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Walking the Pittsburgh Half-Maraton Route, Saturday, May 2, 2015

Can an obese 58 year old woman walk the half-marathon route in Pittsburgh in a reasonable number of hours?
A walk through Pittsburgh with a bunch of photos and thoughts on walking and Pittsburgh.

by Laurie Mann

More Pittsburgh area photos

Pittsburgh Half-Marathon Map I'd thought about walking a marathon or a half-marathon for a long time, but never really seriously considered it until I realized that, despite all the hills in the Pittsburgh area, the route for the Pittsburgh half-marathon is pretty flat as it stays fairly close to the rivers. I decided if the weather was good enough, I'd give it a try.	Half-Marathon Route Start At the start, Saturday, May 2. I am a fat person, obese even, but I walk regularly, usually 2-4 miles a day, and over 2470 extra miles since January 2012. It hasn't helped me to lose weight (I weight aboug 4 pounds more now than I did then) and it hasn't helped me sleep any better (have had hellacious insomnia since 2002 and sleep under 5 hours most nights). But, I've noticed my back feels better, and since it's a good idea to work some activity into your life at any age, I've stuck with it. I had trained, in my fashion. I wasn't sure I could finish the half-marathon, I wasn't timing myself, and I was sure I would stop here and there. I left a little after 8, and thought I could finish between 1 and 3.
Liberty Ave. About 1 mile on, Liberty Ave, outside the Pittsburgh Opera headquarters	Penn Ave. About 1.8 miles having turned onto Penn Ave. Many buildings with interesting murals on Penn
Penn Ave. A mural at Art's Tavern, a Penn Ave. jazz club	Penn Ave. More of the mural at Art's Tavern, a Penn Ave. jazz club
Penn Ave. About 2 miies along on Penn, beautiful mural for the Midwife Center	Penn Ave. Near the Pittsburgh Public Market, entering the busier part of the Strip District, but it was before 9am so it wasn't not too hectic...yet...
Penn Ave. Shoppers were accumulating so I didn't stop until I was through the most congested part of the Strip District. The Altar Bar on the left, views of downtown in the distance. The UPMC building was, for many years, the Steel Tower. The building with the triangled top is still called the Gulf Tower even though Gulf left Pittsburgh years ago.	16th St. Bridge Looking Back at Penn Ave. A very high mural in the Strip District.
16th St. Bridge About 3 miles along on the 16th St. Bridge looking back towards the Route 579 Bridge (Veterans Bridge) downtown. This is a very long parking lot in the Strip District which is being developed. At the lower right, you'll see some construction.	16th St. Bridge Looking away from downtown, the construction from the previous photo becomes a new street and a row of streetlights. The new road is leading to condos/apartments will be built on the left.
16th St. Bridge Looking towards the North Side	16th St. Bridge Selfie looking back towards downtown, the 579 (Veterans) Bridge and the Allegheny River
North Side One of the German-style buildings in the area, just a few blocks from Penn Brewery.	North Side View of downtown from the North Side
North Side Desutchtown (German town) sign in the North Side, looking back at downtown.	North Side East Ohio St. About 38 years ago, I bought my wedding hat on this street, but the wedding store is long gone.
North Side Beautiful small garden on the North side, about 4 miles or 10,000 steps into the half-marathon.	North Side Towards the 9th St. Bridge, looking at downtown

9th St. Bridge Looking at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown from the 9th St. Bridge. I've visited convention centers all over the place, and know the exterior design of the DLCC on the river side is gorgeous.	9th St. Bridge Selfie from the 9th St. Bridge, looking at the 7th St. Bridge, 6th St. Bridge and downtown.
7th St. Bridge There was also a 5k and a fun run on Saturday. Here are some of these runners coming across the 7th. St. Bridge	Penn Ave. Selfie from the 7th St. Bridge looking back towards the Alcoa Building and 9th St. Bridge towards the North Side. I'd walked about 4.75 miles at this point. I walked that distance many times and still felt good to go.
North Side Pittsburgh Traditional Academy on the North Side	North Side About 5.6 miles into the walk, I went by the entry to the North Side park where the National Aviary is. I got a little lost at this point, but wound up on a parallel street and found Western Ave. A little over 2 hours and 6 miles into the walk, I decided to take a break at the Western Ave McDonald's (also, I was about to walk nearly 3 miles in an area without places to stop (though I turned out to be wrong about that)). And then I headed off to the West End Bridge. I failed to get a decent photo of the bridge from a distance due to the odd location of the walkway.
West End Bridge Selfie on the West End Bridge, looking west along the Ohio River. While the West End Bridge is on the western end of Pittsburgh, it's also the very first bridge over the Ohio, at its far eastern end.	West End Bridge Point State Park Fountain and downtown Pittsburgh. Ohio River is in the foreground, the Monongahela River is on the right (with the Ft. Pitt Bridge going over it) and the Allegheny River on the left (with the Ft. Pitt Bridge going over it).
West End Entry into the West End. The roads in this area were ripped up and rebuilt in the last few years. It is usually much easier to drive in the West End now than it was before about 2012.	West End Steuben St. and Alexander St. were about the only hills on the half-marathon, which is kind of amazing given how hilly Pittsburgh is. But that makes the half-marathon a more doable route for more people, at least for me. I find steep hills are tough on my knees, but I regularly walk a fairly steep hill in my neighborhood.
West End Main St. of the West End is becoming more upscale (but I really miss one of its first upscale stores - the original Vanilla Pastry Studio). I had forgotten that there were places I could have stopped on that part of the route.	West Carson St. While most of the half-marathon routes has sidewalks, nearly a quarter of a mile between Main St. and West Carson St. has no sidewalk. I walked pretty quickly down this hill, then got across West Carson to the one sidewalk as soon as it was safe to do so.
West Carson St. View of the Fort Pitt Bridge from East Carson St. I'd walked about 8 miles (20,000 steps) in under 4 hours. Well, I never said I was fast.	Station Square Parking Lot At about 8½ miles, I realized I was feeling sunburned. I took a slight detour, but one that was parallel to the official route - I walked into the Station Square parking lot and sat in the shade. Got a good shot of Heinz Field and the Carnegie Science Center across the Ohio River.
Station Square Parking Lot Another shot of the Point State Park Fountain, this one a little closer to Station Square. Pittsburgh had a bad reputation when I considered going there for college in 1975, but I liked it very much from the first time I visited almost exactly 40 years ago. The downtown had a major rebuild in the '50s and early '60s and some minor tweaks since then. It's a wonderful place to live.	Station Square Wandered through Station Square, found a place that sold sunscreen (!), used the bathroom, got a soda. Station Square has been through many incarnations over the years, starting off as a train depot in the late 19th century and later being converted into a shopping/restaurant area in 1980. It's almost the exact age of Leslie, and is the spot where we bought her her first balloon (or bought it for her stroller) around Christmas 1980.
East Carson St. The mile or so between Station Square and the more commercial section of the South Side is kind of...well, unpleasant. But, at this point I'd walked over 9 miles, was refreshed from my break and I knew I could make it the rest of the way.	East Carson St. One of the many Orthodox churches in the Pittsburgh area. I realized my phone was running out of juice, which was too bad because the South Side has many interesting spots to photograph. So I turned off my phone.
Birmingham Bridge The last obligatory bridge selfie! On the Birmingham Bridge looking back along the Monongahela River towards downtown Pittsburgh. I'm looking quite opimistic as I was down to my last 2 miles or so and it was mostly downhill all the way from there. Sadly, the sidewalks in most of the Hill District are not in very good shape. Forbes Ave had recently been resurfaced, so I hope the next step is better sidewalks.	"Near the Finish Line" - Actually Forbes and Smithfield I made my single-biggest route-screw-up by staying on Forbes until I got to downtown. I was supposed to shift to the Boulevard of the Allies, which made much more sense given the construction on lower Forbes. But, at that point, rather than walk over to the Boulevard to do that last block, I knew Jim was waiting for me a half mile in the opposite direction so I went to meet Jim. So I declared victory. That was my longest walk at one time, though I admit to a few stops along the way, I walked the 13 miles over 6 hours (or, a little under 5 hours of actual walking). Total for Saturday: 15 miles of walking or about 39,000 steps. Part of the reason I did this was because we fat people fall into a rut. True, I can't run, but I can walk. How many people out there have walked a half marathon? It's the sort of thing you can do at almost any size. I also did it because I find Pittsburgh a great place to photograph, and will have to do a walk up and down the South Side one ay this fall with my better camera and charged batteries.