Best run of the year… so far…
Well, certainly an interesting experience! It was from the crematorium next to the Disco shelter, and I arrived in just enough time after work. Harebrief fumbled through and we were set off up the trail towards the hills. Poo and a visitor got the running going, only to get the first check wrong, and I found myself ahead until the 2nd check when I was back to the back. We dropped into a creek bed and then started climbing for real. It was a scramble for a while and then trail up, up, up…
At the top we turned left and headed down, down, down. On the way down the checks were all straight on, and whoever was up front kept nailing them, but the pack was all running hard down the hill. At the bottom, I got a check wrong – badly wrong as I went through the temple, headed towards the road. When it was called in the complete opposite direction, I was tempted to bail out – apparently Graven did, and was expecting to see me going back on the road. But no, reluctantly I turned left again and headed back into the mountains – how many times could we turn left?
The pack charged on ahead, while I slowed and was past by Anal Boring and Piggy. Piggy encouraged me to stick to paper, and reluctantly I did, but heading back up that hill wasn’t enjoyable! Finally we turned right, hacked steeply back down to the gully and then it was a gradual descent to the road. Piggy was walking not far ahead, but it took me a long time to close him down. As I got to him, he waved me past, but I was barely going quicker than him, when I slowed to a walk he started breaking away from me again, but at last we were back to the cold beer!
I recovered a bit… I got a beer… I took a shower… Changed… and was just about ready for a circle, when an ambulance showed up. I noticed HRA wasn’t about, and then started hearing stories about a hasher in trouble. On my phone I had an email from Alice with a pindrop, but no message, and no missed call. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, until FD appeared – it seems the stranded hashers had picked Frozen, our slowest hasher, to go to get help!
He told me to get in his truck and for the ambulance to follow us. In the car I got a little bit of information – Randy, a virgin brought by Anywan, had collapsed at the top of the hill – FD wasn’t sure if he would make it. We drove as close as we could, but then had to climb the mountain (again) – me in my work shoes by now. HRA grabbed a stretcher from the back of the ambulance, while the 2 paramedics chased him up the trail. Poo, Alice, HRA, myself and FD following along headed up.
As we got close to the pindrop, the group of hashers appeared out of the fading light – Randy had recovered, and he was ready to frogmarch down the hill to get out! They were waiting for us to show them a short cut? I have no idea, but for some reason I got to climb the bloody mountain an extra time tonight, while there was perfectly drinkable cold beer at the A site. All is well that ends well I guess…