Mar 18 Run: Hot Metal Bridge Parking Lot for an early morning pub crawl

Meet in the parking lot on the downtown side of the Hot Metal bridge at the Pittsburgh Technology Center.As you drive down Bates Street - head straight into the parking lot and make a left. In celebration of St. Patrick's day we will see if any bars are still open on Carson Street. I don't think we are planning to actually drink but you never know!


We wound our way through the East End this morning checking out all the new (and old) restaurants that have been popping up in our neighborhood. It also involved three crossings of the bus-way including the new "amusement park" bridge between Ellsworth and the East Side parking lot. The bridges provided some fine views of the city in the bright morning sun. Given the time change there were quite a few runners and even though everyone did not stay for coffee you might not have guessed this given the noise level. The big news was the announcement and passing around of  Roye son's new book: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl How cool is that!!!

Mar 11: Bakery Square - DST BEGINS

Don't forget to move your clock forward an hour before you go to bed next Saturday night so you don't miss the Explore Exotic East End run. From Bakery Square we will visit some of the new restaurants popping up and also work in a trip across the new foot bridge to Ellsworth Ave.

It has been a while since the group has been reprimanded so it should not have been a surprise that the security guard at the Pennsylvanian Apartments (the old train station) told us to leave the rotunda area where we had been admiring the stonework because it was private property - but somehow it just does not seem right to limit access to one of the city's architectural gems... Still that did not take away from the rest of the run whose mysterious goal turned out to be a visit to the partly dismantled Civic Arena. Well, OK, that was not exactly uplifting but it was interesting. We also ran by a new (to me at least) public square across from Point Park on the Boulevard and Tom did not complain when we took a detour to see the Cell Phone Disco which we unfortunately could not activate since no one had their cell phone on them.. Thanks to Tom for the downtown tour.
PtB joined us for coffee and we were all glad to see she is healing up nicely from her running injury.

Mar 4 Run: PPG Place/Tomb of the Unknown Bowler

Tom rushed into Commonplace this past Sunday and told Wendy he would lead the run this coming Sunday from the Tomb of the Unknown Bowler in PPG Place (at the skating rink). He promptly left, leaving us with many questions - but where ever the run is, it will sure to be interesting so get there if you can!

Yet another sunny Sunday run - truly unusual weather for Pittsburgh but most welcomed. Virginia led us through the streets of Regent Square then down into Frick Park - a nice combination of urban and less-urban. We had a good sized group and commanded many tables at Common Place. I was hoping the other customers were not looking for a quiet Sunday morning coffee...

A lucky few runners spied two (!) Pileated woodpeckers by the tennis courts. You can just pick them out in this photo:

Feb 26 Run: Braddock Ave/Regent Square Tennis Courts

Thank-you to Wendy for her stellar review of last Sunday's run:

Virginia promised to join the run next week, which will commence from the Braddock Ave/Regent Square tennis courts.

A smaller than usual crew, including newcomers JoAnne, Lisa and Anna gathered for a sunny, slightly frosty but very familiar run. It felt like early spring tripping over the crunchy wet passages of the trail and hearing the sound of intermittent bird song. I momentarily derailed the flow of the run when I bent over to retrieve my handkerchief but we avoided a pile up and soldiered on.  

Afterwards, we commandeered our usual corner at Commonplace where Elaine led us in leg and hip stretches, Sarah reminded us about the date of the Pgh Marathon (she's doing the full--go Sarah!), Teri waxed poetic about Manfred Honeck's soft hands, Virginia discussed the new PG Steel Advice columnist and Cheryl introduced us to the app Shanghai Lite and vowed to organize a mahjong game, despite the fact that her tiles are plastic. David also endorsed itunes university, which offers free online courses featuring audio, video, books, and other content:http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/

AJG: MIT also offers free on-line courses: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/

Feb 19 Run: Wendy Bennett Trailhead

Next Sunday meet at the entrance to Schenley Park at the corner of Bartlett and the Boulevard (aka the Wendy Bennett Trailhead) for a Presidents' Day weekend run.

The word "intrepid" was mentioned several times today to describe the hardy band of runners who showed up for a tour of wintry Frick Park. In truth, while it was certainly chilly, it did not seem quite as bitter as the day of the Troy Hill expedition. The park did not disappoint, offering stark winter views at every turn.

Several people ran directly home making the small group even smaller for coffee but I think it was one of my all-time favorites. Not only was the list of topics long and engaging but we even had a guest speaker. Carl, Elaine's husband, joined us to answer questions about reception on new TVs (no, you do not need cable), eating vegan (watch for an invitation to the Vegan meetup monthly meal) and making no-knead bread (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html).

Feb 12 Run: Reynolds & Homewood for a Frick Park Run

Betting that the fine weather will hold, next week gather at the entrance to Frick Park where Reynolds and South Homewood meet in a traffic circle for a run in Frick Park.

The triple thread run brought out a crowd of runners (a host, a clowder, a herd, a ?) including a new runner (Anna), a returning runner (Julie), N. Hills runners (Carrie, Bob and Carol) and a S. Hills runner (Louise). The mild winter weather made for a pleasant run around our beautiful rivers. There were many photo worthy views from bridge decks and river-side paths as the fog lifted with the sunrise. Overall it was just a smooth run - no big surprises or hills (although the steps to the West End Bridge were steep enough).

Even though many people could not join the coffee group there were still plenty left to fill-up such a long-table at Commonplace that I don't know what people at the other end were discussing but I am sure it was interesting!

Feb 5 Run: PPG Place for a triple threat run

Meet at PPG Place, home of the Tomb of the Unknown Bowler and the Ice Skating Rink for a 3 bridges, 3 rivers, 3 stadium run in honor of Superbowl Sunday (the third stadium is in the planning phase:  http://www.riverhounds.com/home/589776.html)

Another crisp and sunny Sunday run, this time along the Mon Valley Heritage Trail. Being winter we could see clearly the post-modern rust-belt scenery across the river as well as panoramic views of the upstream bridges framed in steam and sunlight. I was told by at least two runners to be sure to mention the bouncing bridge over the rail-road tracks that nicely echoed the entrance to the Noah's Ark ride at Kennywood - it did provide the same sense of surprised disorientation, enough to elicit a few yelps of delight. The turn-around point was at the backside of the park where the Thunderbolt and whatever the Steel Phantom is these days overlap. It was a tiny tease of summer to come.

We had quite a few people who joined us for coffee - a nice trend - we can become a running AND Sunday coffee group. Some of the conversations turned to election year matters and Roye kindly explained Stephen Colbert to those of us without cable. There were also discussions about Kindles, ebooks and the library - this was just at my part of the table!

We send healing vibes out to PtB who turned her ankle on the run to the run.