Thursday, September 19, 2013

Happy Hour Run Route

Here's the Official Happy Hour Route, as it is now and always will be:


Red dots:

1. Apollo Pizza: Start, finish, after-party;
2. E.C. Million Park: There are two Million Parks in Richmond (note the proper noun--there are not 2,000,000 parks in Richmond); we're going through the one that doesn't allow dogs;
3. St. Andrew's;
4. Grey Oaks: A nice hill, and right into the sunset; and
5. Rosedale . . . (drops snow-globe).

See you every first and third Thursday.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Richmond Centre Seven (Group Run for 09/14/13)

This week's group run will be a delightful seven mile loop starting from Richmond Centre (or is it "Center"? Meh.). We'll meet near Michael's (the crafty place), cover Goggins, Tate's Creek, Main Street, Lancaster, and the Bypass back to Michael's. To wit:


And, once again, it's time for RED DOTS WITH YELLOW NUMBERS!:

1. Michael's at RC: This is where we begin and end;
2. For anyone who wants to tack on extra mileage, there's a three mile loop you can add on at this point (actually, it's like 3.4 . . . stop whining). If you're interested, let me know;
3. The Arlington Golf Course: Free golf balls! (Again!);
4. For those of you who might want to get in an even eight miles, run up and down Grey Oaks at this point; and
5. Yes, we're running along the bypass, which we may cross at some point. Get ready for some frogger-style fun.

See you Saturday!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The EKU XC Course (Group Run for 09/07/13)

This Saturday's group run will cover the EKU wood chip and cross country course (a.k.a. "The Widowmaker"). Park near the corner of Kit Carson and Van Hoose on campus (across from the track, near the old planetarium). As per usual, we'll take off around 8:00 a.m.


And, yup, the red dots correspond to the following points of interest:

1. The Old EKU Planetarium: Our starting point. It looks like Marvin the Martian lives here;
2. The EKU Track;
3. The EKU Football Field;
4. The EKU Wood Chip Trail: One mile long--now with fresh wood chips!;
5. Entrance to the XC Course: Whatever you do, do NOT sit on the picnic tables--they're very touchy about this;
6. A Creek: I once saw a big snapping turtle on the course here; and
7. The Trail to Taylor Fork: If you want to climb the fence, dodge the cowpats (and maybe the cows themselves), and climb another fence, you'll get to Taylor Fork, a nice, if ticky, bio-preserve about half a mile from the XC course.

I'm planning to build on the regular group run to get in an ill-advised 20-miler (aka, "The Tour de Richemonde"). I will be running this slowly. If anybody's interested in joining, let me know.


1. The EKU Campus: This route will start at Irvine McDowell Park at the intersection of Crabbe Street and University Avenue. I'll be leaving here about 7:45 a.m. to jog over to the old planetarium and meet everyone for the regular run;
2. The EKU XC Course: The site of said regular run;
3. Old Town Branch Road: It's pretty out here;
4. Richmond Centre: Might stop off at a convenience store for a chocolate milk/bathroom break;
5. The Arlington Golf Course: Free golf balls!!!; and
6. Downtown Richemonde: Hence the course's TDR designation.

See you Saturday!

AOTD, September 3, 2013

Today's Article of the Day: Competitor Group Int'l, the crew that puts on the Rock 'n' Roll race series, recently decided to cut funding for elite athletes. Toni Reavis, road running's uber-announcer, weighs in on the issue, deriding CGI's move but concluding that
[a]fter twenty years-plus of this every-race-a-universe-unto-itself system, without any regulations to control access and eligibility to win money, without a circuit of events that could be molded and sold coherently, any economy of scale that might have taken the sport to the next level was squandered, and results are finally at hand. The public has long since lost interest in the outcome of foot races. 
Competitor Group isn’t to blame for the demise of elite racing (other than for the abrupt nature of the current decision), it is only the cold-eyed messenger.
Ouch.

The really cool thing is that Scott Dickey, President and CEO of Competitor, chose to respond to Reavis in the comments section.