We “ran” in South Cumminsville
the Sunday after Donnie ran the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I say “ran” in quotation marks because
“hobbled” may be the better verb. While Donnie
killed the marathon—achieving a 2 minute PR at 2:26:55 and coming in 6th
place overall—he has been limping around ever since.
Since so many of you have asked,
while Donnie was running the marathon, I was not running the marathon. I was drinking coffee and reading Vogue in the athletes’
dressing room. And taking selfies:
Technically, I had scheduled this
week off from Run 52 months ago,
knowing that Donnie would need some time to recover. But it was a pretty day and I let this fact
slip my mind as the Run 52 momentum
carried us out the door and up I-75 to South Cumminsville.
(Later Donnie would get a peek at
my scheduling spreadsheet and curse my foresight coupled with a subsequent lack
of follow-through.)
South Cumminsville is just south
of Northside. Until the construction of
I-74, the two neighborhoods were originally one larger neighborhood known as
Cumminsville. We started our run from
Working In Neighborhoods, on the corner of Dreman Avenue and Borden
Street.
Working In Neighborhoods (WIN) is a community-based nonprofit that develops affordable housing, provides
leadership training, and offers homeownership classes and housing
counseling. They also put on a great
spring 5k at Winton Woods called “Run for the American Dream.” If you click on this link you can see an old picture of me running it.
Working In Neighborhoods’
Economic Learning Center is on the at the Old St. Pius Church, which has been
beautifully renovated into offices, classrooms, and senior apartments.
On the blocks surrounding Working
In Neighborhoods, there are well-maintained residential blocks with solid,
single-family homes. Here there are great, affordable options for first-time
homebuyers and families.
The trees along Llewellyn were
unsuccessfully trying to hang onto their summer green:
On the corner of Beekman and
Dremen is the famous Mr. Gene’s Dog House.
If you keep going on Dremen past
Mr. Gene’s, there is a tree-lined sidewalk that leads to the West Fork Mill
Creek. I’m obviously obsessed with the
fall leaves, but I swear in the seven autumns I’ve spent in Cincinnati I don’t
think they’ve ever been as pretty as they are this year:
I know the guy just raced 26
miles, but here he was really shuffling:
From this stretch, we were able
to take a little path over to the Wayne Playground:
The Wayne Playground has
basketball courts, baseball fields, and a wide open field where I was able to
get in a few wide loops while Donnie rested.
From the playground, you can see
the old Garfield Public School, which has been developed into apartments known
as Garfield Commons.
For some reason, I decided I
could defy the limitations of being five feet tall and jump to touch the
basketball net.
Also, for some reason, I thought
that putting my hand on my hip would help:
This doesn't have much to do with running, but ever since
I told Donnie I dropped out of the fifth grade basketball league after one game, he does this
schtick where he says in his announcer voice: “My wife… is a very short woman. While the other children were playing basketball games after school... she
was indoors sorting her spreadsheet.”
Clearly someone should give this
guy his own show.
-K.
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