Tag: Sunday Funday

The Japanese call it “kaizen”. A few years ago YHC witnessed two scientists verbally duking it out. The topic was Intelligent Design. Exasperated, and noting his opponent was dressed in a clerical collar, one of the scientists exclaimed, “You’re supposed to be an Episcopal priest. Do you even believe in God?” The priest’s/scientist’s reply was: “I’m working on it.” That has been YHC’s mantra since.

Someone assured YHC early on when he started F3 that the workouts don’t get any easier. On the surface that sounds like a deterrent, but it’s not. Pavarotti often encourages YHC to reflect, “Why are you doing this? What is your goal?” It’s not for life to get easier. It’s not to finish first. It’s not to be satisfied. It’s to get better. Kaizen.

Unless YHC missed someone, this morning was a solo post at Sunday Funday. While normally YHC gets to learn all sorts of stuff from Pax mumble chatter, today there was only self-reflection: a 6ish-mile, sweaty, bloody (only one fall) opportunity to social-distance and think about what YHC is working on.

The bridge to start the Buttermilk Trail introduced the topic, inspired by pavement graffiti: “BLM”, “F*** 12”, etc. YHC has a lot of work to do in this arena. Lately that work has involved attending town halls, completing a short course about bias, talking with family (learned why a White person wearing dreadlocks can be hurtful), practicing mindful meditation/breathing (thank you, Lab Rat), developing research to investigate bias in YHC’s profession, reading (should finish The Hate U Give today), engaging in new experiences (downloaded 2Pac’s Greatest Hits), reflecting on YHC’s own behavior/assumptions/microaggressions (enlightening and horrifying), and listening. How profound is it that a group of people feels so oppressed, so mistreated, so demoralized, and so exhausted, that the vanguard phrase is something so incredibly basic that it should go without saying – “Black lives matter”? But clearly it doesn’t go without saying.

The weather this morning was deceitfully humid. Well before Buttermilk transitioned to the Potterfield Bridge YHC’s clothes were soaked, which just makes everything feel heavier. Nonetheless, with no good excuse to pause, and conjuring up an imaginary TYA by his side, YHC proceeded past Tredegar and onto Northbank Trail, at this point starting to count the distance markers. At marker NB8, a root jumped up, grabbed a foot, and threw YHC to the ground. YHC walked between NB8 and NB9, something he has rarely done. Rare, because usually there is someone in front or just behind to keep cadence, to give encouragement, and to keep YHC moving on.

And if the distance between runners gets too great, the leaders circle back for the Six. This F3 tradition is one of my favorites. Laying on the ground at NB8, aware of his striking lack of motivation, YHC discovered the learning for today: We need to circle back for the Six.

Let’s keep working on it.

Three gloom vets opted for the seemingly harder north to south loop, while the albino deer launched from Reedy Creek and meandered through the hills of Tennessee. Fudd traveled across the country in search of humidity. He found it. Apparently when you sweat in Colorado you cool off and you’re still dry. Not how it works in good old RVA. At least here it’s always sunny and 70. Have a blessed Father’s Day to all the men of F3RVA.

5 runners and 2 bikers gathered at Pump House lot for another glorious morning workout.. Circle K and 7-Eleven took off and did their thing. The 5 runners did the typical Buttermilk-TeaPot-North Bank loop.. Great run overall..

Helix was participating in the “Below the Belt- Virtual 5k” so he took off like a rabbit.. Marco Polo and Sherpa took the lead while YHC and Mr. Hutton maintained a comfortable pace with considerable chatter… We caught up to Helix at the bridge and did a bit of “bro code” at the Tredegar lot.

Glad to have Sherpa out. He came out two weeks prior, but took a different route so he wasnt there to close it out. Helix came up with Sherpa because Sherpa is a Forest Hill loop expert and Helix and YHC have no sense of direction. YHC is amazed he finds his way home from work each day. Regardless, a great guy and a great addition to the group.

Things have been tough as of late. Glad to have this opportunity to get out with friends and push ourselves to be better people.

YHC out.

3 Cyclists and 4 runners met up for Sunday Fun. The weather was beautiful for running: 60F and no humidity. The trails were still rather empty, just a handful of runners and mountain bikes. 2nd F at ETs.

ugly when she sees her psychiatrist they ask her to lie face down. Not appropriate for today, treat yo mama well. One runner hit the trails, unless someone was early or late and YHC didn’t see you. If so, let me know.

Two geriatric-veterans turned out for a extended trail run covering various scenes and sites of the RVA river banks. Having ignored the prior day’s weather forecasts of torrential rain, cloudy and cool conditions prevailed to make it a perfect morning for a long run. Social-D was practiced among the pax who took two separate routes. Great second-F in the ETs parking lot using the bed of a Lally Construction vehicle as a yardstick.

Inaugural Capital Trail Quarantine 50 miler next Saturday. See TYA or Olivander for details.

Saab abides when able

6 warriors of the light made it out on a perfect Easter Morning for a little run around the river city.

4 milers – south turn around at reedy creek
7 milesrs – south on buttermilk to potterfield then north bank
10 milers – north to 14th st bridge and then south along river road

NMS-
Hutton and YHC discussed music tastes, Hutton mentioned GOGO music and that got me thinking about the weird nexus of punk, reggae, and go go in DC in the eighties – all of that was the formative stage setter for Nirvana as David Grohl came out of that scene hailing from Springfield VA. Just ask Shakedown.

There are some good rockumentaries:

• Mettalica- Some Kind of Monster.
• Salad Days: Salad Days is a Minor Threat song and it covers the DC punk scene with the little bit of reggae and go go that crept in there.
• see Shakedown for more ideas

Seven two-legged runners and one four-legged puddle-jumper (as in, into the puddles he jumped) hit the trails in an ordinance-compliant manner – arms spread, helicopter-style, ensuring a 6 foot space on all sides. A lone rider defied the stay-inside order to take a giant ride around the city. 2 more ran together – eleven miles on the roads, change shoes, then eleven more on trails, in spite of a self-reported UTI or STD (ask Ollivander what burns). Weather sunny and 70.

TYA, who did not sign up to Q, suggested the PAX take South Bank to Forest Hill Loop to South Bank. 6.75 miles.

UpChuck: “You going to write this up as the Q, TYA?”

TYA: “No, I’m not the Q. I just told everyone what to do.”

Uh, huh.

Announcements:

1. Parker is an open-minded, multi-culturally sensitive male dog, who practices social distancing with the PAX, both for health and safety reasons (we see you, Sally and Cooper). Come back often, Parker, anytime.
2. Rubbing poison ivy on the outside of your throat will vaccinate against SARS-CoV2-19, apparently.

Good times at ET’s. The bed of TYAs truck makes for a perfect, socially distant perimeter.

Be safe, be well, and keep mentally strong.

7 two-legged steeds assembled in the late Gloom for a dawn-time launch. Temps were sunny and 70 with a touch of fog. Breaking all norms and traditions, the PAX launched at 06:59 a.m. (in order to remain 6+ feet ahead of the construction crew intent on flaunting the “small groups only” rules).

Routes were south bank, T. Pottersfield, and return on North Bank.

Group sized jumped to 8 when Hitchhiker, true to his name, joined up en route, having had the audacity to be ready to start at 07:00 a.m. Glad you could make it.

Along the way, the counter-clockwisers met Snuff, Hardywood, & Co. going clock-wise on their version of Dirt Church (Dirt Cemetery? Dirt Animal Farm?)…

Number-am-a, Name-a-ram-a, YHC took us out with a reminder to be patient as lots of folks are adjusting to the new ways of the world.

Announcements:

TYA turned 20,829 days old yesterday. Good to be alive, my brother. He also became, to YHC’s knowledge, the first F3RVA member to be ejected from ET’s. “You all can stay. But HE (pointing at TYA) has to go.” ‘Bout time.

Also, did you know that at the beginning of WWII, the FBI spent 3 years sitting in front of a house in Pennsylvania? Why did they do that? This, and other bizarre trivia came not from YHC, but from an unexpected and unsolicited visitor in front of ETs (who alleged himself to be a nurse). Moral: Ask for Flatline when you check into the hospital.

Mostly men, a couple of dogs, and a TYA set off to run trails this fine day. Some early and some at the prescribed time. Various distances were covered, the standard PAX logged about 7 miles going South to North with a little Belle Isle excursion. Faceplant arriving a little late went North to South. Others went unknown directions. YHC took it upon himself to include the early launchers in this backblast. If they’d like to report anything special about their run, they can call the Thursday morning hotline. It was super, Helix led the way.