14 runners and 4 bikers jauntily converged for a chilly morning of running and cycling. With no Q on the sheet, Splinter confidently directed us to a Groooooove loop, but Marv was enthusiastically motivated by the idea of running to the newish parking garage on Patterson between Libbie and Maple. So a last second change was made just as the clock struck 0530.
4s: West on Grove, right on Libbie, Left on Patterson. Run to and into the parking garage and run upward until you hit 2 miles, turn around and head back.
5s: same as above, all the way up to the top of the garage and back down, then head back to Mary Munford, circle the school to complete the mileage.
6s: same as above, two times up the parking garage and back down.
No persons were jump-scared, although Marv admitted that he screams like a little girl when terrified, so we’ll have to make that happen soon.
17 runners and riders met in the teacher parking lot at Mary Munford for this week’s edition of RAMM and RAMM Gears. While the riders discussed their route, YHC issued the runners their routes.
Twenty, yeah, YHC said twenty, men of purpose scraped off the barnacles of the Fart Sack and cast off on the latest edition of the Run At Mary Munford. Temperatures were 70 and sunny. According to the newspaper delivery people flashing their lights on Berkshire, the following might have happened.
Everyone: Leave MM, then head east on Willmetta (Q forgets to turn on Willmetta) to Kingscrest Parkway. Right on Malvern, cross Cary.
From that point, you are entering the Windsor Farm “loop,” which looks like a lightbulb, or the Millenium Falcon, or something else, on a map. Follow the loop, starting with Canterbury and circling around to Berkshire, then right on Cambridge. When you arrive at Canterbury, that’s one loop.
4s do TWO full loops, then turn LEFT on Canterbury to Malvern to Kingscrest Parkway to Willmetta.
6s do THREE full loops, then turn LEFT on Canterbury to Malvern to Kingscrest Parkway to Willmetta.
5s do TWO full loops, then on the third loop, turn left on Commonwealth and back to Mary Munford.
Numbers, names, (YHC forgets one guy), and Funny Car (from F3 Hampton Roads) took us out.
Announcements:
TYA will be leading The Bridge on October 26th along with Shakedown. Bootleg may be coming, or maybe Bootleg is just arriving. Anyway, YHC is glad to have Bootleg back. In an omage to Lab Rat, YHC apologizes for leaving Bootleg out.
NMS: Solid morning for a run. Light mist, and always a pleasure to chat with Splinter. Congratulations to F3 Kotter and all around good guy Viral for winning an RVA Tech Award (apparently, “the” big award). Good on him.
YHC sends up a little prayer for a colleague with a big heart and a huge mountain in front of him fighting pretty active cancer. Same goes for Fudd, his family, and especially his sister, Mary. We are all with you, my friend.
Eighteen by ruck, run, or road bike surrendered to the moment of a perfect morning. Routes were perfectly curated to highlight some of the finest running roads in RVA. Some sections were new, some were well trodden, but all together exciting!
Announcements: The Bridge is coming up in October. Look for more info soon!
YHC took us out with deep thoughts about being in the moment between past and present.
16 or so PAX emerged from the gloom looking for some mileage and were greeted by gorgeous weather. YHC picked up the Q at the last minute and leaned on a route from earlier in the year to add some hills to the RAMM diet this week in honor of the upcoming BRR.
Summary: West on Grove, left on Tuckahoe, cross Cary to Paxton, down the hill on Paxton and follow the loop back as it turns into Ampthill, back up to Cary and across to Stratford Crescent, follow the crescent back to Cary and dogleg over to Hill crest. Head down the west side of Hillcrest and start coming back up the east side:
4’s continue up to complete the Hillcrest loop, cross Cary to Oak and follow to Grove. East on Grove back to MM
5’s and 6’s turn right off Hillcrest on Charmian and climb the steep hill, follow Charmian around as it turns into Westmoreland and take a left on Pocahontas and return to Hillcrest
Keep going up the east side of Hillcrest
At the top 5’s return via Oak/Grove
6’s do another Hillcrest loop and then return via Oak/Grove
Announcements:
F3 RVA 10 Year Anniversary Convergence 9/21 at Dogpile – Main workout starts at 7am / Check the pre-blast for all of the other related activities including a family friendly potluck/cookout at Huguenot Park at 1:30p
9/2 Labor Day Convergence a new AO – To Be Named at Nuckols Farm Elementary off North Gayton Road
Equal parts runners and bikers, this crew covered miles in all directions. The runners explored the Wilton House territory with its mix of hills and straightaways.
TYA took us out with a message that we should reflect on weekly, if not daily. Let’s mark these chapters of life with ample punctuation to differentiate the passing of time.
9 runners and 4 bikers convened for this week’s edition of RAMM and RAMM Gears.
The bikers planned their route and YHC reviewed the routes posted last night which consisted of several hills south of Cary before crossing back to Grove / Patterson and returning to the flag.
Three cycling professionals and 4 semi-pro runners gathered at RAMM today, hoping for just the right amound of rain but not too much. Cyclists were pleased, runners were not. After Offshore looked at Phonics and Phonics asked, “are we riding today? ok.”, a theme appropriate route was called and off we went.
The Route
Gears crew did their thing, crossing paths with the runners a few times. We will call their route the “Flock of Gnats” route.
Runners, after some discussion of what was forwards and reverse, did the Reverse Carillon route.
Numbers, names, no announcements before YHC took us out.
Moleskin
There was a lot of discussion this week about amateur RAMM gears so YHC was expecting a large crowd today. When I arrived at 522 to see nary a soul (except TYA wandering around on his bike), I began to wonder if I had the wrong day? Apparently the weather scared away the amateurs, leaving only professional bikers.
Since no one grabbed the RAMM Q, YHC sat for a minute or two thinking about an appropriate route to complement the (apparent lack of) RAMM Gears participants, I was reminded of a classic Marv incident that got Saab all riled up back in the day.
You see… there was a period of time where RAMM Qs got lazy. Someone would just show up and call out a well known route and off we would go. Saab, in his peak of youthful running shape, would go out early for a pre-run and then show up back at the launch (when someone actually had the Q), expecting a well thought out route that would possibly bring in virgin ground. At least something unique. When someone didn’t think of something unique, Saab would express his disdain and off he would go with the rest of the PAX. If words could describe his facial expression when this would happen, it would be:
Looks like I completely wasted my time coming back to meet up with these nincompoops. I should have just kept running by myself.
Saab. circa 2021
Which brings us back to the main part of the story. During an amateur RAMM gears outing a few years ago, Marv had signed up to Q RAMM proper. YHC texted him the night before and said, “ditch RAMM, find a bike, and let’s go ride.” So he did just that.
Marv, sticking with his MO, shows up about 2 minutes prior to launch, hurriedly getting his bike prepped, before sticking his head into the circle of runners and shouting two words. “Reverse Carrilon”. Given the context above, you can imagine how excited some people were. Trust me, read Marv’s backblast from 2021 and you will see my memory is actually pretty sharp on this one.
That that brings us to today. With very little time to plan a route and it being amateur RAMM gears day, YHC thought it would be a fitting tribute to call out reverse carillon. So that’s what we did. And it was kind of funny for a few seconds.
I don’t know why I felt like calling out Saab so much in this backblast because he actually wasn’t even there today. He will also likely not read this backblast so it will fall on deaf ears. But as Paul Harvey used to say,
