About

Mill Mountain Mornings is a pedestrian collective in Roanoke, Virginia. People turn up at Piedmont Park around 6am on Wednesdays and go up Mill Mountain together — running, walking, skipping or biking — by the Old Road, which is the hard way, to the star. Then back down the parkway to the river. It is roughly 5.25 miles with about 825 feet of climbing.

What it is

A standing excuse to climb a hill before work. Starting at 6am means being up and climbing before sunrise for most of the year, and getting to the top about when the sun does. The meeting spot sits next to the Roanoke River Greenway, so anyone who wants more miles can add them at either end.

There is nothing to join

No sign-up, no membership, no registration, no fee to arrange. Nobody takes a register and nobody is expecting you. People happen to run up a hill at around the same time on a Wednesday, and turning up is the whole of it. If you are reading this wondering how to get in, that is the answer: be at Piedmont Park at six.

What it is not

This is not a race, and there are no results, no timing and no finishing order. It is not a running club in the sense that has committees and dues. It is also not the authority on Mill Mountain itself — park hours, closures, trail conditions and anything else about the place belong to the City of Roanoke, and this site states none of them. Nothing here is monitored in real time, and nothing here should be relied on in an emergency.

Who writes it

This site is written by Adam Crigger, who started the run after moving back to Roanoke. It sells a sticker, which is the only commercial thing about it; the shop is at the shop and what happens to a message you send is set out on the privacy page. The credits are in the colophon.