The Finest Fourteen came out for a pre-holiday run.
The Routes:
Everyone headed west on Grove. 4s turned onto Libbie to Patterson. 5s and 6s continued to the end of Grove and took the access road to St Christopher’s Rd; St Chris to Patterson. All routes headed east bound on Patterson. 4s and 5s turned on Malvern to Grove and home. 6s turned on Rosneath to Grove to home.
YHC took us out.
NMS:
Grove had a road closure due to what appeared to be a line down, taking out power to some of the houses and street lights along the route. This detour also caused BT to bring the Landcruiser in hot to the AO. It was an odd juxtaposition to see total darkness surrounded by Christmas lights, but we managed.
After a year of Qing Friday, one more post to go. It’s been a fun year setting routes and we will finish strong next week.
Announcements:
Christmas Day at Hoedown @5:30 am. Same time, same place – Mr Holland is leading the only AO in town.
New Year’s Day at Hoedown @ 7:00 am. Different time, same place and an allegedly family friendly workout by Honey Do. Interested in seeing what an onslaught of burpees and doneky kicks does to little kids? Then come out January 1!
Another record week for RAMM with 18 on foot or bike. Today’s route was aptly named by Honey Do as “The Big Dipper”.
Northbound on Westmoreland to Monument and head east. 4s turn at Sheppard, 5s at Strawberry, and 6s at the Lee Monument. Head west on Monument and South on Lafayette to Grove to the VSF.
Swiper took us out.
NMS
I was anticipating an illuminated Monument Avenue full of wonder and holiday spirit. While there were some lights, today’s route did answer an important question: “How does one come to own a large classic home on Monument Avenue?” The answer is by turning off your holiday lights in the evening and not leaving them for packs of runners to enjoy at 5:30 am.
It’s good to see the return of Swiper. He is back with full speed. Taking us out was concise and eloquent. Welcome back!
Announcements:
Labrat had what seemed to be a personal announcement for Sippy Cup. Something about meeting for the early bird lunch in a cafeteria somewhere.
HDHH next Wednesday at the Answer. Honey Do’s birthday and the end of hate.
19 Riders and Runners embraced fine weather on the edge of Snowstorm Benji. Today may be a record count for this AO.
Today we did the forward Carillon route with all distances spoken for. Everyone ran with a group with some packs as large as five wide. Lot’s of car traffic today for some reason, including a mailman out for deliveries before 6:30. ‘Tis the season.
Lugnut took us out.
Announcements:
Slurpee’s VQ Monday at Hoedown.
EF Hutton’s is one AO shy of completing the Grand Tour.
Labrat was going on about something else too
Honey Do has December’s HDHH on the 20th. More information to come.
With so many great routes this year, something new would be the absence of a route. Besides, with so many running races, this was indeed a time time for taper.
The instructions were simple. Find a partner based on speed, distance, or interests and be back in 45 minutes. Everyone happened to set out eastbound on Grove and diffused from there. Some chose traditional routes while mine was based on running until I felt like making a turn and then running until I felt the need for another turn and so on.
We did a BOM ring of fire with each Pax stating one thing they are thankful for. We are blessed.
Good luck to the racers this weekend. Regardless of distance, go forward and conquer. You trained for it, now enjoy the reward.
East on Grove and turn right on Thompson, left on Floyd.
4 milers – left on Shields to Hanover, left on Hanover, left on Blvd, right on Grove to VSF
5 milers – left on Lombardy to Hanover, left on Hanover, left on Blvd, right on Grove to VSF
6 milers – down to Monroe Park and back on Grove to VSF
Labrat took us out.
NMS
What to start with today? Three strides into the run Sippy misjudged the lane of the approaching car and was almost taken out. Most of the mumble chatter erupted post run during announcements when Labrat brought forward a new family venture they are kicking off: a non-profit coffee house. The G rated version is hilarity ensued when special provisions of tea would be available for Saab since he doesn’t drink coffee – something about his special tea bags. One of the local walkers reprimanded us for carrying on at such an hour. Laughing and mild talking be banned. We were respectful and perhaps we will see TYA channel his inner Toga and make amends with flowers at some point.
Maybe it’s time to buy an F3 clubhouse on Commonwealth for post workout festivities?
Its great having Kenya with us. Her distinctive dog tag rattle let’s YHC know when she is about to overtake him on the return trip. Besides, she almost took Labrat out with her leash during the COT. Well done!
Announcements:
Labrat’s new coffee shop venture. Post the video if you like.
Thanksgiving workout at Mary – 6AM time to celebrate the tradition that started in Virginia.
We had runners and bikers of all different distances and routes. All bases were covered.
Runners took the following routes with some arriving early for their bonus miles.
4 Milers
West on Grove to Granite.
Granite to Patterson, east on Patterson
Patterson to Willow Lawn Drive to Monument
East on Monument to Westmoreland and home to the VSF
5 and 6 Milers
East on Grove to Malvern; Malvern across Broad
Take a left on Dabney which will turn into Bethlehem
Left on Staples Mill at the Wawa
Left on Monument
5s come home on Westmoreland, 6s come home on Malvern to Grove
Gomer Pyle took us out.
NMS:
The Pax was moving fast this morning with elite runners in both the 5s and 6s. It was good to see Phonics, Offshore, and Wheelie on the roads again.
Both the runners and bikers had a couple of challenges this morning. Circle K took a flat tire in the wrong neighborhood. Fortunately, the F3 racing team had parts and pump to get him repaired and moving again. After running the mile of death down Dabney, a car at Wawa came close to Phonics. Even in a well lit area, if a driver isn’t looking for a runner, they aren’t going to see them.
Speaking of mile of death, Dabney lived up to expectations with potholes and a constant caravan of cement and beer trucks. Colbeer!
Finally, the name of the backblast. There was a strong and pleasant smell of cupcakes or some other Hostess product on a stretch of Dabney. Then of course we had Krispy Kreme as we came up Staples Mill. Labrat talked me out of grabbing a few dozen for the Pax on the return to the AO.
A sweet sixteen arose today for some crisp running weather and hopefully faster speeds. We did Reverse Carillon routes of the 4, 5, and 6 variety with a little “catch me if you can” at the end down Grove.
Marv took us out.
NMS:
The is YHC’s home stretch to close out the year’s Q of RAMM (for the most part). Come back with a classic route, the Reverse Carillon, and a classic theme song, Back in Black. Besides, YHC was wearing all black and dark grey today so the title is appropriate there as well. Note to self: Get a reflective vest or light. As Labrat said, “You must not like your family running in all black and no light.” Point taken.
A Charlie Foxtrot group of 20?!? came to embrace the morning, including a pair of rifty’s that included one visitor from the Dirty South (Gator) and his twin from a different mother, FNG Steve (Ralphy). They were greeted with maps….uh oh.
Route:
All routes took a serpentine pattern thru the neighborhood on the north side of the school, in between Grove and Patterson. Basically follow this:
-East on Grove, turn left, then next left on Hanover. Follow to end.
-Go right, then right on to Stuart. East on Stuart to either Antrium (4 miler) or Hamilton.
-Left then left on to Kensington. West until end. Right, then right until Eastbound on Leonard. 5 Milers return to home base at Woodlawn.
–6 milers continue on to Hamilton, left up to Patterson, then come home on Commonwealth.
NMS:
-The route: Leonard threw most a curve ball, including YHC. It seems that there is a cut-thru that would take you over to Leonard, but most of us ran down the alley. But, you can only get so lost back there…no matter how bad you screw up, you are still within a mile from Munford. YHC liked the route. Expect to see it again, pax.
-The gravel roads and weaving thru the neighborhood reminded YHC very much so of his first two failed attempts to post to RAMM, which he was a couple minutes late. He weaved his way thru a very similar route to this morning looking for the pax (which were probably just running up and down Grove). Lab Rat has been thinking about this route for quite a while and finally took the time to lay it out on map my run.
-The run: most of the 5 milers bunched up, with BT setting the pace early and Shakedown pushing the home stretch. The main pax was Lab Rat, Gator, Ralphie, BIG Tennessee, Shakedown, and Swirly for a minute. Speaking of Swirly, he fell out of the lead pack when he had to drop trousers in the alley. Hilarity ensued when we all found out….this rolled in to a discussion of how you could use a sprinkler as a bidet, and how far you should put it up there…..as always TYA was the expert in all things regarding putting things in your butt.
-Winklevoss posted for the third time this week! Much respect, brother! He was a little late getting back to the VSF, so while waiting for him, Swirly went on a Tourettes-esque rant about his name. It was quite impressive, even for Swirly!
-There was much discussion of SEC football on the group run this morning. We had to shut it down when BT got extremely jealous that USC and UGA had a bye week this week, but UT had to play. That could be the apology of the week……but………
Apology of the week goes to the guy that is going to have to clean off the back of his picket fence later on today. If Lab Rat would have known the “pressure” that Swirly was under, he could have planned a route past Starbucks. On the bright side, think about how big of a carrot he could grow there!
Lockjaw’s 11 showed for the crisp fall running weather and left with so much more.
East on Grove, left on Lafayette to Monument.
East on Monument to desired street for turn
4 miles – Boulevard
5 miles – Strawberry
6 miles – Lombardy
Take your street south to Main (or Ellwood) and head west to Thompson.
Thompson to Grove and back the to VSF
YHC took us out.
Main is a one-way west bound street which means runners always have cars at their backs. This becomes a harrowing situation for about a mile or so. Per Lab Rat’s advice, we called an audible and cut over to Cary St for our parallel return route. Even that route was not without danger as a van hopped the curb and parked in front of us to make deliveries.
