Run 52: Sedamsville

Okay. First, things first, it’s: Sed-ams-ville not Seed-ums-ville. Admittedly, I made this mistake when I first saw this place on the map. Sedamsville is a tiny neighborhood on Cincinnati’s Westside that is famous for its haunted legends. It’s also notable for being the birthplace of one Peter Edward Rose. 

 

Revealing what she’s most interested in Kayla’s route took us by the Haunted Rectory, but we never made it by Pete’s birthplace. She explained that the rectory had been featured on TLC's Ghost Adventures show, which she must have caught in between Octo-Mom, The Elephant Mom, and The Goriest ER Surgeries Ever Recorded.

Building upon the haunted theme, our special-guest-runner (3rd time!), Emily Lee suggested that we dress up for our run. Emily showed up with a Hello-Kitty t-shirt, explaining that she was a middle-schooler.

As for Kayla, she pulled out a long-sleeved t-shirt that said “Sedamsville Make a Difference Day.” Her costume? Make a Difference Day volunteer.

Having just watched Run For Your Life, a documentary about the late New York City Marathon Director, Fred Lebow, I went for his look minus the tiny cap. What can I say? Nailed it.

After perusing through some Google Image searches, I decided that Kayla and I could have been Grete Waitz and Fred Lebow.

Once we were done comparing costumes , we started to explore Sedamsville. As we made our way through the neighborhood, Kayla reminded us that she was something of a Sedamsville expert as one of her first duties as a community organizer at her previous job was to canvas the streets of Sedamsville to get resident input on a business that was considering a new location along River Road.

 

The building stock in Sedamsville is really interesting, as it echoes the Italianate feel of nearby Lower Price Hills while maintaining its individual feeling.  The vista has the feel of a West Virigina mining town:

Adding to the small town feel were a few small businesses at the end of the residential blocks. These are the kind of shops that make me want to drive across town to buy a light bulb.

From the  neighborhood we made our way into Boldface Park, which sits on River Road. The first thing we noticed at Boldface was the very well done pavilion that overlooked the park. This ornate structure inspired an extensive photo expose.

 

Five hours later, we headed down River Road, which lived up to its name: check out this view!

Recently, there has been talk that there could soon be a river trail beginning from Lower Price Hill and continuing through the existing parks along the way all the way to Sayler Park.  

As we headed down River Road, I noticed that in the distance there was a man standing at the edge of the concrete steps in front of his house.  I wondered what he was doing and then noticed that he had several bottles of water in hand and was waving for us to stop.

Handing over a bottle to each of us, this Sedamsville resident wanted to know where we had been running.  A runner himself, he suggested of a loop that we might check out at  some point  in the future. He explained that if you ran along the riverfront, you could make a 12 mile loop out to Anderson Ferry and back along River Road. I filed this suggestion away for some weekend when the monotony of the same old loops becomes drives me to try something different.

For me this simple act, was an illustration of how running requires you to depend on others--even total strangers. With the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, just a week away this truth was especially poignant , as I couldn’t have trained the way I did without Kayla. From her commitment to nutrition, which has kept me healthier this year, to her matter-of-fact assessment of my fitness “well you run over 20 miles every weekend, why would you be nervous about doing it next weekend?” Without her I might be wondering what I could have achieved instead of setting out to achieve it.

So what does this have to do with Sedamsville? Everything. When we started Run 52, it was because we knew that running and community go together. And in neighborhood after neighborhood we have been reminded of this fact, and Sedamsville was no different.

 

See our whole route here: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=530161

Run 52: Riverside

The fog had yet to burn off for the day as we drove along US 50 West into Riverside.  Riverside is a long, narrow West Side neighborhood that runs along the Ohio River between Sedamsville and Saylor Park.  Along this stretch 50 West is known as River Road.  The busy four-lane thoroughfare divides the neighborhood.  On the south side of the road, industry and railroad tracks hug the river.  On the north side of the road, houses creep up the hillside.   

 

 

We started our run from the Riverside Boat Launch.  The small park also has ball fields, a short walking path, and a carousel-inspired picnic shelter. 

A barge was passing by and we jogged down to the launch to get a closer look:

By the time we left the park, the sun was starting to burn through the fog and we could see the pretty autumn trees along the hillside.  This view is of the Delshire Preserve which is owned and managed by the Western Wildlife Corridor:

We crossed River Road to run on the sidewalk.  Many of the homes built on the hillside have river views:

We came across the Twin Sisters, which are identical houses built in the 1890s by a prominent Cincinnati judge.  The Digging Cincinnati History blog has a great article about the homes, and in reading it I learned that Judge Wright built them for two of his children, one of whom would go on to become the mayor of the Village of Riverside and later, a United States Supreme Court Justice!   

St. Vincent de Paul is also perched along the hillside overlooking the river.  St. Vincent de Paul, known for serving the poor, is Donnie’s favorite Catholic Saint and the namesake of his alma mater.  Donnie sweetly asked me if I wanted to pose with the statute, but I think he was secretly glad that I declined. 

 

Running with traffic along River Road was just a bit nerve-wracking and we were happy when we got to a part of the street that was set back from the main thoroughfare.  This little section of River Road runs parallel to highway but is separated from it by a grassy lawn.  Here, homeowners had their boats parked along the street—convenient for the short drive to the launch. 

At the end of the street, we found an old building that is home to the Tri-State Grain Inspection Service:

We also found a great community sign that detailed the history of the Riverside community.  We learned that Riverside was annexed by the City in 1896 for its industrial base:

 

There are residential streets like this one that run up the hill from River Road:

Further up on River Road is the Anderson Ferry, which will take pedestrians and cars across the river to Kentucky for a small fee.  When I worked on the West Side, I would often join my coworkers on Friday evenings at Drew’s on the River, which sits at Anderson Ferry and has a close-up view of the river and the ferry traffic.  We turned around at Maag Street so we didn’t make it all the way to the Ferry.  While on the drive to the boat launch, we did pass Jim & Jacks, another Riverside bar and restaurant:

When we returned to the boat launch, Donnie was feeling some remorse that he had skipped the TQL Urban Race and decided that the next best thing would be to hurdle over a barrier in the parking lot.  I begged him not to take the risk, but he scaled it easily:

 

View the full route with mile markers here: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=529293


-K.