Ray's Birthday Party Run
The alternative to The Hangman (35 miles up the Test Way to Combe Gibbet and back, three feed stations) turned out to be just enough. I really enjoyed The Hangman last year: Sonia (running it) and Andy (running it in the other sense) and his team did their best to tempt me to do it, but I resisted.
Ray's Birthday Party Run (10 miles around Harewood Forest, four pubs) is a very relaxed social run with various Hardley Runners including, obviously, Ray and a number of the Usual Suspects. It might be an exaggeration to say that the point of the run is to visit a number of pubs but, then again, it might not.
The route included a scenic passage to Harewood Forest via Gavelacre; into the forest by the concrete camel; over the hills in the trees; through the Hampshire Golf Club (lots of yummy sloes in the hedgerow); and on to Goodworth Clatford, where we stopped at the Royal Oak, which had opened early by Special Arrangement (thanks, Jeremy).
Next up, after whooshing past the sewage works as briskly as possible (which wasn't very brisk) and over the hill to Chilbolton was another pint at The Mayfly, enjoying the views down the River Anton.
A short climb over West Down on the Test Way, a jog across the football field and a scamper up Joy's Lane found us at the Bishop's Mitre for lunch. At this point, and after an enormous fish and chips, I decided to stop my fitbit and join the walking group―Fiona, Nicky and Terri―and proceeded gently across the Common and on to the White Lion in Wherwell. Where we were obliged to stop for a glass of chardonnay. Ray more or less insisted.
We returned home via the old railway line (which isn't actually a right of way, but seems to be well used) then up from Dublin Farm to join the Test Way. Once back in Longparish, the Birthday Barbecue started and a good time was had by all.
The highlight of the run was seeing a young buzzard that had been on the path coming out of Harewood Forest towards the golf club. It decided the best strategy was to hunker down in the hedgerow and pretend it wasn't there. Just after we'd gone past it, having been asked whether I'd brought a camera ("No. Oh, er..."), I remembered that I had my phone. I could have taken a photo if I'd remembered earlier. D'oh!
The lowlight was discovering that the fitbit's approach to being paused was simply to keep recording points but record the accumulated distance as 0.0, which entirely wrecks fetcheveryone's analysis. I'd noticed it did that at the end of a run between hitting the stop button, the next stop button, then replying to the unnecessary dialog box asking you whether you really, really want to stop. So I had to edit the TCX file to get rid of the redundant points, and reduced the file size from 9.8MB to 6.5MB. It looks, though, as though I have failed to remove all the junk around the pub stops. Ah well. Clearly programmed by people who don't actually use the watch in real life. Whinge over.
The Vibram Furoshikis stood up well to the distance and different types of terrain, from grass, through tarmac to gravelly tracks. Very lightweight and comfortable.
Anyway, it was a great day with just enough exercise.
Split Summary
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1) 0.62m - 7:57(12:48/m) 79cal
2) 0.62m - 8:48(14:10/m) 93cal
3) 0.62m - 9:35(15:25/m) 99cal
4) 0.62m - 10:09(16:20/m) 93cal
5) 0.62m - 9:32(15:21/m) 78cal
6) 0.62m - 10:30(16:54/m) 93cal
7) 0.62m - 9:57(16:01/m) 76cal
8) 0.62m - 8:59(14:27/m) 78cal
9) 0.62m - 11:25(18:22/m) 90cal
10) 0.62m - 9:42(15:37/m) 92cal
11) 0.62m - 7:32(12:07/m) 72cal
12) 0.62m - 7:54(12:43/m) 75cal
13) 0.62m - 7:59(12:51/m) 82cal
14) 0.62m - 6:38(10:41/m) 76cal
15) 0.62m - 35:12(56:39/m) 169cal
16) 0.62m - 7:36(12:14/m) 78cal
17) 0.31m - 3:00(9:39/m) 35cal
7:57 8:48 9:35 10:09 9:32 10:30 9:57 8:59 11:25 9:42 7:32 7:54 7:59 6:38 35:12 7:36 3:00
