Author: Marv

  • Hitch Can Do 6s

    Ahhhhh….the weather continues to be splendid on these late August mornings as a handful of F3 stalwarts gathered at Mary Munford’s elementary school for a jaunt around the near west end.

    As always, our good friend Hitchhiker showed up as the crew was leaving…with no 4s to join. It was mentioned that Hitch can do a triatholon so there’s really no reason he couldn’t easily keep up with the 6s. Especially wiht Phonics in the house. (Great to run with Phonics this morning, by the way! Best of luck to his crew this weekend in a intercollegiate cross country meet at Pole Green Park.)

    Above is the route. It’s Bodo’s all time favorite…and now probably Hitch’s as we saw him running down Charmian in a direction that wasn’t necessarily part of the original plan.

    I hope everyone has a really good Labor Day weekend.

  • It Occurred on a Tuesday

    We were moving mountains on a glorious Tuesday morning in the lower Tuckahoe Area. Normally, a trip up Mt. Henrico includes a jaunt up Julian to what is the highest point in Henrico County…the intersection of Julian and Parham.

    But not today.

    It’s been a good 7 years or so that we’ve been meeting every Tuesday to run around the leafy hoods of Henrico County’s west end, and we’ve never gone down Ridge Road. This is partly because, for a long time, it was pretty darn dangerous. Like, “hey, I’m Lockjaw, let’s run on that dangerous two lane road this morning” type dangerous.

    However, the Board Supervisors of Henrico, who we all voted for, have installed some pretty substantial bike lanes on Ridge heading down to Forest, so we figured we’d make that run for the first time.

    And it was glorious. I guess. I mean, it was fine…nice little diversion from Mt. Henrico.

    The Thang…

    The 4s ran the normal Mt. Henrico out 22.5 minutes and back. Pretty standard.

    5s and 6s did their normal Mt. Henrico out but ran past the right on Glendale (where the AZ Cardinals play) and continued on University which eventually turns into Glendale heading towards Ridge. It’s a pretty steep hill.

    Take a left on Ridge and head to Forest.

    The 5s cut through Bodo’s church lot to Lakewood and then back to the flag.

    The 6s took a right on Ziontown and then took a left on Holmes (Near Kanawha). Ending up on Sunset to Lakewood and then a lap around the lake…just shy of 6 miles but right at 45:00.

    Marv took us out.

  • Wait, You’re from Rochester too?

    An un-claimed Q-sheet brought a handful of guys to the land of Mary Munford and really no direction.

    Which brings up this question….do you have direction in your life right now? A vision? A goal? We should all have visions and goals of some sort…for us on this particular Friday morning we needed more direction and it came in this form.

    YHC told everyone to head north on Commonwealth and get to Monument…to run 22.5 minutes and to run back to the flag via a south on a street and Grove.

    Funny couple exchanges as welcome FNG Ridge (his real name, his F3 name is Body Armor, based on the fact that Ridge went to St. Johns and the dude that is funding Rick Pitino’s team is the same guy who created and sold Body Armor)….anyway, Ridge is introduced to Garbage Plate and immediately says “Are you from Rochester?” And, of course, GP is from Rochester. Small world. I also think there was another Rochester connection in there somewhere, maybe By-Product’s wife’s family(?), can’t really remember.

    Beautiful weather and a wonderful trip around the near west end of RVA…not a bad way to start the Friday.

  • Late but Not Forgotten

    If a backblast is updated two weeks after a run, does it still count? Look, some of you are classic overachievers, doing backblasts THE DAY of a run, or maybe even the next day. Anyone can do that…but it takes a special form of procrastination to wait a whole fortnight before posting…which is exactly what this post is. (Who knows where my son gets it).

    The Thang…

    This was the Spottswood run, up one of the nastier little short hills in Henrico County. Here’s how it went, or, in Bodo’s case…supposed to go…

    Head out towards the baseball diamond, hang a right up the first base line and then to the parking lot. Get to College Drive and take a right. Then a right on Lakewood, right on Wood, left on Baldwin…we know the drill. Across Westham and stay on Baldwin and 4s and 5s take a left on Rock Creek towards Forest, 6s go up one more block to Stuart Hall and take a left, also towards Forest.

    Everyone runs south on Forest to Spottswood. 4s and 5s go into that pocket neighborhood and do one lap, the 6s do two.

    From there, the 4s can just get back to the Flag any way they choose, preferrably south to Lindsay and then east to the flag.

    The 5s and 6s keep advancing down Forest to Ridge to Ziontown. Left into Ziontown and go all the way to University with the dogleg on Ralston. 5s get back to the flag from there, 6s could probably do one more block on Ralston and a left on Rose Hill…but we aren’t running that fast these days.

    YHC took us out.

  • Always Be Tapering

    A hearty crew of 11 showed up on Friday the 11th for a crisp morning trundle around the near west end.

    For the record…The Carrillon is finally open (that was news to me) and we got to run up the stairs for the first time since pre-COVID. Better late than never, huh?

    Also, for the record…the 4 mile Carrillon run looks like this…

    Out on Grove to Arthur Ashe.

    Right on Arthur Ashe (south) and that takes you to Idlewood.

    Right on Idlewood. Right on McCoy. Take McCoy to Cary St. Left on Cary St.

    Cary goes to Malvern. Right on Malvern, left on Grove and go to West Moreland and double back to Commonwealth.

    And that’s the 4 mile Carrilon route.

    Good to have Frozone at the Q from the great city of Savannah, GA. He and his family were heading up to DC with a stopover here in RVA.

  • Jericho? Not this Time

    All good things must come to an end.

    We’ve had a pretty good record in recent weeks doing the VCU Basketball Jericho Run around the Siegel Center.

    Quick refresher–If at all possible, I like to run around the arenas that the Rams are playing on my gameday runs. For home games in Richmond, that is the Siegel Center, which is about 3.3 miles, give or take from the Flag.

    With the influx of Friday night games, we’ve done it a few times this year…and Sippy has joined me on a Saturday or two for an un-authorized run. We also did it a few weeks ago around the Robins Center prior to the Rams road games at UofR.

    All runs have been fruitful as VCU hadn’t lost a home game all season.

    That came to an end on Friday as later that night a Max Shulga 3ptr clanked off the back iron and the Rams fell to Dayton by 3. Tough way to end the season as it quelled the momentum VCU had getting an at large bid. Nevertheless….a terrific season.

    A bunch of walkers headed out to do what they normally do. It’s good seeing those guys.

    The 5s and 6s headed towards the Stu, kind of meandering our way through the fan…ending up on Ryland and dumping out across the street from 1200 West Broad. A lap around the arena (we’ve been doing two laps…maybe that was the issue) and back from Broad to Lombardy to Monument. Then weaving our way through the boucolic streets of the nearer west end.

    Hope everyone pulls for the Rams in DC this weekend.

  • O’ Dark River

    With our bodies still adjusting to DayLight Savings time, a group of eight SNOR’s (Slight North of the River) Guys went, well…down towards the river. The enjoyment of the sunrise and light from the last few weeks has been replaced by turning our clocks back what seems like 9 hours or so as the group started, and finished, in the dark.

    Granted, the sunlight at 7pm later that day helped with some yard chores that were called on…so that was cool. But man, starting and finishing, again, in the dark feels like we are going backwards as a society.

    Anyway, the route was pretty easy…take Cave, Bat down to the river. Go upstream 22:30, make a U-turn and head back to the flag. We should theoretically call this the Bodos route.

    If you know, you know.

    See you, truly, in the Gloom sometime soon.

  • The GameDay Run

    It’s GameDay for the VCU Rams as they take on the Spiders in a late season Richmond Area Honda Dealers Capital City Classic. Tip off is at 7pm. The line is the Rams -14.5. The Rams won the last game by 41, but -14.5 is pretty thick for a road team.

    That said…

    Thirteen fellas showed up YHC to Jericho run around the Robins Center and then trundle around the south portion of the Westham neighborhood.

    The Thang…

    The Jericho run is based off the Old Testament story of some group of Old Testament people (Israelites?) marching to the city of Jericho and then parading around the walls seven times. Trumpets are blown, walls fall down, the guys take the city. I try to replicate that as much as I can when I travel on the road…having run around arenas in Dayton, Charleston, New Mexico…plus other fun runs up and down the strip in Vegas, around “the country’s favorite city park” in St. Louis and downtown Annapolis.

    We headed clockwise around the lake…then up a “kinda burner hill” (1-800) to the Robins Center. Run around the Robins Center….counterclockwise the first time, then turn around and clockwise.

    Take the parking lot to the baseball field and out of campus to College Dr. College to Lakewood, Lakewood to Wood…then Baldwin…but not left on Baldwin, but RIGHT on Baldwin. That turns into Hampshire…Hampshire bends it’s way to Ridge Top.

    4s–Realized that Wheeler is super tough to see off of Ridge Top. So the 4s ended up heading with the 5s and 6s to Chandler…they went Chandler to Gardiner, to Wheeler to the bridge. Over the bridge to Boatwright, up Boatwright and back down to College Dr to UR Drive to the flag.

    5s–all the way up Chandler and back down. Ridge Top to Devon to Waveny to Wood…that will then get you back to the flag via Lakewood and the parking lot.

    6s–A bit of a mess. YHC had to make sure the 4s and 5s knew where they were going and lost contact with the 6s. 6s ended up going Ridge Top to Patterson, back down, right on whatever street that was that the former F3 guy got caught with all the bombs and weapons. Back down Westham, right on Woodberry, left on Sweet Briar, left on Rock Creek, left on Baldwin. Baldwin back to the flag the normal way.

    Thanks for the Jericho help, boys. Go Rams.

  • Traffic at the Portajon

    Pretty busy morning on Baldwin, just east of Westham for a group of hearty souls looking to get some exercise in the gloom. This one is going down as the Spotswood Run…here goes…

    Go through the parking lot by the baseball field to College. College to Lakewood to Wood to Baldwin. Cross Westham on Baldwin and take a left on Rock Creek if you are a 5…go one more to Stuart Hall if you are a 6.

    Head South to Spotswood…go into that pocket neighborhood. 4s & 5s go one lap of Spottswood, 6s go two. 4s come out of the neighborhood and head back to the flag as quick as possible.

    5s and 6s go Forest to Ziontown Crossing to University. 5s cross Ralston and stay on University and head back to the flag from there. 6s head down one more street, take a left and then head back to the flag.

    Be aware of women walking their dogs right next to a strategically placed porta-potty. Just sayin’.

  • Still Running Circles in Windsor

    Happy Valentine’s Day, boys!

    The 6ers and one 5 did YHC’s Windsor to Hillcrest route. It wasn’t the same without Bodos taking a wrong turn and then grousing a bit that the directions weren’t “run this straight line to this point then run back.”

    The tough part about the run is making that cut through from Dover, over Lock to Pocohontas…to be sure, if you aren’t looking for the two pieces of wood that separate Lock from Pocohontas it’s not easy to find. Once you are on Pocohontas you head to Hillcrest, do a couple of loops around that bad boy then head north to Patterson…east to Commonwealth then back to the flag.

    There is some concern that we lost Boberry as he was the only 5 and we 6s, admittedly, didn’t do a good job of keeping an eye on him. Our bad, Boberry…I do hope you made it out of the southside of Cary St ok. In all seriousness, I’ll take the heat on that one, I wasn’t prepared for only one 5 to show up and should’ve done a better job explaining the route.

    Anyway, I hope everyone had a special February 14th with their loved ones, whoever they may be.