• Now that I know, first 2 of ? times •
[2 MIN READ]
The conviction from those in the know is that club principal Zen Yanni is the nutter runner who conceived the 4 Sisters route. As I’ve asked around from those in the knew, several club members are among the nutter runners who’ve done it, repeatedly (e.g., Alan Bravo, BB Betsy, Dr. Ned, Zen Yanni). “Back in the day” was used a lot as a qualifier.
I am happy to report the route is still well worth doing. I’m happy to report that Scottsy and Ironette agree. In the two successive weeks that I did the 4SM, they were the 2 who, like me, loved the idea of the challenge and decided to do it. Scottsy did it with me first and he gets credit for being the nuttiest of us all because he’d never done more than 15 miles, period. That and he had only done the ‘Army 10 Miler’ race 2 weeks before. Still, as a long-time runner, he thought the distance was within reach and worth doing. And he did it. Ironette would be doing her 2nd 20 miler, 3 weeks before Philly. She was equally comfortable with the distance and the worthiness. And she did it.
Others may question the value of jumping so much in distance or doing 20 so close to a marathon, but we 3 were happy to map a path to the future of the route as a renewed regular club feature. (For those who care about such things, the elevation gain is 2,000’ [according to MapMyRun]).
Read more: Revisiting the 4 Sisters of Manayunk
While I’m helping you process the insanity, it occurs to me there’s one more extreme. No, not the 4 Sisters and Oh Brothers with Shawmont Manor (Read more). How about the 4 Sisters of Manayunk and the 4 Brothers of Roxy and Conshy?! Going back down Shawmont, then up and down Port Royal Avenue, then up and down Manor Rd, and finally up Harts Lane to finish would do it! Sure, it would be an ultramarathon of 27.7 miles and, sure, it would be an elevation gain of 3,000’, but, OH, WHAT A RUN!
Zen Yanni might have approved of the run, in principle, but we’ll never know if he would have attempted it. I never will. That level of nutterness is beyond even me.
–CtCloser (Calvinthe) “Negative Split or Positive Splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Text by Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-published: Facebook Shawmont Running Club (ZY Weekly Newsletter 11/8/25), Shawmont Running Club website, Ruminations by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Rumination with added caption and enumeration.
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