The bell rang and three pax posted in the Gloom at RVA’s finest track complex for the weekly meeting of SCCC.
I will confess that it took me and Applesauce a few rounds of Tabata to tease out exactly who this FNG was. He said he was from Marietta, GA, and that he was in town to sell direct-to-consumer adjustable beds at this weekend’s home show. That seemed … different.
It sounded like there might be an unsold adjustable bed in the back of his truck, available at a low, low price to either one of us (unless we cared to get into a bidding war … ).
His original plan had been to sleep in and spend today riding his recumbent bicycle to Yorktown and back on the Capitol Trail (?!?!). But he woke up early and decided to come work out with us.
He was chatty, but I guess you’d have to be if your job is selling adjustable beds at the home show and dropping in on DownRange F3 workouts in the Gloom.
Yes, he had an F3 nickname, he said, but he’d given it to himself — Steamer. Applesauce’s suspicions were aroused and he immediately moved for a renaming at COT.
It eventually emerged that Steamer is Graham Skardon, younger brother of Charlotte Metro F3 regular Chris “My Little Friend” Skardon, well known to me from my Queen City days. Our wives were in a book club together. I know Upchuck will surely appreciate more than anyone that there was always a little distance between us due to his affiliation with a certain New Haven, CT-based educational institution.
There was much excitement around the discovery of the connection — so much that I’ve completely forgotten what exercises we did between hot laps.
We ended with COT (Sauce wanted a renaming to Cleveland or Akron Steamer, to “honor” Steamer’s Ohio roots, but I was mean and vetoed it). We recorded a video to send back to MLF in Charlotte. I hope Steamer made it to Yorktown and back — and that he’ll keep dropping in unannounced to befuddle unsuspecting pax across F3Nation.
OBT