At the pavilion in the fitness park between CMU and the zoo? Huh? Can we run from there? Do we get to run around the university dorms, or is there a way of cutting through the zoo? This could be interesting! Or not….
There was a big pack, with some quick runners on show – The usuals, Chuck Wao, HRA, BMY, Jungle Chim, the returning Brown Finger and then Nam Rawn, Suck It and Turkish Delight joined in. The hare brief started by giving the FRBs chalk – ‘to mark the course in places where it isn’t very well marked?’ Darn, this was going to be interesting… We set off across the park, and did a pointless loop through the park and back to the cars before heading up towards the mountain – random. Along the road past the entrance to the zoo and then the incline started.
It was up, up, up… No way I could keep up with the pace of the front runners, so I fell in with Jungle Chim and let the runners go. We were following the path next to the waterfall, and I finally hooked up with the leaders at a circle check where some confusing markings had them running around in circles – as it happened, Poo had had enough, and we were heading straight back down again – this time following along the road. At a deviation we plummeted down a steep decline with spiky trees to grab hold of.
We finally hit the road and from there we could open up and sprint downhill to the finish. The hills had mixed everything up, Skid Mark had appeared from nowhere while other short cutters had stepped over the water to rejoin the pack coming down the hill. I was thankful to see Miss Piggy missing the evil descent. One person who didn’t short cut was Frozen Dick – as he was acting GM, we had to wait for the circle to start – great more beer time!