May 2 Run: Mellon Park - corner of 5th and Beechwood

Those not running the Marathon or 1/2 - meet at the little play park where Beechwood meets 5th. We can participate vicariously by running on the course :-)  For those driving to the run, I would suggest parking on Beechwood or even Reynolds.

It was another run just made to vex Tom right from the beginning when Wendy offered the group a choice of routes and it only became worse when a breakout group offered yet another choice later in the run - way too many decisions for one run! Still he seemed if not not happy at least resigned to his fate :-) All of this indecision was off-set by the beautiful morning. It must have been the rain the night before that cleared the air because the sky was bright blue and sunlight filtered through the new leaves in Schenley Park in an especially pleasing way. The runners ahead of me on the trail were framed in leaves and streaming sunlight,  making a picture worthy of an ad/magazine. Perhaps because we all expected storms the lovely morning seemed like an unexpected gift. As we sat outside for Coffee and that old summer vacation feeling crept up on us and we lingered longer than usual.

April 25 - Wendy Bennett Trailhead

Missing Anne Jane today! So yours truly reports:
Next up: Wendy Bennett Trailhead (Schenley Park, beginning of Overlook Drive where it heads up to the Oval) at spring blossom time.
Cold and blowy this a.m., but we got warm fast, running practically straight uphill to the fantastic lookout at Herron Hill Park above Oakland - a neighborhood that I have just discovered is also picturesquely known as Sugartop (also the site of a murder last summer, but never mind...) We could see that the UPMC sign on the USX building towered over everything - it was noted that 1. it is higher than Mt. Washington 2. against a grey ominous sky like today's it can be compared to the Eye of Sauron and 3. David Bear deserves kudos for his idea of turning the top of it into the next urban park (http://highpointpark.org/). On our much easier downhill return to Phipps, we stopped to contemplate the arrestingly metaphorical red hands recently painted on the statue of Christopher Columbus, and also everyone's experience of Latin, which was not quite enough to translate Non Nobis Solum Sed Toti Mundo inscribed on one of the many majestic classical buildings on the way (easily googled, however: Not For Ourselves Alone But For All the World - I should have got that!)
Coffee was so relaxed that, without Anne Jane there to keep us on track, we forgot to come up with a run for next week, so Wendy and I just assumed the power. Runners to the run - any additional instructions?

Apr 18 Run: Phipps for a run to the top of Oakland

Hi All

Meet at Phipps for a run up the hills behind Oakland to the Water Tower and the Robert E. Williams Memorial Park.

Run to the run starts at 6:40AM at the Coffee Tree.

It was Tom's least favorite kind of run - leaderless and meandering fraught with indecision - but it was a beautiful morning to be wandering through Allegheny Cemetery, even if most of it was uphill.  The cemetery is big enough to rank right up there with our city parks - it is 300 acres big ( Frick is 561, Schenley is 456 and Riverview is 287). Many of the trees are in bloom and starting to leaf out, the grass is bright green and the vistas from those big hills are pastoral and soothing. We did manage to stumble into an area that was clearly undeveloped (part of the 100 acres that is still waiting for occupants) - Johnathan called it the wilderness version of the cemetery run. Roye and I did another small loop after everyone left looking for Stephen Foster's grave - we did not find it but did see Lillian Russell's mausoleum that was near another with a very interesting Egyptian theme. Apparently there are also 16 previous mayors of Pittsburgh buried there as well.

http://www.alleghenycemetery.com/

http://www.pittsburghparks.org/

Apr 11 Run: Allegheny Cemetery - Penn Ave entrance (near Children's hospital)

Since we did a park run today, we thought Allegheny Cemetery would be a good choice to view spring blooms. Meet at the entrance on Penn Ave which is about 1.5 blocks from Children's hospital - toward E. Liberty. We will just canoodle our way around this very big urban green space.

For those training for the 1/2 marathon, add 3 miles to your run by starting at the Coffee Tree at 6:20 - 6:25AM (it is about 3 miles).

As might be expected, there was a small group this morning but we had a sweet Easter Sunday run starting in Homewood Cemetery and then winding through Frick Park. There is a dusting of green on the trees and many are starting to flower add to that a sunny morning for a fit start to the Spring season. It was warm enough to sit outside at the Coffee Tree which always makes it feel just a little like a vacation. Roye rode up on her bike, joining in on conversation topics that included librarians, giving blood, gray hair becoming fashionable and fish stew.