You stand before me as a tribute. So take heed of these words.

Since the end of Dark Days, our great Monkeyville has known only the peace of the run.

Ours is an elegant system, conceived to nourish, and protect you runners from the terrors beyond the Hills. Your Hills are the body, the Marathon is the beating heart. Your hard work feeds us, and in return, we feed and protect you.

But if you resist the race, you starve yourself. If you fight against it, it is you who will bleed.

I know you will stand with me, with us, with all of us, together, as one.

Monkey Today. Monkey Tomorrow. Monkey Forever.

Some guidelines for the Monkey Games.

- We still have charity registration spots available. The charity spots support a donation to the park where we hold this little event. Convince your friends of madness, invite them to volunteer to play and represent their Hills.

- Nourish yourself for and after the games. Bring some food and/or drink to share with the rest of the tributes and game makers post race pot-luck style. As always, I will be making home-made monkey pumpkin pies. Lots of them. What will you bring?

- We are still looking for volunteers on race morning or for the Thursday night before the race from 4-8pm. So if you know of anybody smart enough not to run who wants to come out and spend a sweltering or freezing morning in the park helping out, please let us know. Volunteers are awesome!

- Your registration info is posted on the Monkey's website AND here: http://www.runningahead.com/events/Monkey/participants. Please take a look to make sure it is correct.

- None of us is ever ready. If you happen to realize this wisdom and realize you won't be able to make it to Monkey, please let me know so I can offer your spot to one of the foolish fools on our foolish wait list.

- Packet pickup will be at the Gordon JCC on November 21, 2015 between 2pm and 4pm. The JCC is located at 801 Percy Warner Blvd, Nashville, TN 37148. This is less than 2 miles from the race start/finish area. Here is a map to the GJCC: http://tinyurl.com/MonkeyPacketPickup . Packet pickup will also be available race morning adjacent to the starting line if you arrive by 7am.

- For those of you who want a post-race shower but are checking out of your hotel room, you can return to the JCC located at 801 Percy Warner Blvd, Nashville, TN 37148. They will need you to show your bib and bring your own towel and soap. They may also charge you the $5 guest fee.

- We plan to offer Yazoo Beer after the race to those who are of the correct drinking age. Yazoo is good brew, local and tasty. If you want to enjoy some, please bring your ID with you to the race. You don't have to run with it, but once the beer is available after noon, you will need your ID. If you want to tweet your grand appreciation for this, use these tags: @YazooBrew and @yazoobrewmaster

- We plan to have swag for sale at packet pickup and then post-race, with all proceeds going to support the Friends of Warner Parks, the charity that keeps Monkeyville spectacular. We like to support the parks. Cash appreciated. And cheap!

- The Twitter Monkey hashtag: #MonkeyMarathon. You can also Tweet @hhFlyingMonkey, if'n you want.

- The website lists information about where there is lodging near the race and restaurants where you can dine over the weekend. In addition, if you have further questions, feel free to holler or to put out a query on our message board: http://www.runningahead.com/groups/HHFMM/forum. If you post there, please don't mind the monkey business.

May the Hills be Ever in Your Favor

Trent
Master Game Maker