A Funeral For Summer—Flash Run!

Yes friends, today is the day.  Autumn starts today.  In Minnesota, that can only mean one thing—snow.  Yes, snow.  It will come soon.  Runners everywhere are weeping.  Oh sure, autumn looks nice with it's colorful leaves and cooler temperatures, but that's just a facade for the impending doom that is icy sidewalks, frostbite, and frozen facial hair.

This summer was a toasty one, but I'm not ready to let it go.  There are others, apparently, that are not happy with the end of summer.  So we gathered.  In black.  To mourn.  And run.

The good people at Twin Cities in Motion (TCIM) are creating a new phenomenon known as a "Flash Run".  What is a flash run?  Well, it's like a flash mob*, but where one runs instead of…mobs?

*A flash mob is a spontaneous gathering of people who do something silly, then depart as if nothing happened, all organized by word-of-mouth (Facebook and the Twitter).  An example would be people showing up at a coffee shop, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" once at a specified time, then leaving.


On Monday, TCIM posted this on their Facebook page:

Flash Run Clue 1: It's the last day of summer tomorrow! Find a black shirt & begin to prepare for the mourning (and running) to follow.

Ok, not a problem, I've got plenty of black shirts.  Wait—it's supposed to be how warm on September 21?  70 degrees?  Uh oh, all my black running shirts are meant for winter temps.  I'll need to get creative with this one.

Later in the day, we got the next clue:

Flash Run Clue 2: We have such great summer memories around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. Mourners, plan to meet at the Bandshell.

On the other side of town, but maybe I can swing that.

The final clue was yesterday morning:

Flash Run Clue 3: Let's bid the summer season adieu by chasing the sun. Be there at 7pm.

Not the most convenient time (have you ever tried driving down Hennepin Ave during rush hour?  Don't.), but I'm going to do my darndest to make it.

Well, I showed up and there were 300 3 other people.  Not huge, but it's quality, not quantity, right?  Hannah, who is in charge of all communications at TCIM and thus organized this, was there, along with her mom, and a guy named Tony.

What was cool was that there was a cameraman there from KARE11, so we were going to be on TV!  We conned recruited some unsuspecting bystanders who happened to be wearing black to increase our numbers, and they filmed us doing a bit of running.  I don't have a fancy Tivo or even a VCR, so what you see here is me filming the clips with my digital camera while sitting in front of my TV.  (Note: there are 2 separate clips here—the first was a "promo" clip, and the second is the actual clip/lead-in to the weather report).

First up, I have to say that I'm NOT as narcissistic as my shirt may portray me as.  If you look closely, there are 2 huge periods between the M and the E.  So, in reality, my shirt says: "It's All About M.E."  This was the only short-sleeve black shirt that I had, and it's in reference to Mechanical Engineering.

Another cool thing is that two of the people we recruited had a dog, so even a dog is upset that summer is gone.

After the video shoot, 3 of us left for a run around Lake Harriet.  I run by myself so much that I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to run in a group.  We had a nice pace going and talked about things running and marathoning.  

Hannah left for home after one loop of the lake, and Tony headed off partway through a second loop.  So, I ended up doing 2 loops of Lake Harriet to get my 6ish miles in.  It got dark really fast, so it was very tough to see.  It didn't help that I was dressed as a ninja runner, and that the car headlights going the opposite direction kept me pretty much blind.

So, moral of the story—FLASH RUNS ARE COOL.  Seriously, pay attention to TCIM's Facebook page and come join the next flash run.  Cool things could happen—like being on the evening news.