streets are mostly wide open affairs, going up and down the steep hillsides. It is an area with a bad reputation (perhaps deserved, perhaps racism) and I am somewhat vigilant as I run along. As with all of the Hill District, the housing stock varies. There are boarded up brown brick row houses. There are bright, well-kept brick homes. There are new townhouses rising three stories and freshly painted.

Running past one of these new townhouses, thinking “This looks nice”, I hear the muffled barking of a dog. No worries, inside dog. Nonetheless, I look around hoping to see the mutt in a window. Then, I hear the a garage door rattling open and see the beige door slowly rise. Now, the barking is louder and there it is! A big brown dog of uncertain breed is galloping at me, trailing a leash. Warp Speed 1 Sulu! I take off. Usually if I pass the dog’s territory, it’ll stop. But no, wolf-spawn is still chasing me. Warp Speed 10! I gave it my all. Then with Fido a few yards away, he gives up. He must have finally heard his Master’s voice calling him back. Whew! That was the fastest 100 yards I’ve run in a long time, a 5 min/mile pace.

Sometimes you just need motivation.

The Dead-Ends of Mary

Google map of the Southside Slopes neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. — Southside Slopes Neighborhood

This run started on the flats, Southside Flats, that is. It flowed away from the busier streets into some long dead ends then went up stairs and streets. Eventually it just became a run to back to my car. But that’s the short version.

The long version. I started near Ascend again. Ascend is on Mary Street. In that phase of Mary, it is a small street tucked at the base of the mountain, parallel to elevated train tracks. Not thinking I’d see Mary again, I wound my way among the streets punching their way under the train trestle. Trying to stay on the flats for a bit, I didn’t go up to Josephine Street. This section of the Southside Flats has a mix of small industrial warehouses, retail shops, corner bars and coffee shops intermingled with narrow houses, twenty feet wide, and two and a half stories tall.

But then, I’m on Mary Street again! Ah, the continuation of streets and a curiosity. Mary Street becomes Mary Jane Street (I wonder who came up with THAT name), and finally transitions to the Jane Street. Jane Street rises to become level the train tracks and eventually rises above it. At the top, Jane Street turns the corner, only to dead end at some sort of power station, replete with no trespassing signs, danger messages, and cameras. Oddly enough a car had just driven down this road. Hmm…

Before the ending of Jane, Handler Street turns off. I’d say Handler is half the width of Jane Street. Handler is also a dead end, and there’s ALSO a car coming down the road, literally, for Handler is steep. Handler rises off of Jane Street for 750 feet along a heavily wooded ravine. Per my “dead-end rules” I need to run at least halfway. I actually run to the end, which becomes a private driveway for one last sprawling wooden house underneath a ring of houses on a ridge above. I gave it a 7 out of 10 on the creepy scale.

Coming off of Handler, I hit a dead-end section of Mary Street. Since I hope not to pass this way again, I run it. The houses were relatively well-kept and it’s not long to the dead-end. But then, there are stairs at the end. It’s still Mary Street, so up I go. 125 linear feet and maybe 50 vertical feet. So now, I’m on another section of Mary Street. This time, I’m playing tag with a brown UPS van which keeps storming up the small streets, stopping for deliveries. The small cracked sidewalks made that a delicate dance.

Finally having enough of this, I run up nearly 200 feet of the 30th Street stairs, popping out on Josephine Street as it winds up the mountain into Arlington. Long gradual hills, short steep hills and steps later, I find myself on South 18th Street as it plunges back to the Southside Flats. I go back where I began, on Mary Street.

Run All The Streets 0009: Southside Flats and Slopes

Fireflies in the Dark

Another Wednesday in January. Running well after sunset. Running in Squirrel Hill, away from the bright lights of the Murray Avenue shopping district. This hadn’t been a bad January yet, but tonight’s run featured patchy ice and snow on the sidewalks. I was in no hurry to fall, so I fell back to run with one of my favorite groups of runners; Amy, Kristen, Dayana, Denise, Haley, and Nicole. Honestly, I’m not sure if everyone made it that night. Did I mention it was dark? Somehow, when the weather is damp all lights seem weak. Blackness seemed to spill out of every crevice and crack. We ran away from Dunkin Donuts, away from all that fat, sugary deliciousness. We ran toward Homewood Cemetery. Great.

Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh's East End on a sunny Fall afternoon. Large trees overhang old graves and a young deer standing next to an American flag stops to look up. — Homewood Cemetery

Now, on a day like that in the picture, Homewood Cemetery is quite interesting. Deer, turkey, rabbits and other wildlife scamper along the endless paths bordered by full spreading trees. Visions of past lives rise from the ornate mausoleums, old headstones, and fresh graves. On the other hand, on a cold, wet January night, the half-mile, uphill, run along the blackened stone cemetery wall is dull drudgery. You try NOT to think about past lives rising up. In fact, you only try to keep the fireflies of light; the pulsing ankle lights of Dayana and the Tracer target of Kristen in sight as you scurry by.

And scurry by we did. No one fell, the warmth from running and friendship pushed back the darkness. We returned to the lights of Highland Avenue and back to the runners cove of goodies called Pro Bike and Run. It was a good night after all. Five miles in the books. Fireflies put away until the next dark run.

Run All The Streets 0008: Squirrel Hill North and Shadyside

Starting the Southside

The Southside Flats is busy, and so was I. I needed to run. I needed to go to the gym. I wanted to meet up with someone. Hmm, how to do all of this on a Monday night in January? The Southside was the perfect place! I could run some flat streets, go to Ascend and meet up there! Genius, if I say so myself.

I must say, it did work out well. Zipping along Harcum Way, Jane Street and Mary Street certainly fit the bill for flat running. It was a few blocks off of Carson Street, so I didn’t have to jocky for sidewalk space with young bar hoppers. I did start going up and down the numbered streets and came upon an amazing zig-zag set of stairs, the 15th Street Stairs. Up for the challenge, I ascended them, crossed over a set of railroads tracks and ascended more stairs. This brought me up to Clinton Street – a little hook off of Pius Street. (Looking at this, I thought someone had just misspelled “pious” – but no, it seems “Pius” is Latin for “pious” and is a masculine given name. How about that!) Anyway, with time for running running short, I descended the next set of stairs, 18th Street, and galloped to Ascend.

Run All The Streets 0007: Short run in Southside

Steel City Marathon Kickoff

Steel City’s Marathon Kickoff is quite the event. It’s the start of their “official” training cycle for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Various vendors and sponsors set up tents and give out runner’s delights such as water bottles, buffs and gloves. Buffs are tubular stretchy fabrics about a yard long which are prized winter headgear. There’s the usual finish line food; bagels, bananas, coffee and hot chocolate. There are also about 400-500 runners who show up. This year must have been more because I missed out on the “First 500 Blanket Giveaway”. Damn it! Carpooling doesn’t seem to be too big in the Pittsburgh running community yet, so there are also more than 500 cars here, too. There are not 500 parking spaces.

So, I did my usual and got there at the last minute. The parking situation threw me off a little, but I was still there in time to find my peeps, chat with friends and go out with a pace group. Feeling frisky, I joined the 8:30 pace group for 8 miles. It was a lot of fun. Our group had 20-30 runners in it. Got to chat with Alisa, Jessica and Emily. Got to annoy Jon with the jingling of my keys. (Inspiring me to write a book I’m going to call “10 Benefits of Running With Your Keys”. It will revolutionize distance running!) Eventually, the group’s route was simply an out-and-back along a trail. At that point, I decided to get a few more streets under my belt and elevation under my feet. I took a left off of the River Avenue and went up Rialto Street. That captured most of the elevation on my run. It didn’t add too many miles and I landed back at the Steel City garage about the same time as everyone else.

So, in terms of neighborhoods, this run crossed at least four – North Shore, Central Business District, Allegheny Center, and Troy Hill. I was surprised how small these neighborhoods are. Thinking about it, they do, indeed, have their own personalities, so I suppose it makes sense. The North Shore could be called “The Stadiums” because it is the areas adjacent Heinz Field and PNC Park. Troy Hill is considerably more isolated than the others, perched atop a large hill overlooking the Allegheny River. It is also much more residential, with tall houses side by side lining the narrow streets.

Run All The Streets 0006: 2019 Pittsburgh Marathon Kickoff Run

No Mulberries This Way

This run actually started in Lower Lawrenceville, but most of it was in the Strip District. To visitors, the “Strip District” sounds like a red-light district full of lurid adult stores and “Gentlemen’s Clubs”. There might be one or two clubs here, but more than that, it is a strip of wholesale stores for produce, pasta, fish and meat. Recently there has been an influx of boutique coffee shops and upscale condos. There’s also a good share of trinket shops, full of sports gear. While beauty lurks everywhere, in the Strip District, you might have to look a little harder.

But, back to the run. This was a Steel City group run starting from 11th Hour Brewing. (Neat place, go check it out!) As it is STILL January, the run, again, started in the dark. It wasn’t too cold, though, and, with no ice or snow on the ground, it was ideal running conditions. The official route went down Butler Street and Penn Avenue to 21st Street, turned around, came back to 11th Hour and then ran a couple of miles in the other direction. However, I knew that I would be running up and down these streets ad naseum during marathon training, so I opted to run a different route, Mulberry Way.

Mulberries are plentiful in this region. They live on the border of pleasant and pest. Enterprising individuals can make jams and pies out of the berries. Here’s a blogger who found ten ways to use them. Less enterprising people just try to avoid the plentiful berries as they pile deep in the yard, or on your windshield. Oh yeah, birds love them, so there’s the bird residue, too. At any rate, Mulberry Way is a long alley that runs nearly two miles through the heart of the Strip District. It is a back alley. Back doors of restaurants and stores open onto it. Garbage bins line it. One thing you won’t find are mulberries. There are a few apartments whose front doors come out onto the alley. As I run along, I can’t help but think “Who would want to live there?!” During rush hour and Saturday mornings, drivers attempt to circumvent traffic by zooming down Mulberry Way. But not tonight. Tonight, it is just me running along the flat alley, peering into back kitchens and lighted doorways as I ghost along.