What do you call a group bike ride for 10,000 people at the stroke of midnight?

If you are in St. Louis you call it the Moonlight Ramble.

Last weekend I traveled to St. Louis specifically to do some research on the Moonlight Ramble, a 45-year-old bike event that is sponsored by the Gateway Council of Hostels International, a group that is dedicated to creating low cost family activities and providing inexpensive lodging through hostels.

Well, this event fits the profile of a great event. It attracts the types of people who contribute to a great time: families out for an end of summer fling, costumed eccentrics out for oohs and ahhs, hard core cyclists out for a giggle, high school kids out for a high energy good time, college kids out for a breezy social.

For $25 participants sign up for an 18-mile ride (or nine-mile easy version) that winds through the fair city of St. Louis on a course that changes every year and is kept secret until the last minute. It’s called the Midnight Ramble because it’s a ramble not a race, people ride for a good time and stop at the stop lights if they have to. It starts in front of City Hall with a police escort and police protection at intersections along the route, but riders are also wearing helmet and staying alert. The city backs it to the hilt.

Thanks to some help from the local organizers, I found myself on the front the 10,000 rider pack and had a ball. There is something liberating about zooming along the streets of a large American city with a pack of free spirited cyclists. There’s adrenaline and exertion and, of course, a full moon overhead.

Our ride zipped us past gritty warehouse neighborhoods, down a thoroughfare with strip malls, hospitals and college dormitories before sending us into lovely Forest Park which houses the St. Louis Zoo, the history museum, the art museum and the planetarium. That was a long, leafy lane through the park that made us thankful for the full moon. When was the last time you were really thankful for the full moon?

Our return ride brought us back to the same route to the Moonlight Ramble vendor village at 13th and Chestnut, which was where from 1 a.m. until 2:30 a.m. 10,000 people to celebrate a good bike ride St. Louis style -- with a rocking live band, a couple of White Castle sliders, a couple of Fat Tire beers and a root beer float. Lots of chit chat and socializing -- all in all, a great time in a great American city.

So the question is -- is this something we want to try out in Richmond? If you read this and you’re kind of interested, check out http://www.moonlightramble.com/. If you get super interested, drop me a note at info@sportsbackers.org and let me know that you think that we Richmonders could do one heck of a Midnight Ramble here, too.

Now I’ve got to go catch up on my sleep. That was one wild night.

For more information on the Patrick Henry Half Marathon, go to http://www.sportsbackers.org/.