Hi there, anyone remember me?

[Rachel]

If not, that's ok.

I actually don't remember the last time I posted on Hillrunner (and boy, have things changed around here!). For anyone that remembers the perennially broken runner from Geneseo St. in NY, that would be me. Anyway (if you guys don't already know) I thought it would be cool to let you know that your site is linked to the running club I belong to. It's on the "Runners Resources" page. The club is GRTC (Greater Rochester Track Club), located in Rochester, NY.

I didn't expect to have a valid user name and password here still due to inactivity. I feel loved 

Rachel

* Oh yeah, the URL for that page is http://www.grtconline.org *

[Rachel]

Just to let you know, this wasn't a glorified attempt to direct you to the GRTC page. I just wanted you guys to see that another club saw that this place was cool enough in the running world that it placed a link for your site on their site. If that was an illegal post, I apologize and didn't mean it to be.

Rachel

[Ryan]

Hi Rachel, I do remember you. I hope your running is going well and you've managed to stay uninjured for a while.

Yes, I believe we have a link here to the Greater Rochester Track Club. I don't remember who I was in contact with there but many years ago we exchanged links.

BTW, just playing around, your last post here before now was January, 2004. I guess it has been a while. Welcome back.

[Andrew A.]

You used to post to the board at Merv, no?

[DennisW]

You used to post to the board at Merv, no?

hijack warning.

Speaking of MERV, where did everybody go that used to be on MERV?  I lurked heavily and posted occasionally in the ≈1998-2001 time period.  I got away from it when it got to be mostly arguments and hostility.

Of course, Ryan is here, but did a good number of the crowd go somewhere specific?  Or did everyone just kind of fade away?

[denton]

...some still lurk.....some you'll find elsewhere...some have passed away...some have simply gotten older......but in general you'll find former 'mervites' all over in varying degrees.....

..in general i found it more interesting than many other current pages, but only becuase u had such a large varaiation of abilities and characters (egs Joe Blow and elites.......although some never fit in, in general it was much more inclusive

there is actually still a merv page that exists, but i don't think anyone posts on it......

[Andrew A.]

Wilson and I used to post to Merv and now post elsewhere -- here, the defunct board on kemibe's site (and its inbred bastard offspring), and others.  I never really saw sense in restricting my activity to any single board, then or now, though of course some hold greater appeal than others.  denton is correct that Merv, which is essentially dead but for nostalgia, has morphed into a google group that sees no meaningful activity.

[DennisW]

Thanks denton and Andrew.  I figured they were pretty much scattered.  It's kind of hard to tell former mervites on current sites because a lot of people use handles instead of names like most did on Merv.

Yeah, I liked the mix of posters on Merv, too.  It was good hearing from people like Hodge and Malley all the way down to people like me (just an occasional age group medal winner).  And new runners (at the time) like Kevin Flynn (I believe that was his name who later started using El G as a handle) contributed greatly to the atmosphere.  Oh well, just waxing nostalgic.

Yeah, I noticed the google group set up a few years ago.  And the Merv calculator has been functional on the Stanford server all these years.  I wonder if Horace still has anything to do with it, or if it's just something never discovered and shut down? (rhetorical)

[Ryan]

Honestly, I'm not sure where a lot of them have gone. A few are here, I've seen a couple at Running Times, but many have seemingly gone AWOL. It's too bad, that was a good crew. If I knew where they were, I'd invite them over here but I'd think they would know they are welcome here if they wanted to come.

[Andrew A.]

I agree with Ryan, there is no good reason that this forum could not be every bit as good as Merv may have been, if not better.  Invite the people with whom you enjoy thoughtful discussions to check in here and know that there will be admin/mods here who are highly sympathetic to that preference.