By Alice
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The RA didn’t quite manage to do his duty with the weathergods and the hare thought a straw sunshade was a good enough rain shelter. Didn’t Cartoon ever hear what happened to the little piggies when the big bad wolf blew on the house of straw?
Well the little group of hashers were likewise compromised when the heavens opened and the circle was short and mostly sweet, apart from some new hasher singing a hash version of Livin’ on a Prayer for a down down song. Liked the chorus mind, just the preamble could be dropped next time.
So Cartoon likes SKP. He lives there and sets runs from his front garden so it was said.
Well he knew a pretty good route and we were the ones who were rooted. Small pack, easy enough checks and super well marked….. er, not quite.
TMB started off as the only runner but some of us jogged along in her wake catching up when the FT and circle checks got her. Which they did often.
ABB, Pussy Whisperer and self made the second string FRB team and even sometimes took the lead.
Paper was sometimes sparse in areas you needed to see more and I struggled a few times just following trail when on. Finding the 2nd paper after a check was harder than the first on occasion. Never mind, the rain made it cool, the “flat run with a view” promised a hill naturally and delivered. It was hard work puffing up and a check in a ravine had me bashing a gulley to the right while TMB and ABB went straight and found trail but I didn’t hear – and the circle was unbroken.
Catching TMB at the saddle, she was returning with strips from a FT, I found a small forest path but no go. As I turned I espied paper on the trees flanking the monks’ steps and yelled OnOn loudly at least thrice back up the steps. Skipping down with heavy waterlogged gators and worried about slipping, I got to the bottom and nailed the next check too. TMB didn’t hear and I wondered where she’d got to!
Down I came and although I lost paper a few times, I managed to re-join trail with some intelligent guesswork. My followers would have an equally hard time of it I surmised.
The canal reassured me I was close ish and a few paperless sections were minor worries as I jogged fairly strongly homewards. Suddenly a sodden chalk arrow soon I was looking at the big lake. No sign if I should go left or right so I retraced the out trail clockwise around the lake only to be asked by the hare if I’d done the walkers’ trail. Fcuker!
6.4km nice trail and then 20km home on the bike in the pissing rain.
Welcome back to CM ☔️