Run 52: Millvale

Mill: A building equipped with machinery for grinding grain into flour.

Vale: A valley, often coursed by a stream.
 

Millvale is a small West Side community, the Millcreek and its industry to the east of the neighborhood and a pretty hill with a forest of trees to the west. 

We started our route by meeting up with Emily at the corner of Beekman and the Hopple Street Viaduct.  This was the third time we drove to a Run 52 in the pouring rain (East End, Hartwell).  Each time, we’ve been lucky that the rain has stopped just as we got out of the car to start the route.  I actually really like running in the rain (it’s like running and swimming at the same time!) but for the sake of my camera phone I was grateful for the drier conditions. Here was our lineup of runners:

The Running Pro:

The Yoga Pro:

The Squirt:

(Maybe it’s just the angle at which a taller person took this photo, or maybe it’s my giant hat, but I appear very short here. Shorter than I actually am. Right?)

Much of the neighborhood is made of up Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority townhouses, but there are also single family homes and businesses along Beekman Avenue.  First, we ran down Beekman past the factories and warehouses that line the Millcreek:

We made a loop through the housing development, with its colorful homes and green lawns. The back row of townhouses backs up to the woods, which must provide a pleasant view.

The townhomes are conveniently adjacent to Ethel M. Taylor Academy and the Millvale Recreation Center.  

The Rec Center, housed in a cool modernist building, has an impressive collection of murals, a big swimming pool, and a patio garden:   

Doesn’t this dog on the chain-link fence art look like our Zola Budd?

 

At the end of our run, we ran back and forth across the Hopple Street Viaduct, which overlooks the Millcreek, its factories, and its busy rail yard:

We also got this shot of one of the hundreds of billboards trying to lure Ohioans to vacation in Northern Michigan.  Here are Donnie and I saying, “Been there, done that, Billboard!”:

For proof, see photo above re: Zola Budd.

Three last points.  First, Millvale is not to be confused with rural Millville, where I sold ice cream out of a window at the tender age of fourteen. The ice cream shop was across the street from a store that sold hard candies and cowboy hats.  Not sure why that detail is relevant or interesting, but there you have it.

Second, it was quite chilly for late July.  Although admittedly, maybe it was not quite cold enough to warrant the windbreakers and sweatshirts we were wearing. 

Most importantly, Millvale marks the half-way point of the Run 52 challenge.  Twenty-six down, twenty-six to go!  

-K.