OnFootBlog.com

I’m going to stop posting on here for a long while. Possibly forever.

When I first started this site, my employer was the Annapolis Capital, a wonderful paper that (at the time) had no running or transportation blogs. Now, however, I work for the Baltimore Sun, which within the last year has launched both a wonderful transportation blog and, more recently, a very nice running section. Since these vastly outdo my blog in terms of quality and quantity, I’m happy to say that it’s now quite redundant.

That said, I’d still love to see you at a Friday meetup, as those will continue.

From a recent article on a running group for recovering addicts:

“It rejuvenates your body and your mind,” said Richard Smith, 23. The Massachusetts native used to play football as a child and joined the running group because he wanted to try something different while recovering from his alcohol addiction.

[Read more]

If I didn’t work at 5:30 in the morning anyway, I might try this. Interesting to read about either way.

The group’s site: backonmyfeet.org

I can thank Nobody’s Business for bringing this to my attention:

From the Patriot-News:

Drinking and driving is not the only way to get in trouble at a sobriety checkpoint. Two pedestrians found that out when state police set up a checkpoint late night Saturday into early morning Sunday along state Route 34 in New Bloomfield.

In addition to two motorists who were cited for driving under the influence and related traffic offenses, police said, troopers also cited two pedestrians for public drunkenness after they were observed to be intoxicated as they walked through the checkpoint area.

Read full article …

The story is a few days old at this point, but if posting it helps keep one of my readers out of jail (whether in Pennsylvania or elsewhere), I’m happy to do the favor.

The transit system in York County, PA will be running a new commuter bus for connection with Baltimore’s light rail system.

The Baltimore Sun has a description, along with a map of the Rabbit route here.

While I won’t be using this much myself, I’m happy to see it. At five dollars, it’s a pretty good deal — not just for commuters, but for tourists as well, as The Gettysburg Blog points out.

It comes just a bit late for my personal use: I had some family friends from Michigan who lived in York, and it would have been great to visit them more frequently. Being able to pay less and read a book on the way there certainly would have helped.

Oh well. Maybe I’ll take it up one of these days to visit the weightlifting museum.

Since the Ravens-Steelers AFC title game this weekend will only take up a small slice of the evening, I figured I’d give a few tips for those whose non-football interest in the area might go beyond weird sandwiches. Here are some weekend options:

Walking/Transit

Growing up, watching the trolley on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was an unhealthy gateway drug into both jazz and rail geekdom. What I didn’t find out until a few years ago, however, was that Fred Rogers’ real neighborhood contains some transit that’s possibly even cooler (albeit sans theme music). Pittsburgh is home to one of the more famous funicular systems in the country, as well as some light rail, but it also plays host to a less famous (but nearly as cool) system of grade-seperated busways. One state legislative staffer even documented his daily experiences with the system as a whole. A (more-or-less-complete) map of that system can be found here.

Biking

Along with an emerging system of bike lanes, Pittsburgh has an older, more developed network of paved and unpaved trails. I could give a quick summary of those trail offerings, but these folks already did a much better job. One cautionary note: I don’t have any idea how/whether they plow or scrape these trails in the winter. For example, my run to work yesterday on the Jones Falls Trail was a mixed bag — snow was removed, but iced-over puddles remained. In a different (and more northern) city, your experience may be worse. Or it may be better. You have been warned.

Running

Along with the biking route options linked above,  you can check out the usual online options for a bunch of improvised routes. There’s also a race if you’re willing to go out to the exurbs: I have to grant the organizers of the Bushwacker’s Nightmare Trail Run congratulations for choosing an excellent name. The race is Sunday at 10 a.m.

One more thing

If you’re not sure what non-game events to walk/bike/ride toward, and you’re short on time or morbidly lazy (the latter being unlikely for a reader of this blog), here’s an events link to get you started on your search. It’s been a couple of years since I last visited Pittsburgh, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

It’s taken awhile for me to come around to the idea of marathons as more than just big races, but I’m starting to see how an event with thousands of people can become a celebration of community — even if it’s an event full of sweaty, fast-moving people.

Baltimore’s decision to have a “running festival” seemed silly to me at first, but as I watched the way that fans, families and post-race runners brought life to usually-dead-on-Saturday streets last month, I was sold. I wish I could have seen how the Washington event staffers did at leveraging the race.

Now Philadelphia does their version. From the Inquirer:

With runners competing from across the United States and more than 30 countries, officials decided to highlight Philadelphia as a destination for marathon weekend, offering Marathon Fan Shopping Passes with 15 percent shopping discounts at businesses along the route.

If this type of thing becomes truly routine, you might start seeing smaller cities jump into the marathon circuit — especially at a time when people aren’t shopping as much. Volunteers at water stands are cheap, but getting eyeballs into your store can be quite expensive. It’s definitely something for folks in places like my hometown of Lansing to mull over.