Monday Night Fun Running

Tonight's course setter Johanna
with father Neale (ie parent not pastor).

"Congratulations to the course-setters on organising a very challenging course on a beautiful night with the moon rising.  I'm off to the optometrist tomorrow to organise some reading glasses so I can see the little red circles and numbers better next time!!"

Our course setter for the evening, Johanna Banks, had made excellent use of a small area - and even used a number of courts to provide route choice dilemmas (and the opportunity to see others as they head back out). Lisa Linssen and I spoke on the way around and she commented that the combination of good course-setting and a small area meant that everybody crossed paths time and again - which made the event much more fun and much more sociable.

Thanks to Neale who, stayed on fudge patrol this evening. He agreed to guard the fudge with his life (although he might have said wife...but since she didn't attend this evening I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt). We were concerned about this as earlier in the day there had been a plan to hijack the fudge...from the Ofood list

Monday 10:19 am - Adam Scammell - I run fast, I've also been known to finish early.. combine that with the knowledge of where Geoff hides his keys.. there might not be any yummy left.. :)

Monday 10:34 am - FROM THE ORGANISER.   I've been approached off-list by a number of people requesting an early start this evening - some as early as 6:30 pm. I'm not entirely sure what you're all up to...but have decided that everybody (except perhaps Adam, who will still be riding his bike to the event) will start promptly at 7pm. Tonight's start location is 50m from Clifford's place - I wonder if he has a refrigerator with a time-lock?

Monday 3:11 pm - Mark Besley - maybe we could use the key box with the combo lock and book the locksmith for 8:05PM?

We started a little later than normal this evening - partly due to late removal of warm clothing and partly due to a few folks that arrived late. Sincere thanks to those of you that were kind enough to share a map - I thought I'd compensate them by giving them a bonus baton from last week...and they could exchange it on the way around for somebody else's map if that person was brave enough to trade.

As things turned out, running with a partner proved to be very interesting and forced those that did so to push harder than they might otherwise have done. Geoff and Mark headed out well initially, but the distance between this David and Goliath pair (he was Goliath....) gradually increased after about 30 minutes into the event. As we headed up the hill from 20 to 13, Mark took pity on Geoff and walked for a bit - but took off again as the wheezing sound from behind him got closer. (While the thought had crossed my mind, there is no truth AT ALL to the allegations that he gave me a piggy-back from 23 to 9).

A few people had a little trouble spotting circles and working out what the numbers were - it's always worth checking that numbers do not overlap roads as they become obscured and may - if printed in black - be mistaken for extra route choices (most of us have done this on more than one occasion). The only person disadvantaged by this was Bruce - who didn't spot #18 (bottom right) until he had finished - and by then it was too late to go out and get it. If he had got it - like most others - from #2, it would have added 400m or so to his course - 2-3 minutes for Bruce - which would have brought him in just behind Jun. Never mind - good job it wasn't a Wednesday run!!!

Although recovering from an injury - Ian Dodd noted on his card that he wanted a new section "crawl" added to the courses offered, he ran very well indeed and collected all 25 controls in 58 minutes or so. Similarly, Glenn Mummery, recent returned from an over-indulgent trip overseas, also got the lot with several minutes to spare.
 

Thanks to Marta for bringing along such a delicious fudge. The socialising after the event was made all the more enjoyable by having something so nice to nibble on.

What's happening here...

1) Adam Scammell has a Kevin08 moment and is caught removing a lump of ear-wax from his right ear.

2) Is Adam Scammell powered by fudge?! We spot him secretly inserting a lump of Marta's delicious fudge into his right ear. We're not sure what's going on, but we'll check this week to see if drug-testing bodies have a "fudge-detection" test.

(BTW - did anybody see this evening's report on the use of sodium bicarbonate to improve athlete performance. Apparently, tastes awful  - but is generally believed to have positive impacts...provided you aren't one of the 15% for whom it causes severe diarrhoea).

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