A Short Break From the Project

November 28, 2023

I haven’t been as steady raking up the streets in the past month due to some other activities.  At the beginning of this month I traveled to Pittsburgh, PA and ran their 10-miler through downtown.  After that I had a short visit from Covid and now I am in Mesa, AZ for a week.  I did get a couple project runs in and plan to ramp back up in December.

All that said, a little bit about the Pittsburgh run….

We flew in a few days early and hung out with my son and his girlfriend, Krissy, and visited the Flight 93 Memorial and Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater house.  I did a sketch of the house when we were there and added watercolor later.

The next day my wife and went to packet pickup which was busy but well-organized.  After that we went to Point State Park, the confluence of two river that form the Ohio River.

This was followed by a hike in Frick Park with Dan, Krissy, and Daisy the Dog.  We found our way to a brewery and then got take-out at Noodleheads.

Race morning found us at Station Square from where Dan and I walked to the start of the 10-miler and Sarah and Krissy grabbed a train to the start of the 10K.  The 10-mile run was lots of fun.  4 bridge crossings and a huge crowd along the way.

After recovering with a shower and such we visited the National Aviary.

We found another brewery with great pizza off a food truck.

The rest of trip well not-so-well as we traveled home and I started feeling sick.  After a few days I was better and now, a few week later, I am in Mesa, AZ for the best part of a week.

Running in Mesa is very different from running in Pittsburgh or Billings.  I am in the east side of town and this is suburb after suburb, all apparently with HOAs demanding that houses only be painted beige.  And wall.  Lots of walls.   My morning run today took me through some neighborhoods on the way to the only open area that I knew of, a huge right-of-way for some power lines.  I’ve run here in the past but when I got there today I saw this:

Of course, I didn’t let that stop me because, what are they going to do?  This is the only non-paved place to run for many miles.  When I got to the far section it was fenced and, while hopping barbed wire something I’ve done in Montana, I decided not to here.

Instead I routed through the adjoining neighborhoods, all built behind walls, and all the same color.

I did see this cool Rambler.

Some big decorations.

And signs.  Lots of signs, all with some kind of “thou shalt not” message.

Some signs have mixed meanings.  Do you have to stop for adults?

And who gets dropped off?  Parents?

I like this one, advertising “Private Backyards.”  Look at the distance between the house and the fence.  Yep, that looks private.

I was running with my empty backpack and stopped at a mini-Walmart for provisions and then walked the 3/4-mile back to where I am staying giving me a 5-mile outing today.

Run 142 - Brisk Heights Run

November 25, 2023

When I titled this run “brisk” I wasn't referring to our speed but to the temperature.  It was a crisp 17 degrees when we headed out and there was a bit of a breeze which dropped the feel to just below zero but it’s a run with friends and family so it can’t be all bad.  My son Dan and his girlfriend Krissy are visiting from Pittsburgh, PA and we met Shelley at Josephine and Main in the Heights for this route:

The course is mostly flat and has its share of dead ends and some running of streets more than once but it’s an interesting part of the city with a wide variation of architecture.  Here are Dan and Krissy at the end of our first dead end street.

Shelley is ready to run again.

Look carefully and you’ll see that this place has some outdoor plumbing.

What gem…

This is one the east end of Rice Lane.

Some of the streets in this area are yet to be paved.

This is a nice park tucked away at the east end of Windsor Circle.

We saw some deer ahead of us.  The headed between two houses and when I got there, one of them was peeking around the corner at us.

A few more deer were hiding in this yard.

Here we ran into our first obstacle.  The map software I used indicated that we could proceed through here but the gate was locked it it appeared that we were on private private property on this side so we looked at the make and decided to go back out to Lake Elmo Drive and run the bottom part of the course in reverse.

This next section is large, very well-kept, trailer park called Windsor Estates where all the streets were named after the members of the Windsor family: Queen Victoria, Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, and King Arthur among others.

When we arrived on the other side of that locked gate we saw a few deer hanging around.

We headed onto King Henry Place, an out and back and saw this house lording over all.  My guess is that this was the original house on this property.

The smallest fire hydrant I have ever seen.

This single-wide had a log cabin motif and some nice yard art.

We ended up back on Lake Elmo Drive and turned on Josephine to get back to where we parked.  Here’s one of the houses we passed.

At the screen shot below indicates, it was 15 degrees at the finish of our 6.65 miles.  A fun run.