25 minute jog raises awareness of subtle suburban hills

It was near the end of the run that Tom Pinkler had his revelation a month ago.  “I was going down Spruce, where it becomes a school-zone near the AM/PM,” he said. “I was trying to finish the run strong but it was really hard. I’d never noticed that there was a hill there before.”

Pinkler went home and asked his neighbors about it. “They’d never noticed it either,” he said. “I started wondering how many other hills might be tucked onto side streets and cul de sacs that go completely unseen.”

So began an off-and-on, four week long project that has taken Pinkler all around his housing development, from the Pine St Laundromat to Moosewood Middle School in search of hills that have gone unnoticed in Shady Del neighborhood, which residents consider largely flat.

After two weeks, he felt he had probably found all the undercover inclines within a 10 minute radius of his house. Then, ten days later, he either found one more or was a little hungover.

“I realized I either drank more than I thought or that this was a bigger project then I could handle alone,” he said. “Either way, I needed help.”
Today, in hopes of capturing the imagination of other runners and enlisting them in his search, Pinkler will embark on a 25 minute jog, longer than he has ever attempted before.

On mornings when he wakes up in time, he eats a banana, laces up his running shoes and sets off on a new route in search of hills that just don’t register on his drive to work. “A slope of three to five degrees is almost imperceptible in a car,” he said. “But when you’re running, it’s a major bitch.”
He said some hills were apparent as soon as he started looking for them.

“Ideally I’d find a new hill without actually running up it,” he said. “But you can’t avoid the really hidden ones.”

After a few successful hill-finding runs, it became his chief diversion.

“At my desk, I’d pull up my house on Google maps and use the terrain button to search for hidden hills,” he said. “That actually didn’t help at all. I have no idea why that feature even exists. But it beats working.”

Pinkler said sponsors have been hesitant to come forward on his first annual 25 minute jog, but to him, “it’s not about money, it’s about finding these damn hills so no one has to run up a road that they thought was flat.”

Pinkler said he will be blogging his thoughts about the run from his Blackberry, probably updating from the corner of Elm and Oak, where he usually stops to catch his breath.