A few weeks ago, YHC and RG3 took a ruck to see if we could stitch together a couple of “new” trails on the northside of Briar Chapel. One branches off from the main bike trail off Serenity Hill, just at the second drainage pond (call it Second Pond), then comes out at the construction site on the east side of Great Ridge Parkway. The other is the remains of the Kill Bill trail on the west side of Kill Bill, plus its connector trail that runs back to the main pedestrian bridge on the BC walking trail.  See map below.

In the daylight and at ruck-pace, we managed to connect them into a long, almost all-trail loop.

Could we replicate it in the dark of the The Rabbit?

Turns out: no.

But we gave it a shot.  With 5 Pax, including RG3 and with Dueling Banjos graciously agreeing to forgo a last-minute Q, plus K9 Pax and Rabbit vet Truett, we took off.

Well, no, we didn’t. During warm-ups, K9 PAX Truett was sent to the car due to previous poor behavior during warm-ups. During these very few moments of isolation, he accomplished some magical paw-to-fob combination that managed to lock himself inside the car (car keys were on driver’s seat, far from Truett’s initial spot in back hatch)

An absolutely amazing accomplishment. And so….

Warm-up

IW X 10

WMH X 10

Arm Circles X 10

Warm-up Jog to YHC house to get extra keys, and return, freeing Truett.

The Thang

Proceed via trails to the ‘new’ trail at 2nd pond.  This trail was not developed a year ago and was very very faint for most of the summer, but appears to be getting more established. However, at some point on its length, it merges with an older, abandoned trail, where several rock features appear to be built several years ago.  But much of it – including both entrances – appear freshly cut.

YHC lost the trail a couple times, but here Truett redeemed himself. A multi-visit pro to this landscape, his reflective collar often marked the way down not-at-all-obvious cleared paths.

Emerging onto the dirt-and-gravel portion of Great Ridge Parkway, Pax took advantage of the road surface for:

Repeats – 1 minutes @ 80%+ effort, 30 sec recover – X5

With that, time was short and the gloom thick, so Pax headed back to Clubhouse via Great Ridge, with a quick trail detour once in the neighborhood.

Mary

Each Pax calls and leads one Mary

Ring of Fire, 5 Merkins each

End. 3.47 miles, according to RG3s watch (or, if you are Truett, running ahead then back then ahead then back, like 12). Mission semi-accomplished but YHC would warn against another no-light attempt until the trails are more established (also, I had a pretty bad headlamp – a good one would have made a difference)

Announcements:

Bright Idea organizing a BC Marathon. Get your miles in!

COT.

I didn’t have much to say at COT today, but I wrote this COT essay after a Q a year ago. After thinking about it, I’ve decided to repost it here. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, it doesn’t even need many updates.

Nobody is going to check your form at F3. Not your merkins, your burpees, your mile time. You will get the results you hold yourself to.  Accountability will find you and you’ll have no excuse for the results you don’t get.

I’ve been thinking about that basic truth of F3 – and life – as a national upheaval continues to roll along, a change that anyone who subscribes to F3 values must recognize and decide how they are going to respond. Most of us grew up in a similar world, one that led to our neighborhoods, our jobs and the community we’ve found in F3. But I’ve come to realize this year that, all along, most of the women we knew and know today live in a world that’s very different.

And now, before our eyes, that world is getting peeled open. As I thought yesterday about today’s Q, a far-right Alabama Senate candidate and a far-left Hollywood TV star [update: both now unemployed], almost in the same hour, found themselves called to answer for how they had, more than once, decided to treat women when they thought no one would be looking. That no one would check their form. They join a diverse list of other successful men we’ve learned about this year, a list that is not going to stop growing.

[update: told ya]

You want to believe that we – the men we know – almost always get this right, that men ‘like us’ know right from wrong and these few, sorry guys on the news lost their minds. But ask any – and I do mean ‘any’ – woman you know if what we are now seeing is familiar to them.

They will tell you, in one way or another, ‘welcome to our world.’

In F3, if you want results, you have to be accountable even though, in the windy dark, nobody is watching. Losing track of that personal accountability – doing what’s right when you won’t get caught – is how every single one of these men – Roy Moore, Louis CK, Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Bill O’Reilly, Cosby, and the next 10 we’ll find out about soon enough – failed.

And now, to what I’m sure is their shock and terror, accountability has found each of these men. And they got no damn excuse for the results.

Be better, men.