Walking for our Heart

The American Heart Association's annual Heart Walk was a great opportunity to get out and stretch those legs on October 17. I don't happen to think of a 5-k walk as anything major, but to people who are used to driving everywhere, it may be a bit more of a challenge.

The starting point for the walk in Pittsburgh was Heinz Field, the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. This is the team that won the Superbowl last year (in February 2009), though they are not playing quite so well this year. The temperature was 36F (2C) that day, with overcast skies and drizzle.

There were plenty of people from Bayer participating in the Heart Walk (including "yours truly"), all wearing red T-shirts over our coats, including the flag-bearer for the Bayer team, Mr. Sergio Kyriakis.

After waiting for around two hours as various VIPs gave speeches, we finally got started and it really felt good to walk and get a chance to warm-up.

Great scenery accompanied us on our walk, since the route followed the bank of the river for the second half of the walk, as we returned to the stadium. Here is a view at Point state park (aka The Point). This is where the Allegheny and Monongahella rivers meet (coming from the left in this picture) and join to form the Ohio river (going to the right).
The fountain at The Point sometimes has the water dyed in different colors - on this occasion it was dyed pink to promote breast cancer awareness.
You can also see the yellow Fort Pitt bridge and the tunnel by the same name behind it - this is one of the main thoroughfares into downtown Pittsburgh. The steep hill that rises on the far side of the river is called Mt. Washington, as it is said this was where Gen. George Washington, early in his career, scoped-out the British-occupied Fort Pitt (which was located where The Point now is located). There are some great restaurants on Mt. Washington, which in addition to outstanding food, also offer an amazing view.

Great views, good times and we also managed to raise some money for the American Heart Association - I call that a "win".