A familiar venue at the Ag Center drew the crowds to experience what Stumbling Dyke had put together with the assistance of Pamela! My legs were feeling good and I was ready to run for once… With no sniff, the hare pointed us off down the road, and I jogged off to find the first cross check. We were heading straight towards the mountain, and it rose ominously above us. I got the 2nd check right as well, with Semen Soars making little effort to check the ‘wrong’ option.
Finally I got one wrong, turning back only to see Chuckie and SS following me – is anyone planning to do some checking today? The trail turned right along the bottom of the hills – perhaps the hares were going to be kind afterall? We got to another check, and having run there before we knew that the straight option was a deadend, so CW, SS and me turned left only to hit a checkback. It turns out the hares had taken a machete to the jungle and hacked a way through. We fell in behind Horny Monkey, HRA and Stephanie.
The next check was unexplicable – with most choosing to check left – along a trail that just took us back to where we’d just come from. No chance! I put my foot down and upped the pace along a beautiful running trail – looking over my shoulder, CW was following me. Even more motivation to speed up! It was another 2.5km to get back, but I was pretty sure which way we’d go – particularly since there are some new barbed wire fences, around the football field for example.
The last few checks then were pretty obvious – looking over my shoulder CW was following, but he didn’t want to do any checking. Apparently while I was checking on the right side of the road, he checked on the left, just in case I didn’t see the paper. Hah! He just didn’t want me to get too far ahead, and sure enough as we headed back he reeled me in, and overtook me shortly before the On-In. Nice running CW!