Hopefully the trails will remain clear next Sunday as we head away from town on the South Side Trail. With no leaves on the trees it should provide many good views of the river. Meet at the parking lot next to the Hot Metal Bridge (on the downtown side). The entrance is at the intersection of Bates and Second Ave.
There will be a run to the run starting at Common Place Coffee at 6:15am.
While I was not on the run today, I did meet up with the group for coffee and heard it was good, as always - the group did the "bird run" meaning lots of hills. Most impressive were the runners that met at 6:15 to do additional miles! As a treat, Paula the Brit brought English digestive biscuits to coffee - the chocolate kind - yum!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Feb 27 Run: Commonplace Coffee - unless someone has a better idea
We were all so stuffed on pastry and coffee this morning that no run was set for next week. Given that, I am going with the default meeting place from which we could go to the cemetary, Chatham, Frick Park or any number of East end destinations. After several weeks of designer runs, it might be nice to stay close to home, so meet at Commonplace Coffee in Squirrel Hill. Of course, if someone has another run they want to lead please feel free to send mail - we can be flexible.
We had a good group and a nice morning for the "President's Day" Loop - the upstream version of our downtown run. While there are no big buildings and dramatic vistas - this run has its own points of interest - notably: the nice bit of new trail along the channel, a chance to see both TRRA boat houses, the 40th Street bridge*, and Butler Street in Lawrenceville. Of course the very best part of any run that starts in the Strip is the coffee and Meles at La Prima. Today we hung around salivating as we waited for the pastries to come out of the oven and they were worth every minute!
* Here is the bit about the seals:
The balustrade which runs the length of the bridge includes metal reliefs of the Great Seal of each of the 13 original United States plus the County of Allegheny. Each measures approximately 2 ft wide by 3 ft high. They appear in the following order (north to south): Allegheny County, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. This order is roughly the same order as the states appear in the map from north to south, with Allegheny County providing a divider to restart the series. The series repeats just over 10 times per side with a total of 290 seals on the bridge. Photos
And here is the map of the 5.3 mile run:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=477129821334839961
We had a good group and a nice morning for the "President's Day" Loop - the upstream version of our downtown run. While there are no big buildings and dramatic vistas - this run has its own points of interest - notably: the nice bit of new trail along the channel, a chance to see both TRRA boat houses, the 40th Street bridge*, and Butler Street in Lawrenceville. Of course the very best part of any run that starts in the Strip is the coffee and Meles at La Prima. Today we hung around salivating as we waited for the pastries to come out of the oven and they were worth every minute!
* Here is the bit about the seals:
The balustrade which runs the length of the bridge includes metal reliefs of the Great Seal of each of the 13 original United States plus the County of Allegheny. Each measures approximately 2 ft wide by 3 ft high. They appear in the following order (north to south): Allegheny County, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. This order is roughly the same order as the states appear in the map from north to south, with Allegheny County providing a divider to restart the series. The series repeats just over 10 times per side with a total of 290 seals on the bridge. Photos
And here is the map of the 5.3 mile run:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=477129821334839961
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Feb 20 Run: Parking Lot at 21st & Liberty for a Presidents' Day Run
Meet at the parking lot at 21st and Liberty Ave in the Strip for the usual Strip Loop which includes crossing onto Washington's Landing or maybe we will head up the the 40th St Bridge which actually is the Washington's crossing bridge (check out the link) - you get the idea. Wherever we run we will end up at La Prima for coffee and pastries.
There will be a run to the run starting at Common Place Coffee at 6:00 AM (previous starting times have not been early enough).
Note that I have also finally created a googlegroup for this list. This will make it easier to manage and also preserve the privacy of group member's email addresses. You can use the group name to send email to everyone in the group:eerunners@googlegroups.com
Today's run was full of small treasures from the Center for Imagination and other interesting Garfield sites to the musical cherubs on the restored fountain in Mellon Park. It helped that the weather was comparatively mild and the pavements were mostly clear. Thanks to Roye for introducing us to yet more of our city's fascinating
I think that our coffee sessions are starting to last longer than the runs themselves (and the runs are not getting shorter) - which is a real treat. As always the topics were far ranging and I was at only one end of the table. Here are links to some of the information shared:
On the subject of how do you organize the notes you collect at work - online or on paper, Pam Murray introduced us to these notebooks:
Circa Notebooks:
Sharon, who is cautiously coming back from an injury, joined us for coffee with a "right-sized" bag from Baggallini that she bought at Newmans but you can also order them from Amazon:
Baggallini
Two recommended Audrey Tautou movies:
Priceless
Cooco Before Channel
While we were discussing movies this podcast was recommended even though they did not like "The King's Speech":
Slate's Culture GabFest
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Feb 13 Run: Coffee Tree in Bakery Square for a run to the Center for Imagination
Roye will lead us on a Penn Ave run that takes us to/by the Center for Imagination. Meet at the Coffee Tree in Bakery Square for this intriguing sounding run.
To view Go Stillerz!, follow the link below:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_
While we may look innocuous, our running group seems to be on a crime spree. This time we were stopped while looking at the new performance space next to Heinz Field. Who knew that this was the parking lot where many of the Steelers and city officials left their cars while they were in Dallas, or that a group of people posing as runners (which we kind of do) had stolen 16 cars last week from a near-by lot?! The security person, driving a bright gold car and in Steeler garb, said the security cameras had picked us up as we ran around Heinz Field. Somehow I can't imagine that we looked suspicious but maybe those other car thieves we imitating us. This incident just added to the general hilarity of today's run for which many turned out in Steeler colors. There were a few "Go Steelers" moments and even someone blowing what looked like a mini-air horn as we toured around downtown looking for Super Bowl related sites. We repeated the photo from 2 years ago in front of the Steeler Tree in the Courthouse courtyard. I admit a few of us shrunk down a little when a security guard approached even though the gates were wide open. My personal favorite was the big dinosaur in front of the Art Institute which had a piece of cheese in his mouth and Troy Polamalu hair.
A large number of runners, including Tom! returned to CommonPlace for coffee, disrupting the quiet but having a great time. Wendy's friend Anat was in town, making the run and coffee a little more special. It was a good start to a gray Sunday in February.
To view Go Stillerz!, follow the link below:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_
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