The last run. Number 52 of
52. The weather couldn’t have been any
worse.
We woke up on Saturday morning to
a forecast of freezing rain turning to snow.
Rain is fine. Snow is fine. We’ve run through them both. But freezing rain? Had this not been #52, we might have slept in
and postponed it.
Plus we’d already had a few rough
runs this week, weather-wise. Donnie is
still grumbling about a 5:00 AM five-miler that I forced on him when the
temperature was only eight degrees. My
eyelashes froze.
Conditions this December have not
been ideal.
Despite the weather and law
school finals week, our A1 running buddy Emily was hard core enough to meet us at the Winton Hills Recreation
Center on Winneste Avenue. 
Winton Hills is a heart-shaped neighborhood between Spring Grove Village and Carthage. Our Winton Hills loop started and ended at Winton Terrace and Findlater Gardens, two Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority developments whose collective history takes up most of the neighborhood’s Wikipedia page.
Today, an A-frame church
building, the recreation center, and a contemporary public school sit between
Winton Terrace and Findlater Gardens.
Despite the weather (notice this is the second time I’ve used this
phrase—the weather was really bad),
the area was bustling with families enjoying their Saturday morning
activities. Emily snapped our picture in
front of the Rec Center. I think the
screen on our camera was beginning to freeze:
In this picture, Donnie and Emily
run past the church as they try not to trip on the slush, which was also beginning
to freeze:
Here is Winton Hills Academy behind a
field of snow:
Normally I wouldn't post such blurry pictures (okay, that's arguable), but these give you an idea of the conditions:
Past Findlater Gardens, we turned
left onto Winton Ridge Lane. This
stretch is a two-lane road with farmhouses on either side. All of a sudden it felt like we were running through
the countryside.
At the bottom of Winton Ridge
Lane we turned onto Wooden Shoe Hollow, which is a one-lane dirt road that is
home to a thriving community of serious gardeners. The area has a rich history of greenhouse gardening dating back to the late 1800s!
Early German settlers grew vegetables year-round using hotbeds and
manure from the nearby Cumminsville stockyards.
The area’s name comes from the
wooden shoes that farmers and gardeners wore to keep themselves from sinking
into the fertile soil. If you have the
time, Al Funke has a great historical piece about the area.
The growing tradition continues
today with businesses such as Keystone Flora (native wildflowers), Wooden Shoe Gardens (micro greens, herbs, and vegetables—available through a CSA), and nearby Funke’s Greenhouses.
Our good friend Sam lives on
Wooden Shoe Hollow and has often treated us to amazingly delicious meals made from the
produce here. We love visiting Sam and
Suzy and couldn’t resist stopping by to say hello:
We tried to do a little caroling for them, but it was an inadequate attempt. Still, it was a sweet way to wrap up our
last neighborhood run. We’ll do a final
post next week to recap the whole experience.
In the meantime, cheers to fifty-two!
What a great ending photo!
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