11km south on canal road, okie, the end of the world, but I’ll do it! We set off and Kwazi called the first circle seeing paper from some way off and ignoring standard FRB protocol. We all ran off towards the burning place, and quickly had another circle. I followed Chuckie, and we were correct. Somehow I got first choice at the next circle and nailed it. I called loudly and kept running to a V check. Getting there first I picked right. Turns out it was a pivotal V check, but I would know nothing about it for some time.
I pressed on off to the right, and hit a dead straight stretch. Looking over my shoulder I was waiting for the pack to appear. They never did. WTF? I was confident I wasn’t screwing things up. There was clean, new trail clearly marked, just as the hare brief promised… So I carried on. When I got to a junction, sure enough there was a circle check, but sure enough I could see paper in the distance to the left. I kept jogging, in the zone of an FRB.
Then there was another T-junction, we had to be breaking left, and not far left was a runsite we’ve used before so I set off there to check. Damnit!!! 150m and that white thing hanging off a tree was not trail. Back the other way and nothing. This could turn from the perfect hash to a nightmare if I wasn’t careful. I was so tempted to just head in the general direction of where I thought it must go, but there was no sound from behind – I had time, so I kept looking, and finally got it… OnOn! It was going the right direction, so I pressed on, alone, lonely.
The next few checks I picked off first choice and was cruising along. I remembered these trails, but up ahead that was a new wall, or dam, or what ever the hell it was? I followed trail as it cut up around and back down. Around what? Around a tent… In the tent there appeared to be a bunch of Thai guys and school girls drinking. As I avoided the scene, I couldn’t help but notice that Cuckold was sat in the middle calling out “Family”. This run was strange enough, while I was lonely running, I wasn’t too sure what Cuckold had going on over there, so I pressed on.
We were so close to home, but the nasty hare took us off in the other direction, and now some checks were kicked out. The kicked out circles were my first indication of the monumental fuckup that had gone on. Somehow CW, Piggy, and HRA had gone wrong at the “V” check and done the last couple of km of trail. Cuckold had been with them till he found his LaoKhao stop. That meant the last couple of km or so was following kicked out checks (even though I didn’t believe one of them). If you just follow the paper guys, it was a great run! Good Job Mr. Poo.
Trust me, the run was infinitely better managed than the complete incompetence at the OnOnOn.