DS #61 – Plea Barkin

Who: Plea Barkin
What: DS #61, aka “Is 2020 over yet or what?”
When: May 22, 2020 at 6:30pm, on out at 7pm
Where: 40.493046, -79.911685
Why: To run a longer trail and enjoy the shit out of it!

This Darkside is a tribute to 2020. You may say it’s too early for a tribute, but I say it’s too late. If we don’t tribute 2020 now, what else will it throw at us. I mean, we waited an additional month to write this as lockdown was extended, and what do we get? Fucking Murder Hornets! Assholes are two inches long. You want to see what June has? No, no you don’t.

To tribute 2020, this trail will feature all of our favorite new found friends: coronavirus; economic despair; Carole Baskin; and of course, murder hornets. We’ll introduce our new friends to our old friends: shiggy; hills; stairs; cheap beer, and with a little luck, some bad weather too boot.

What to bring: your own beer for pre; a mask (because it amuses me to make you run 9 miles in a mask or because I am socially responsible, you decide), a headlamp, a virgin; and a can do attitude. If you want snacks, bring your own, as we don’t want communal food at this time. This trail will be way more run-able than some of my other trails, but there will be some off road sections for sure.

What not to bring: yourself, if you’re sick or even slightly intelligent.

Also, usually not an issue for dark side, but the Governor’s order is to keep this under 25 people. Please sign up if you intend on coming. If it gets crowded, we’ll figure it out.

To be safe, there won’t be snacks at beer stops nor will there be shot stops. I’ll lay trail shitty enough that y’all won’t catch me as you’ll be lost. As to beer stops, I am working on something to be careful. Plan right now is to leave unopened 12 packs with a new pair of gloves at each stop. As punishment, front running bastard must put on gloves, refrain from touching face and hand out beer to pack, or dump it out for self serve. As to masks, I personally don’t wear a mask when I am out running, but in order not to rock the boat, please bring one to be respectful of others where there may or not be bottlenecks or muggles in close proximity. Hopefully everything will be wide open and empty.

Directions to Prelube/On-Out location – BYOB prelube is on the railroad access road that runs under the Highland Park Bridge and connects Sharpsburg to Aspinwall. I think the New Years trail ran on this, and I did a circle there in January for PITT. Best advice is to find parking on 23rd Street by Dunbar Armored (120 23rd St, Pittsburgh, PA 15215) and walk behind the buildings against tree line toward Highland Park Bridge, can’t miss the trail/road. I’m so excited to drink some beer, I have been dry since shutdown!