burgh

it's been over a week since my last run, and even longer for a real run, i finally made it out this afternoon. i'm back in pittsburgh for christmas for a week to celebrate w/ family and friends. but due to the proximity of my gym from my brother's place where i'm staying, as well as the freezing temps and social obligations, [and insert a good excuse] i haven't logged any miles. although my bro and i did walk around for some errands on christmas eve, but nothing worth blogging about.

so i figured i'd take advantage of the nice late-december pittsburgh weather by running a few k. i threw out the suggestion of trail running, as i wanted to stay in the sun, so we mapped out a route on mapmyrun.com that was a good mix of a residential and urban sights. the sun was actually shinning (shockingly, since it's been reported that there are 59 of such days per year here), and equipped w/ my polar hrm (sans footpod to measure any type of distance or pace) and oakley’s i headed out for what i thought would be a little more than a 5k. after 10 minutes or so i was on 5th avenue in oakland and could have hit my halfway point to start heading back at st. paul's cathedral (where my family went to christmas morning mass). but i was feeling good. and it was a beautiful day. and i needed to experience a more urban feel. so i continued down fifth past the university of pittsburgh's campus and made my turn to go by pitt again and headed up to carnegie mellon university. i haven't gone by these universities in anything but a car for years, but running by them and seeing the details of the surroundings reminded me of years ago when these universities were clients of ours and i worked there.

around cmu the flatness of pittsburgh ran out and i was i heading up a small incline. it leveled out, but my bigger concern was that now i was on my own and off the familiar path. but i have driven around this area a lot 3 years ago, so as the oncoming traffic was halted by a green arrow the way i was going, i jetted across the street onto beeler st. i've driven this road a bunch, and remembered it being really short. so after a few minutes of running on it, i came to the a good right in the street and after making the turn could see the end of the street was much further than i had remembered. oops. this is where the hill training started - the left onto fair oaks street was fun, as well as the left onto s. negley, but even better was when i crested the hill and started the decent. i swear that my first thought was "this is as steep, and as long, as a ski run!" most importantly i took caution on the sidewalk so i didn't end up tripping on a crack or slipping on some loose stones and doing a 'header'. thankfully i didn't and shortly after i was back near my brother's and cooling down.

while some people are lucky enough to have a hot tub at home and can just jump in for their post-run recovery, mine is the stick! i'm just glad i was smart enough to use it!