pittsburgh – Page 5 – Run All The Streets

Jaunt Through The Park

To park or not to park? One of the gray areas of this “running all the streets” effort is what to do about trails in city parks. Pittsburgh has numerous parks from the dual East End green behemoths, Schenley and Frick, to the high hilly Riverview Park in the North. There are a variety of trails, from wide paths paved with crushed limestone to winding deer trails. What to do? What to do?

For this run, I entered Frick Park through its Blue Slide gateway. Blue Slide Park is a local curiosity. If you Google it, the first wiki-pedia link is likely for Mac Miller’s album of the same name. Incidentally, upon Mac Miller’s untimely demise, thousands gathered there for a memorial (see CBS story ) . I was not following Mac Miller at the time, but on that night run ended up mingling with this crowd of mourners. Here is a link to some pictures I’ve taken of the Blue Slide.

Anyway, I chose big easy paths to run on, passed dog walkers, and groups of parents with strollers. Passing the OLEA (Off Leash Exercise Area), I went down the ravine onto Falls Ravine Trail. Its a nice, quick downhill that takes you to Lower Frick. Frick is one of the wilder parks in the area. Most of it is heavily wooded. The wide paths are roughly along watercourses and going off of them on the smaller trails leads to massive hills. At any rate, I popped out of Frick Park on Lancaster Ave, in the heart of Regent Square. This is a picturesque area with large houses, brick streets, nice yards and towering trees.

I ran a little bit out off the map into Edgewood. Eventually turning around, I came back through Frick Park by its Allenby Avenue entrance, which quickly becomes Braddock Trail. Braddock Trail follows Nine Mile Run until you hit Commercial Avenue. I veered off a little earlier, skirting the soccer field and going up Irongate Trail. That doesn’t even make it onto Google Maps, but is a biker trail which ascends in big rolls up above the Irish Center. If you take the right side-trail, you can drop into the Walnut Towers parking lot, high above Commercial.

So, with this run, I’m CONSIDERING including wide park trails as part of Run All The Streets. BTW, I’m trying to get an overall map ready for the 50th run of Run All The Streets.

February Catch-Up

It has been a few weeks or so since I last blogged. Sorry about that! As it is mid-way through March, I’ll just post all the February runs I’ve missed.

Run all the streets 0023

This was a run with Pro Bike from Church Brews Works, which was unfortunately closed that Monday. Nice run with fun folks.

Run all the streets 0024

Wednesday Night Run with Pro Bike

Run All The Streets 0029: Praying Mantis run

Map of South Squirrel Hill with running path traced on it. — Run All The Streets 0029: Praying Mantis Run

This was a short run in time and distance. I slugged up and down the broad hills of Beechwood Blvd, coming across a 25ft spruce snapped off a few feet from the ground by recent winds. It was still windy and on the cooler side. The itch to explore got the better of me and I finished off Phillips Avenue as it plunges toward Frick park, ending in a cul-de-sac. Then it was up to Beechwood and down into Forest Glen Road, another little hide-away making inroads into Frick Park. Both of these housing spurs had fairly nice houses, almost suburban, mid-70’s styles nestled down into the Park. As the trees and hills rise above you, it’s easy to believe you’re in the mountains somewhere.

Run All The streets 0030

This was another Wednesday run with Pro-Bike. I was very slow at first, but eventually gathered steam and picked up speed.

That’s all for February, folks! Thankfully, temperatures will start to warm up and it will be light later.

Finally running with HPRC

Map of Perry Hilltop neighborhood. — Perry Hilltop, aka Perry South neighborhood of Pittsburgh

Highland Park Running Club (HPRC) is a new group on the Pittsburgh running scene. It is mainly publicized through Strava and word-of-mouth. While the ‘club’ might be new, the runners are familiar faces to me, having run with most of them. Today’s run was part of their coffee passport series, where they run from different coffee shops each Sunday. This week, they were running from Colony Cafe. Colony Cafe is in the Strip District, but almost downtown. I drove by on time, but with no immediate parking, I had to circle around, eventually parking a few blocks away. As I got out of my car, the group had started running in my direction. As they passed, I started running with them. This was my second run since my fall, and I just couldn’t keep up. Going across the 16th Street Bridge, I gradually fell back. It wasn’t that they were going tremendously fast that day, I was just very slow. I saw glimpses of them, as they ran along East Street and made the turn onto Federal Street.

I continued up Federal Street. It was a sunny and a bit chilly. Ahead of me an older man started running up the hill. I thought, “there’s a local runner, I’ll follow him”. Federal Street goes from the Northside flats to the top of the hill overlooking it. It was quite a climb and I almost caught the other runner as we approached Lafayette Street. Going uphill felt good on the knee and I decided to run up Seabright Street. I hoped it would go through, but alas, it dead-ended at a house, in spite of how the Strava map looks. Those houses were cute and well kept with great views of the downtown.

At the top of the hill, I looped down toward the left, traveling down West Burgess Street. At one empty corner lot, there was a memorial to baseball players, I think primarily Negro League players. It was at an empty lot along Burgess Street. There were about 10 “billboards”, each one painted to look like an enlarged baseball card, a two foot by three foot wooden display. They were planted upright in a semi-circle. I wish I had taken a picture, because I can’t find any reference to it on the maps.

Burgess Street continued it’s rolling journey, dead-ending in a little subdivision at the side of a cliff. The subdivision looked like it had been built years ago, with some recent updates. The cliff overlooks the California-Kirkbride neighborhood, with the Ohio River in the distance. And so, I bounced around dead-end streets looking for an outlet back to the Northside Flats. Holyoke, Ridgeway, all looked promising but led to dead-ends. Again, the Strava map insists on a connector street that just isn’t real. Yale Street, at the end of Ridgeway, is a tangled greenway, blocked off at the end by Jersey barriers, not a through street. The houses were a jumble of styles and upkeep, clinging to the steep hillsides.

I finally made my way down to the Mexican War Streets again and found my way back to the Colony Cafe. I got there in time to enjoy coffee and renew acquaintances. Oh yeah, one of the ‘features’ of Colony Cafe is that they have an area in which you can meet and greet homeless cats up for adoption. That area requires a reservation! But I did see a gray cat with white underbelly peering down at us.

Map of a strava run, Run all the streets # 28 — Run All The Streets 0028: Run with HPRC

Turtle Way

This was a run from Threadbare Cider with Steel City Road Runners Club. Threadbare Cider brews their excellent ciders there and often have tours attached to a yoga class, or another activity. But tonight, this was a scheduled run organized by one of the Steel City leaders. No explanations of making cider this time! This was also my first run in a week. I had fallen on an earlier run, bruising a knee and hand. In the grand scheme of things, it was nothing. In my running, it was a set-back.

Setting out just slightly after everyone else, I just couldn’t close the gap it seemed. Then I came across Turtle Way and thought “how appropriate”! I took a pic and trundled down the dark alley. (BTW, I don’t think there are ACTUALLY Godzilla-sized turtles in East Allegheny, as shown on the map. Didn’t see one, at least.)

But, to my surprise, one of the last groups was stopped at a light. It turns out a runner had become light headed, and everyone was waiting for him to feel better, with phones out for a quick 911 call if needed. He recovered, the group started running again, me with them. I had the pleasure of talking with Neil, a runner friend who has just recovered from a brain tumor. It was great to see him out running. We talked about falling, recovering and moving on.

Moving on, we did. The group spread out, some faster, some slower. As we looped around Allegheny Center, I passed a few women who had started walking, but was far behind those who had kept running. The group was now spread out. Some doing five miles, some doing three miles. As it was my first time back, I chose three and slowly made my way back to Threadbare.

South Dallas End to End

South Point Breeze
North Point Breeze

South Point Breeze

North Point Breeze

From one goofy intersection to another, that’s South Dallas/North Dallas Avenue. The southern end of South Dallas Avenue springs from Beechwood Boulevard, going a mere 100 feet before it hits a red light (mostly) at the intersection of Forbes Avenue. Quiet as a cemetery, this is an attractive neighborhood with impressive, large houses in the $660,000+ price range. From a runner’s perspective, it is also roughly the start of the Great Race, a popular 10K in September. Tall oaks spread their branches and rain down acorns on the houses. Driveways curve up behind the houses.

Running here was a bit hilly, and South Dallas goes up briefly again as it runs past cemeteries and forms a boundary between Point Breeze and Squirrel Hill. You pass between Homewood Cemetery on the right and Smithfield East End Cemetery on the left. Just now looking up Smithfield Cemetery, I am duly impressed with its heritage.

“It began as a church grave yard to the oldest organized church in the City of Pittsburgh—the first German Evangelical Protestant Church—which was founded in Pittsburgh in 1782 ”

http://www.smithfieldeastendcemetery.com/index.php

Once you get past the cemeteries, South Dallas becomes nicely straight and slightly downhill. A breeze to run! Continuing on South Dallas Avenue, you’ll notice the houses perhaps getting marginally smaller, but the neighborhood is still pricey, and you’d pay at least $250k for houses all the way to Penn Avenue. The area is still aesthetically pleasing with rather large yards and mature trees.

Continuing past Penn Avenue, South Dallas becomes North Dallas. The houses are still impressive, but the area is not as well maintained. A couple of blocks past Penn Avenue, North Dallas takes a plunge, dropping 100′ in a few blocks. The neighborhood takes a similar plunge as North Dallas passes under railroad tracks and eventually peters out at the weird intersection where Bennett Street peels off from Frankstown Road. Houses in this neck of the woods are much smaller and go for around $50k.

So, I’ve done Dallas, South and North, and wind my way back through Homewood. This area has a bad reputation in my mind and I am pretty cautious. A week after running this route, a rather spectacular crime was committed in suburban Monroeville area and the perpetrators used Homewood as staging area. Vigilant police ended up breaking into a home of an 80 year-old grandmother in their search for a victim. That is still in the courts, I believe.

So, there’s reason to be cautious, but looking around, while I do see run-down row houses, I also see typical three-story Pittsburgh brick foursquare houses neatly maintained with a decent yards. What would those folks in Southside Slopes give for a flat driveway? Not much, I suppose. Alleys straight as an arrow, disappear into the distance. Again, it’s amazing what a mile will do. My trek back to the start was just a long climb out of the valley. Long gradual hills that my warped Pittsburgh vision calls “flat”.

Lost in your Hazel Highs

Hazelwood Neighborhood
Glen Hazel Neighborhood

Hazelwood Info

Glen Hazel Info

Ah, Hazel, that bewitching color between brown and green, subtly shifting with the light. There was lots to think about on this run. I started running through South Squirrel Hill and into the Summerset subdivision. It’s relatively new and was built on the mountains of slag dumped there during between 1922 and 1972. (NYT article: Houses Are to Replace A Pittsburgh Slag Heap) . That development spurred some other interesting things, including the Nine Mile Run Organization which has done a lot of work to clean and take care of the Nine Mile Run watershed. This has directly impacted Frick Park, with improved natural areas and the removal of some old playgrounds. For those not familiar with local usage, a “Run” is a creek. Many have “mile” designations which approximate how far upriver (from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny) the creek empties into the river. Thus Nine Mile Run empties into the Mon approximately nine miles from the Point.

Summerset Archway
View of the Mon
Slag Heaps on Other Side of Nine Mile Run

Running out of Summerset, I carefully crossed Browns Hill Road and made my way up Imogene Road. Taking a quick detour down Desdemona Avenue, I skipped the stairs which would have taken me back to Browns Hill Road and went up Johnston Avenue. Summerset was a dense subdivision. Desdemona was lined with modest houses. Johnston Avenue was deserted. A long trek up a big hill with not much around. A high slope to the right and a sharp drop to the left. But after the crest was one of the Kane Centers, Kane Center, Glen Hazel. After that, just a number of small cul-de-sac’s with modest homes which look like they were built with great expectations but have been neglected a little. With just this one run, I ran most of the street mileage in Glen Hazel.

Happy to be out of that somewhat eerie area, I descended to Second Avenue and made the brave decision to climb Hazelwood Avenue. Late in most of my runs, I stop worrying about streets to see and start worrying about how to get back to my car. It was the same here, I knew Hazelwood Avenue would eventually take me back to a familiar area. One mile and nearly 400 feet of elevation later, I was back on Browns Hill Road. Whew!

Running through the area, and looking at the map afterwards, I was thinking about why some areas are expensive, why some are cheap. I reflected on the location of the Kane Center in a hidden, deserted part of Pittsburgh. I thought about how big the Calvary Cemetery is and how much space in Hazelwood is “greenway”, while right down the road, houses are pressed together. No answers here, but invitations to think about how the city has evolved.

Speeding

Map of the South Oakland Neighborhood of Pittsburgh — South Oakland, Pittsburgh

If yesterday’s run was LSD, this was speed. The sidewalks were finally dry of snow and ice. It was warmer. I had a plan and only a limited time to do it. Zoom! Zoom!

I sped down Beacon Street’s wide windings, only momentarily detouring into little drive to apartments, as shown with a little red hook on the map. Beacon arcs onto Hobart, just inside Schenley Park. I caught the lights and blitzed down Panther Hollow Road as it schimmied and twisted through the park. In the summer, Vintage Grand Prix speedsters tear up the track. In the winter, only runners do. I hit the bridge over Panther Hollow, pushing hard on the accelerator. It felt good.

Now into South Oakland, I made the hard right onto Parkview Avenue; shoes squealing just a little. My plan was to hit a little alley; Collinson Place and take the next street, Edgehill. Well, they were both small alleys. Edgehill was really a driveway along the back of the houses on Parkview. The occasional barking dog and sounds of toenails scraping the high fence only made me put the gas on more. I blew down Edgehill Street, rocketing over Swineburne all the way to Childs Street. Childs is no-outlet, ending in a cliff above Swineburne. I reversed gears, backtracking till I could take the next turn onto Orpwood, a car mecca. One lean scruffy dude in jeans checking the engine on his 1972 Chryler New Yorker with the hood up. A portly middle aged man waxing his 1988 red Ford F-150. An official Ferrari repair shop with a Maserati parked in the back.

It all made sense now. I don’t think it would have been proper to come here slowly. At the end of the road, in the setting sun, I put it in park for a moment, taking in the views. Then, I slowly backed out and cruised home.

Picturesque Frozen Wanderings

It was cold, even on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Starting in Squirrel Hill, as I often do, I ran toward Schenley Park. It’s a beautiful, heavily wooded park with winding roads, hills, playgrounds, a golf-course and a lake.

Up Serpentine Drive
Stone Bridge in Ravine

After a couple of miles, I emerged into Central Oakland. This part of Oakland is dominated by student housing of all sorts. There are upscale condo/townhouses and street after street of apartment buildings and houses re-muddled into apartments. The area is pretty flat and the streets are relatively long, straight and in a grid. The area was busy with students. I remembered that as a student, I was always worried about money, classes, jobs, homework, girls and family (not necessarily in that order). As a father with college age children, I want to say to them “Don’t worry too much, do your best and you’ll be fine”. However, I do know that their lives are opaque to me, I don’t know their struggles and that they will have to find their own way. So, I just run past, nodding a silent greeting. Who knows if they gave any thought to the old guy lumbering past them?

And lumber past I did, cutting down Neville Street as it plunged into Panther Hollow. I ran under Schenley Drive and Forbes, eventually emerging in North Oakland, with its large institutional buildings, museums, churches. I found my way back along Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside before turning up Negley Avenue back home.

Central Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh

January Catch Up

Hey there, we’re half-way through February, Valentine’s Day is over and the weather is flirting with Spring. So, it’s about time to show you the other runs I did in January. All of my posts to this point have been directly related to ONE run. Sometimes long, sometimes short. This will be different. I’ll show you the Strava maps I’ve taken for a number of runs, with just a short sentence or two about each one. I have made pretty good progress in January, with nearly 110 miles and over 7,300 feet of elevation gain. I’m still working on listing which streets I’ve run, which is quite the endeavor in and of itself. February is feverishly waiting in the wings.

Clearly a Steel City Road Runners run. Look at those downtown loops!

Pre-Pro Bike run. Getting some elevation and doing ALL of Douglas Street! Yay!

The Pro-Bike & Run route going through Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill, and Shadyside.

The Pierogi run! Seventeen miles with Pro-Bike and Run with a CF fundraiser at the end. That was an awesome run and a great time afterwards. I might touch on this one again, as we did some interesting places, such as the Armstrong Tunnel.

Looks like another Pro-Bike & Run group run. I must have been running with somebody to keep a nice route like that!

This run was clearly on my own – look at all those little dead-ends! This marks the last run of January for me. As I recall, there were a couple more days in January, but they were very cold ( no warmer than 10 degrees), so I was prudent and didn’t run outside. This effort to run different streets sometimes means I just run one street away from a “normal” route, or that I take that little red-brick alley off to the side.

Now, on, on, to February and the next 100 miles in this journey!

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.