The 1313 run, unlucky for some? What epic nightmares would Belly conjure up for us? After a night at the rustic Cave Lodge, on one of the most uncomfortable beds ever, with barely any sleep, I was probably not best prepared for what was coming. Dodgy guts didn’t help either – I really wasn’t feeling like it! The harebrief required a lot of co-ordination, which just added to the trepidation.
The first bit was perhaps inspired – the irony of 13 water crossings, in honour of 1313 – particularly with our GM’s aversion to getting his feet wet. He dutifully stopped at each to take off his shoes, and socks, and again the otherside to use his towel to dry off before continuing. 13 times was stretching things, and he was a LONG long way behind at the beer stop. So was I though – after staying with the pack for a few checks, I quickly dropped backwards. Shagless joined me, and I think he slowed down to stay with me, as we navigated our way through a quaint little village to the stop.
I very nearly stopped – I just wasn’t feeling it, and although the pack had waited, they set off straight away. I waited with Belly, and another 5-10 mins later CW showed up. We sent him off, and were just heading back to the resort, when I changed my mind and decided to press on. I quickly caught CW up, as he was busily taking his shoes off for another water crossing. We trudged along some concrete paths to the W/R split. Bravely we decided to press on to the Rambo route, and after another KM or so we found the trail leading into a flooded cave. Danger signs all around, this is where we needed the guide, but as he wasn’t waiting for anyone else, he’d already set off. We thought we had heard sounds from up the hill, but couldn’t find paper. No choice but to turn back and do the “Wimp” run – if ever there was an inappropriate name – this was definitely not a WIMP run!
With limited checks it headed up, up, up, up…. Total elevation gain was 545m. This was a hard slog, but CW kindly stayed with me and encouraged me onwards. The checks were kicked out, but we had no way of knowing if people were ahead or behind. To be fair it was all on reasonable trails – I just don’t like the hills, and was feeling really weak. Finally we started descending, but it was slippy some slow going. Up ahead we saw Pamela, Geisha Gash, Wooly Jumper and Doesn’t Get It – seriously? The hares had sent them out on that trail? We caught up with them as we got back to the river. Only there had been a problem. Some of the runners were already back, but as they crossed the river, a dam had burst up stream sending a flash flood down the river – very fast carrying branches etc. We couldn’t cross. Who could have predicted a flash flood? During rainy season? (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Four-provinces-warned-of-flash-floods-landslide-30291684.html) The nearest bridge was around 1km away, and now we were off paper scrambling to find our own ways home…
Exhausted we made it back, the FRBs from the long trail catching us up, and Scooby kindly bought some drinks at a local shop to help us home. An epic nightmare!
Woke up this morning for the hangover run – 3.5km, with only 1 runner brave enough to set off on another BD challenge!