(Courtesy Alice)
Qudos to Softballs setting his first run all by himself. Apparently he had accompanied ABB previously so in light of that it was an excellent effort.
Pluses and minuses. Negative: No drinks pre-run as Cumalot was enjoying an HRA alike afternoon snooze according to some sage. Not critical now – but in hot season pretty dangerous. Suggest hashers advised to bring a bottle of personal H2O in the email and on the webshite. Positive: US ladies college tennis champs ran with us, 13 fine young athletes and their two coaches. Testosterone reached record levels and Goat almost joined us for the circle.
To the run. Well, Softballs picked a lovely route with a big hill to start and 4 km gentle downhill coming back in a wide arc to the dam A site past Tiger Head. All good so far. The hare brief hinted at turmoil suffered by a lone Virgin hard and the grizzled veterans rolled their eyes and waited the inevitable.
Trail was marked on clear strips of decent sized white, already a healthy step up from some of ABB’s efforts. And here’s where the fun started. Walkers generally have little idea of the purpose or how to regarding checks. Softballs was of course no different.
There were perhaps 4 checks all run. For walkers this makes not one iota of difference. For FRBs it’s quite a few iotas.
Hare brief said Vs were not marked and we’d know when we found paper after 100m one way. Mmm. Okkkk. Sinking feeling in heart.
Well, the first V had paper off one leg that led to a bar and FT apparently. I jogged along to the V to find a charging pack of FRBs heading back towards me and suddenly I was 3rd! We were still heading up the hill. And up. The girls were having a blast and pushing along very well in the vanguard. Experienced hashers took up the most efficient slipstream positions and fought like tigers to maintain them.
Once atop the ridge it became a sweeping trail run without benefits of checks, but the two that were there fcuked us up royally. A clear large A4 circle facing the pack. FRBs go straight, find paper, call OnOn and promptly run into a FT. WTF!
We retrace our steps to the circle picking up connecting paper. The girls bless them, do this willingly. Trail is found off to the left as we came and the run recommences.
Blows Herself is angry at her feet and wishes she could run faster. She’s doing great IMHO and is infront of me. I am enjoying the non stop run on great forest paths. I am enjoying the views as they pass. Foliage ones too. One of the girls has those blessed bells on her feet and I was happy when we separated.
We descended and came to another confusing V. It was ripped up, paper strewn on the ground, 3 more strips, then just paper on the ground for the last 1km perhaps and then we were out to the road by the Tiger Head and our hare putting up his 3rd OnIn sign. Well that’s a fcuking new world record anyway!
So in summary, a lovely route, clearly marked apart from the minimal checks. If Softballs has these explained and sorts ’em out next run, he’ll be doing great.
Pretty fun circle, especially when the girls and coaches were involved. Nice to meet SB’s friends from AbuDhabi and welcome back Lumberjackoff and the dryer than Martini Snowballs.
Eggelen effort Softballs👍😉👊