Across the half-pipe and back, 110th Street this is not



Across the half-pipe and back, 110th Street this is not

11 men braved some chillier temperatures and circled up in the Arbo parking lot for this week’s episode of Fast Twitch.  YHC had two bad ideas pulling into the parking lot, mentioned this with a weak disclaimer and dropped the first bad idea on the pax.  It went something like this.

Hoover:  “I’ve got two bad ideas for you.  The first is the Raintree 10K.”

All pax: … *sigh*

Hoover:  “The other is to run the Coburn half-pipe, twice.”

Random pax: … *sigh* “Where is that?”  “We have to run over past Strawberry Ln.”  “I think I left the iron on.”

And like that, we were off.  YHC, as per the usual, kicked on some tunes and the pax followed.  Some days YHC feels like the pied-piper.  Mosey through the mean backstreets of Raintree, rounding run, woodfox, strawberry ln, eventually hitting Rosecliff and getting to Coburn.  The pax all pulled up at Coburn and instructions were relayed.

Random pax: “So just down to the stop sign and back 2 times?”

Hoover: “No.  All the way to the end and back, twice.”

Random pax:  “That’s not the half-pipe”

Hoover:  … *calculating lame excuse as to why we’ll do this anyway*

Random pax: “So we’re not stopping at Bevington?”

Hoover:  “Try for two times out and back, faster guys go for three.”

Somehow YHC convinced the pax to get moving.

Towards the end of the second round, YHC was coming in near the 6, Gerber decided to go for a third round, followed by Turkey Leg, Alf, and Airwolf.  Somehow all three aborted or just pulled up for the 6 and we did some mary in the middle of the road waiting for Gerber to come back.  When he didn’t show up quickly, we decided to leave him to his fate.  No pax wants to be on the wild streets of Coburn for too long.  Alone or in a group that’s a dangerous place to be.  Alf volunteered to stay behind and wait for him.  Brave, sir.  Very brave.

This is a tough area for a solo pax, with random deer, and barking dogs.  God help the man who runs into a “Karen” who can unleash the kraken just for startling them in the gloom.  I’m sure NextDoor is full of these horror stories.  And speaking of horror stories, there’s no easy place to stop for a code brown.  Now that’s a NextDoor horror story that will keep YHC up at night.

Not to keep you in suspense, but yes, Gerber made it back to the pax and proceeded to outrun us all to the launch point.

Moleskine:

The whole route is not what one would call easy.  Plenty of hills as Alf kept reminding YHC every time YHC was passed.  There was a vague threat from YHC about tying a rope to the fast guys to pull YHC along.  Vague but empty.  YHC was all out of rope.

The backblast title comes from Rock Thrill.  YHC was jamming out to Bobby Womack’s, “Across 110th St” when Rock Thrill recognized the song.  We talked briefly about tunes and he mentioned the backblast should be a reference/homage to the title track of that movie, the same song played at the end of Jackie Brown.

Solid group of pax today.  No surprise on who was out front Gerber, Mr. “I ran leg 33 of BRR backwards”, Turkey Leg, Alf, and Airwolf.  Cheese Curd and Ductwork were running neck and neck for the morning, route be damned.  PurpleHaze, Rock Thrill, Astro, and Retread held down the 6 and kept YHC honest with pacing.

A solid 10K or more if you opted for the extra distance, no PRs were shattered but Retread is now the Local Legend of Firefox.  It’s on Strava so you know it’s true.

Back in the parking lot, there were no announcements but Gerber pulled this odd contraption from the back of his car, mounted a phone to it and told us to go stand in front of the ABC store.  10 seconds later, your Fast Twitch Christmas card is ready and being printed off at Walmart as you read this.  Get Benny your address and tell him Uncle Hoover sent ya.  Maybe yu’ll get one in the mail, maybe not.

BTW, Purple Haze could totally be a Mini-Hoover if he would let his beard grow out.  YHC can see the grey in there fighting to get out.

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Hoover author

Commonly mistaken for sasquatch

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Gummy
3 years ago

Raintree is tough – Fast Twitch made the newsletter years ago. Something along the lines of “watch out for the guys wearing all black laying down in the street”. That was back when the hour-long schedule was just “summer hours”. And I’m a bit of an aficionado of place for a code brown – the wooded area around the creek at the low point of the Coburn half pipe will do, especially in the dark. Sorry to miss you guys this morning. Not really, I opted for two extra hours of sleep and warmer run around 10:00 am.

Hairball
Reply to  Gummy
3 years ago

Chill out, Francis

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