The Thermostat registered a chilly 36 Degrees this morning as 8 men tackled the Rabbit. After yesterday’s freezing temperatures (so I’m told, I fartsacked incredibly hard) at the Thicket, 36 seemed reasonably tropical for the PAX who double dipped.  For me, a former proud New Englander, it was terrible and I wanted to go home.

But soon the PAX began to circle and my customary pre-run new wave German Techno started to really find its groove and I was ready. The Rabbit is unique to other Q’s because of its obvious difference, a focus on running, but also, these guys are serious runners. It’s kind of like leading a merkin workout, and everyone can do more merkins than you. The potential for embarrassment is ever present. Plus, I was getting over a cold, I feel like I didn’t talk about that enough.

So the challenge for Q’ing the Rabbit is to present enough variance and conditioning with the singular act of running, so the PAX could feel like they got up early for something good. Quite the challenge, especially when you’re getting over a cold, if I didn’t already mention that.

PRE-GAME:

Side Shuffle Hop x20 IC

Willie Mays Hays x20 IC

Leg Stretch

THE THANG:

We cut down from the AO to take the trail headed back south towards the new construction. We set a rigorous pace at the start to get ourselves further warmed up. Rambler was breathing down my neck the entire time as I considered just letting him past me while huddling in the corner in the fetal position. Mumblechatter and spirits were high as the sight of our frozen breath sometimes obscured the view of our headlights. I had actually forgotten how many roots and rocks were on that trail so big ups to Bright Idea for calling them out. We took the trail until its opening at Cliffdale Rd at just about a mile from the AO before setting off to The Wall.

Within sight of the last stop sign we sprinted to the hills behind the wall. Our first order of business was accomplished and now we paired off to tackle some verticals. I called for the PAX to partner up and someone audibly said “oh come on!” (yeah, I heard you). The goal: Hill sprints Dora style. One partner planks while the other sprints up and down the hill. Then switch. Each partner does 5 up and downs. Out of the gloom, Kosher just sort of showed up, did two hill sprints, then as mysteriously and quietly as he appeared, assimilated back into the darkness, never to be seen or heard from again.

The hill sprints were tough and once accomplished I told everyone to boogey to Encore, to which everyone corrected me by saying “Mosey” and I assume, collectively flipped their hair back while muttering “gawd”. I took this affront in stride, correcting myself while silently seething and plotting my revenge on the inside.

Once we reached Encore, I unveiled my plan. The Encore loop is roughly .4-.8 miles long (I thought it was .4 but I was way off and thus the unraveling of my grand plan began). We broke off into groups and the idea was that the first group would run the loop as fast as they could while the back group would slowly jog together. Once the first group caught up to the second group, they would switch, and the joggers would become the sprinters and so on and so forth.

Due to my miscalculations on distance, this basically became “everyone just kind of runs around the loop at your own leisure but not really because everyone was confused and ran as fast as they could”. Which I may consider trademarking. Despite the lack of direction by yours truly, this ended up being a real gasser of a run. With the clock ticking down, we completed a conglomeration of laps and an overall distance of just under 2 miles.

We then headed back to the AO at a warm down pace and finished right around 4.5 miles.

COT/BOM:

Mary:

LBC X50

Announcements:

– Chum Qs the Rabbit next week. We will be meeting up at the Clubhouse 6:30PM and doing a tour of the neighborhood lights. 2.0s welcome!

– Rabbit/Goat Convergence in January, details to come!

– Churham F3 get together Friday from 6PM-2AM @ The Strowd, Chapel Hill

Echoing a backblast from Marky Mark a few days ago, it’s tough to get back into F3 if you’re out for a little while, which is something I am doing right now. Encourage everyone to stay the course and continue to be involved despite the weather.

I also would like to echo Grunge and encourage people to sign up to Q the Rabbit. Absolutely anyone can do it and it is a ton of fun. Even if you don’t think highly of your running skills, there are a ton of variations you can do to accomplish the same goal. Dueling Banjos and Grunge are two guys to speak with about how to effectively lead the Rabbit. Also, not included this AM, but a big shoutout to Grunge for everything he is doing and has done with the Rabbit. He’s been killing it with this AO and we all owe him some thanks for making the Rabbit what it is today.