Because the COVID-19 crisis caused the cancellation of the UVa Medical Student’s annual Camp Holiday Trails 5K tomorrow, Ragged Mountain will be donating a percentage of this Saturday’s online sales to help support the wonderful work for the kids at the Camp this summer. We also encourage each of you to donate to this wonderful community organization. Any donation makes a difference and none is too small. Thanks for shopping at Ragged and thanks for supporting CHT!

​https://www.campholidaytrails.org/donate/send-kids-to-camp/

 To my community athletes:
 
Our friends at UVa kindly reached out to me yesterday for my thoughts and feedback regarding the possible temporary closure of the Lannigan Field track. After a thorough and thoughtful conversation with them, I was fully supportive of temporarily closing the gates, despite the obvious inconvenience to those of us who use it on regular basis, as it’s in the best interest of the health of our community.
 
You all have already been great about following the new norm of social distancing but some folks within our community are not practicing these safe measures and keeping the gates open to the general public could lead to social clustering. The university has closed down all of the other fitness and recreation centers, including all of their indoor pools, in an effort to slow the growth of this virus, so it only made sense to me that we also play a role, no matter how small it may be, in supporting this call for universal safety measures within our community by respecting this tough decision to close this beautiful outdoor track.
 
I know this will be a big sacrifice for many of us but, in the overall picture of what many of our neighbors are personally giving up, this is the least we can do in saying “we’re all in this together”.  Our friends at UVa have been very generous to us in so many ways over the years, including opening the gates to a lit track at 5:30 every morning, so supporting this thoughtful decision is just one small way of showing how grateful we are.   
Thanks for understanding and for your unending support, my friends and athletes.
 
Be safe and keep moving!
Coach Mark
434-962-1694 (text)

Our Ragged Mountain family is so grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received, since temporarily closing our doors last week. Call us or order online anytime for anything as lots of new items have been added. We’re still here to serve you. Many thanks, friends.

Free daily deliveries continue! We’ve loved bringing clothing and shoes to your doorsteps! Thanks for your support in keeping Ragged on our feet.
​
https://ragged-mountain-running-shop.myshopify.com

3/21/20

Over the past eight days as our store has been temporarily closed, we have been overwhelmed by the support and positive feedback from all of our loyal customers.  It has been an unprecedented last couple of weeks, with the state of our world changing by the hour, and it has certainly thrown into stark relief the things that truly matter to us in this life.  We are humbly grateful for everything you all have done for us, and cannot wait for the day when we can thank you all in person. Until then, we will be here for you all, whether it's by phone, email or our online store, and will continue to offer our free home delivery (contactless drop at your front door) or free shipping on every single one of our orders. There certainly may come a day, in the very near future perhaps, where we are mandated to shut down by the government, but until then, we are here for you. Wishing you all the best in health, happiness, and sanity as we endure this ordeal together.

Love, 

Your Ragged Mountain Family

P.S We wanted to extend an extra special and sincere thank you to all our customers who are in the health care profession.  It may not always seem like it, but don't for a second think that we aren't all rooting for you from afar as you battle on the front lines to keep us all safe. The debt of gratitude our society owes you all cannot be put into words, but please know that we all thank you from the bottom of our heart.

3/12/20

Dear Ragged Mountain Patrons,

After much deliberation, we have decided to temporarily close our doors for the foreseeable future (but we will stay open via our online store/phone line/FREE home delivery service) due to the quickly evolving Coronavirus pandemic. Even though the door will be closed, we will still be just as accessible as always, albeit in a slightly different fashion. It is not a decision we make lightly, as coming to work each day to serve you, face to face, is something that we enjoy just as much now as we did back in 1982 when we opened our doors. It is truly our pleasure, and our privilege. That being said, due to the close proximity of customers in our store on a normal day, not to mention when the store is busy, in addition to the high percentage of our customers that are over the age of 60 (who are at a much, much higher risk of having severe complications from this virus), we don't feel we can continue to keep our doors open.

This is a challenge the likes of which our country has never seen in our lifetime, and although it may seem like it has not yet reached our community, it is almost certainly already here. There is simply not enough testing in the state of Virginia to assure us otherwise, not even close. The sooner we realize that, the better.  There is a reason our community, our state, and many other places around the country are calling for States of Emergencies.  Many of you may feel like this is a bit alarmist and a case of us overreacting. And boy do we hope that's the case.  But sadly, we fear that it's not an overreaction at all. Anyone paying attention to the spread of the disease across the globe, especially in Italy, has seen its explosive growth rate, and its ability to absolutely cripple entire hospitals with the ease and virility with which it spreads. A scant 10 days ago, Italy had the same number of cases as the US does right now, and were handling it pretty well.  Much like we are currently.  Now, they have the second highest death toll in the world, a death rate of over 6%, and the prospect of running out of ICU beds, equipment, and medical staff in the next week.  They are literally having to make decisions on who to treat and potentially save, and who to let die. A harrowing truth for a first world country in 2020, especially since it has more beds and doctors per capita than we do. There is no reason this couldn't be our reality in two weeks.

So, it is up to each and every one of us to do our part, and to step up to our responsibility to reduce contact between ourselves, relieve as much stress on our medical system as possible, and to flatten the curve as much as we can. The slower the disease spreads, the more time it buys our scientists and doctors the time they need to figure out a vaccine. If the curve is not flattened, the cost could be devastating. Just today, a doctor shared with Congress that 70-150 MILLION Americans could get this virus. Even if the death rate is "just" 1%...that's 1.5 million people. Truly a staggering number. We encourage each and every one of you to take steps in your own personal lives to do the same. We are fiercely proud to be members of this community, and we have no doubt that Charlottesville can help lead the way in this fight.

Although our doors will be temporarily closed, the Lorenzoni family will still be at work every day, answering the phones, filling online orders, shipping out packages, and dropping shoes off at your house. The same level of service you've come to expect from us these past 38 years will still be there, that much we can guarantee. And as time passes, we will continue to re-evaluate the situation. Your support and patience means the world to us, and we look forward to defeating this challenge, and getting back to "normal" as soon as we can.  

With Much Gratitude,

The Lorenzoni Family & Staff
434.293.3367

Alec Lorenzoni
434.962.2366
alec@raggedmountainrunning.com

Audrey Lorenzoni
434.962.4332
audrey@raggedmountainrunning.com

THE TEN MILER AND THIS SEMINAR HAVE BEEN CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19.

​The Ragged Mountain Running & Walking Shop invites you to Getting the Best Out of Your Ten Miler, Spring Marathon, and/or Half Marathon! A one hour clinic packed full of tips and advice on how to be a successful, safe, and strong distance athlete.

Come join us this Saturday in supporting our Whitehall friends at the super fast Sugar Hollow Bridges 5K & 10K. Beautiful course and delicious post-race pancakes!

Register Online

The Sugar Hollow Three Bridges 5 and 10 K Race is sponsored by the White Hall Ruritans. Both a 5 and a 10k course will be available on beautiful Sugar Hollow Road alongside the Moorman's River. The course is measured so that the 5K runners will run over 2 bridges to the iconic sycamore tree. The 10K course will incorporate all three bridges with a run to the Sugar Hollow reservoir.   The race will be held rain or shine at 8:00 AM, February 29th, 2020. The starting line is 1.5 miles west of Piedmont Store at 5275 Sugar Hollow Road. Ample parking will be available at the Sugar Hollow site. Race registration is $35: on site registration is $40. Following the race join us for a pancake breakfast from 9-11 am at the Community Center, 2094 Brown Gap Turnpike. (Runners free! Donation accepted, suggested minimum donation of $5.00) Proceeds aid in the restoration of the White Hall Community Center, a historic building in Western Albemarle County, and for the many community services provided by the organization, including scholarships to area college bound students, 5th grade achievement awards, highway clean  up and many other projects. Contact whitehallruritans@gmail.com with questions.

Read Rachel Ward's article in The Daily Progress about Charlie Hurt's journey to the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials!

After 38 fun years of serving our community, we are thrilled to announce that our two oldest kids, Alec (35) and Audrey (33), have now officially joined us (Cynthia and Mark) as co-owners of Ragged Mountain! 

Both Alec and Audrey have spent a good part of their lives at Ragged, having worked with our valued customers for over 20 years apiece and we're absolutely delighted that they are deeply and passionately committed to making it their life's journey in continuing Ragged Mountain's ongoing mission to be the very best community neighbors. 

A lot has changed since we first opened the doors to Ragged Mountain in 1982. Back then, 90% of our customers were male, their average age was 25 and all of them ran. Today, the average age of our customer is fifty, close to half of them walk for their exercise and over half are female.

But two things remain the same, as Alec and Audrey step into this new role: 

​1. We still continue to deeply appreciate the support we receive from our customers, both old and new. 
2. We strive, throughout each and every day, to provide the very best service to all of our patrons!      

Please join their proud Mom and Dad in welcoming Alec and Audrey to this official role in the life of Ragged Mountain. We're so happy!