Run 138 - More of the Heights

October 30, 2023

I wanted to get in a longer run today ahead of the 10-miler I will be doing next weekend in Pittsburgh, PA so I mapped out another course in Billings Heights.

I parked next to the pond that I ran past a week ago when the weather was warmer, the pond that really stunk.  Right after I parked, 2 city vehicles pulled up behind me.  I chatted with them for a moment and the 3 of them are in the public works department and were there to look at the pond. Cool.  They asked if I was just out for a run and showed them my map for they day and they thought that was cool.  Since they were in Public Works I asked if they knew how many miles of streets are in the city and they said 500 but those were lane miles or something like that.  It’s a number that I still don’t know but I do know that I’ve run over 700 miles for the project so far.

I got on my way and was only a block or two into it when I realized I’d over-dressed.  I shed my sweatshirt, tying it around me, and over the course of the run I took my gloves on and off several times.  It seemed like it would get cold and then warm up and then back to cold.  I think that the air temp was about 40 when I got there but there was some wind.

Almost the entire run was on residential streets and most of the snow was gone so it was just a matter of covering the distance.  I really can’t say that there were lots of exciting or fun things to see or comment on with most of the homes of the snout house type with the same 80s architectural style.

I ran past this place the other day without the snow.

South Hills isn’t paved.

They were honking as they went over.

I was at the end of Venus and see that there is a shortcut out to Wicks but I didn’t take it.

On Winks, looking into the dried BBWA canal.

Looking north on Wicks

Looking south on Wicks.  This was the only busy street I covered.

No one golfing today.

A friend used to live here.

This little guy was guarding the end of Glenhaven.  He never made a sound but looked like he was ready to go with me.

These two shots are on Wentworth.

Looking across a field I saw these folks hanging out.

There’s a nice city park here.  It’s Frances Park - Hidden Park on my map and is on Burning Tree Drive.

A big house.

Flood control.

Dead end streets usually have a fire hydrant and this one has a friend.

The north end of the Heights from Lake Heights Drive.

This from the north end of Ditton.

That was it.  It felt pretty good and I didn’t start getting tired until mile 7.  At the of the 8.3 I asked myself if I could squeeze out another mile and a half to get a 10.  Yep, no problem.

Run 137 - Impromptu Mile

October 29, 2023

Today we had an annual Rim Runner Demon Dash which is a short run followed a potluck and our annual members meeting and election of board members and officers.  This year we met at Dover Park and we able to me the first group to use their new community center.  As a group we spread out with some running and some walking through this beautiful park. Most us went across the bouncy bridge.

 The group of 5 that I was with wound our way north, went through the tunnel under the new, yet to be opened, highway before looping back to the new bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River.  This new bridge and highway will make a connection from Johnson Lane in Lockwood to the Billings Heights, sure to be a major growth area in the future.

We split up when we got to the bridge as the others wanted to find their way up by going under it fort.  I whacked through some weeds and climbed up an icy concrete support to get up on the bridge.  Once up I walked across and looked down the snow covered pedestrian path that a couple other runners had already taken.  I headed out to follow their route.

I waited at the far end where the road ends for the two Daves and Shelley.  We stopped for some chatting about the possibility of having a running event on the bridge before heading back.  Shelley and I made a double sine wave in the fresh snow.

Hmmm, I wonder what caused this?

It was a long uphill run back.

As we were running back I realized that this road is a road in Billings and that I would have to run it as part of this project so why not count it for today?  Instead of getting off the bridge and back onto the trails, we continued west to the new roundabout and the north on Five Mile Road to the entry to the Park.  OK, it wasn’t planned or a long run but it does count.

Run 136 - A chilly run in the Heights

October 28, 2023

It’s a Saturday morning and that means out to Billings Heights again to work off some more streets.  Shelley was able to join me this week and I laid out a route that continued the one we did 2 weeks ago, starting on the east side of Lake Elmo Drive before working our way back on the west side.

The weather was, well, brisk.  OK, it was 9 degrees F but there was no wind.  This past week’s snow storm left about 3-4 inches in the ground and since it had rained before that there was a bit of ice underneath it all.  What I have learned is to stay on the slightly crunchy snow for the best traction.

Dressing for the run is always a challenge and I like to underdress a bit, figuring that I’ll warm up as we go along.  I had my knit hat on and a buff around my neck.  Top side I had a long sleeve tech shirt under 2 long sleeve cotton shirts and a sweatshirt pulled over those.  I have my running shorts on under my winter pants which are a cross between tights and sweatpants.  I wore my lightweight running gloves with fleece ones pulled over them.  For the first mile or so my cheeks were cold as were my hands.  Every time I’d stop to check the map or to take a photo I’d pull off a glove and it took some time for them to heat back up up.  Such is winter running.

We parked at the Fish and Wildlife office.  Here’s a photo of the moon setting.

We headed south on Lake Elmo Drive and just before we got to our first turn on Roxy, a sudden flurry of movement came from our left.  It was 4 deer starting to scatter and 3 of them ran right in front of us and headed down the sidewalk.  Here’s one that stayed behind.

We got around the corner saw the others.

We have to loop back and forth on these streets.  Most have no sidewalks but when we got to Main Street the sidewalk there wasn’t much for running on.

For the most part we ran in the streets and with very little traffic at this time on a Saturday morning the greatest risk was slipping and falling.

Back and forth and then out to Main and Wicks and then back to Lake Elmo Drive where we crossed over at Stillwater and started zig-zagging the streets back to where we had parked.  

When we got back, we saw an access point to the lake and went to take a look.

            

It was a good run but compared to the 5-mile run we’d done yesterday, Shelley commented that this felt like 10.  I agreed.  We both felt a bit beat up and figured that it was the combination of hills and running on really rough surfaces.  But we got it done.

Here’s a video tour of the run.