10k south on canal road, kids in tow, time to get the family back in the Happy Hash. Given the runsite, there couldn’t be hills, so we were set for a run.
Sadly the hare forgot his stapler, or staples, so we were running on paper strips that weren’t stapled to leaves etc. This lead to several ‘non-checks’, where we weren’t 100% sure if we were on trail or not. At least that slowed the FRBs down a bit!
I was going well early on with Chuckie, but it was a long, long way to the first check. Graven always walks to the first check, but even he must have started running before then. Finally when we got to a check, I of course got it wrong and found myself chasing to catch back up with Chuckie, who fortunately got confused at a junction without a check. Around the corner and there was a circle… – We know how much ABB loves his back checks, so immediately turned around to find the trail. TMB seemed confused, but the same happened shortly later – we rounded a corner, I spotted a circle check around 50m ahead, so turned back. This time NOYB cut ahead of me enjoying the ONON call – he enjoyed it so much he ran straight off paper in the wrong direction.
Another long running stretch, and then after another check CW & GI took over control at the front with TMB, I and a virgin following along behind. Trail kinda run out in an orchard, but I found paper again further on – did we miss a check? Graven was flying as he chased us down, sensing the finish. He flew face first into a V check to make sure he got the first choice, and left me and the virgin to find the last false trail.
A fast run, and a good run. I would have liked a few more breathers with a few more checks, but the hare made us work hard. It was nice to finally run naturally – with luck my knee is recovered…!