Run 896 - Abingdon
Run: 896
Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Venue: The Old Anchor, Abingdon
Hare(s): Rubber Sole & B-Cider
Hounds: Golden Shower, Twitcher, Plod, Pressganger, Billy Whizz, Eric, CS Gas, Gnome Alone, Big Stiffy, Preperation H, Lemony Snicket, Hash Hoody, Village Idiot, Buzz, Northern Sole, Hairy Biker, FBJ, Dipstick. K-9 Meg. Rear Admiral turned up late, I think, but he didn't materialise.
Scribe: Plod
Not a bad turn-out for the final Tuesday evening run of 2009. A rather cold evening it turned out to be too, and most were dressed accordingly. It was nice to see FBJ again and of course, Dipstick, you were welcome too. I suppose I ought to mention Billy Whizz too, after all we don't see much of him these days, do we.
If there's been little enough enthusiasm for running lately, there was even less tonight. We had a briefing of sorts and off we went straight towards the town. Most were walking. At the main intersection we turned right, crossing the road at the old police station before turning off just short of the bridge. Through the old Abbey grounds, crossing and re-crossing the Abbey Stream and then bordering the Industrial Estate before eventually ending up on Audlett Drive by the Sports Centre. We turned in towards the town centre and somehow, via the Catholic Church, the Waitrose store and the multi-storey car park, ended up going past the Abingdon Boys School (looking like Hogwarts School out of Harry Potter) to Albert Park. The hares at this point did try to encourage us to run around the Park but there were no takers. Instead down to and over Ock Street, round the back of the Fire Station and back out into Ock Street before heading back into town and back to the pub via the car park where most had parked. The pack had stayed mostly together mainly due to the lack of enthusiasm for running. There were the usual half a dozen or so FRBs: Gnome Alone in his fianal preps for the Marthon this week-end, Golden Shower because Treacle Tart had accused him of putting weight on, FBJ and Dipstick and a much relieved S/Shoveller after his heart scare. But the rest were content to walk.
The surprise, though maybe not, was the distance of 4.9 miles!!! Even the Hares seemed surprised. Though when one considers that, by their own admission, the trail was laid on bicycles . . . that's it gang, that accounts for the apparent lack of flour, we weren't looking in the right places! Because we should have been looking in the road. I mean they wouldnn't have been cycling on the pavement, now, would they.
People thought that Rear Admiral had turned up just as we left, and Preppy did hold back, but he never materialised.
We did have a hash joke from Twitcher. Some entertainment was laid on for some wrinklies (residents) in an old people's home - I can say that, I am one. Part of the entertainment was a magician. After a few card tricks and such like he told the audience he would hypnotise the lot of them. So he got out a gold pocket watch on a chain and started the swinging action, repeating softly 'watch it closely, watch it very closely . . .' He'd been doing this for a couple of minutes, constantly repeating the mantra, when the chain slipped through his fingers and the watch fell to the ground, smashing into many pieces. 'Shit!!!' he exclaimed. ====================== It took them a week to get the place clean again!!!!
A big disappointment awaited us on our return. Not only were there no chips in the pub but Golden Shower didn't bring any cake. Now I thought it was mighty unfair of Treacle Tart punishing us just because Golden Shower was eating too much cake, don't you.
Of course, some pre-empted the matter and got their own from the Chippy. Dipstick, you can have a virtual down-down - not so much for buying the chips - but for not sharing them. And the same goes for the hash outcasts, Hash Hoody, Virtual Idiot and Buzz - OK dad bought the chips - but I nearly got my hand bitten off when I tried to taste them! No respect from the younger generation these days.
Anyway, that's it. You can put the torches away for another year. We swop over to Sundays now. The first one is this week-end, the 18th, when we're at the White Hart at Hampstead Norreys. Golden Shower is laying the trail and he's actually promised to bring a cake! 11 am start. Don't be late. See you all there.
Plod