We were promised a full moon, so it would be a night run. I’m all for something different so drove for an hour or so to the southern end of canal road to see what they had in store for us. We were set off into the night, with most of us carrying torches – I carried 2, but some forgot and didn’t ask to borrow one! At the first check, Turkish and KO checked to the right, for what seemed like an eternity – it turned out neither had a torch with them.
I turned back slowly and walked for a while, getting used to the darkness, slowly overtaking the walkers. I started jogging, but it took a while to get back to the pack. There were some checks, but the hares were clearly being kind to the pack, making sure the trail was clearly marked for the darkness. Finally I approached a group of torches huddled together, and it appeared they were still checking. I’d just passed a small trail off to the right, so headed over to it, and suddenly I was at the front of the pack! I pushed myself into a steady jog, and got the next check right as well.
At the next there was utter confusion. It was called, but then Graven suggested we were just going back the way we’d come. It was dark, so none of us were really sure what was going on, particularly when paper ran out not long later. Perhaps we missed a check? Suddenly there were calls from everywhere, and everyone was convinced they were correctly on trail. I suspect that TMB & I were the only 2 that did it all, and strava suggests others cut a loop out.
For me, I was on my own again, believing I was just following TMB… I was expecting someone to catch me up sooner or later, but nobody appeared from behind. When I got to a check that was kicked out, I was really confused… Either TMB came back to kick it out for me, or… am I doing a 2nd lap of the trail? I tried to focus my brain, but it was dark, and I could have been on any trail. I trudged on, and was shocked to find all the pack already home when I got back.
Devious, particularly hiding the moon until the circle was nearly over!