Auld acquaintance

About 30 or so auld acquaintances gathered at Ironbark Gully for our 2016 New Year's run. Mile High and our welcome visitor Tinkerbell turned out to be auld work acquaintances, so they had plenty to catch up on. And Floater and Legover announced that they are tackling the Camino in Spain together this year - they'll be really good auld acquaintances by the time they've hiked 900 km side by side....

This Sunday's excursion was a typical Ironbark Gully one - fla-a-a-at as a pancake. We lost only 3 runners on the way out and only 3 walkers on the homeward stretch (the really worrying thing was that one of these had the key giving access to the drinks.) Potluck (as usual) did us proud in the food department, and Hashcash provided New Year's bubbles!

Here are 2 of the wayward walkers - not looking very contrite!

And here are some more members of of the group, desperately replenishing their precious bodily fluids after the beer became available:

We ended up with 13 in the running group - which was a lot more than hares Payback and Haughty had anticipated. Thinking that they themselves might be the only two runners at this time of year, they'd neglected to mark the runners' loop. This was a bit embarrassing for them, but it was great to see numbers like this to kick off our Silver Jubilee Year!

Yes, folks, our 25th Birthday Run is coming up soon - on the 14th February, in fact. Mark your diaries now, perhaps....

And in preparation for this event we'll review some 1991 run reports over the next few weeks. To start the ball rolling, here is a report that appeared in the March 1991 edition of The Village Pump. It describes the first ever run of the "Samford Hash Haus Harriers"  on the 14th of February 1991. The names, phone numbers and start time are all different, but there's a familiar ring to what went on:

A small pack braved the weather to run in the inaugural run of the Samford HHH.
The trail was set from haus Goff on McLean Road and wound along the forestry trails before emerging at the end of Sutton Court.
At this point some of the pack led by Derek "Roddy" McDowall and Rick "Uriah" Heap tried to lead the remaining runners down a vertical cliff despite the large "Check back" sign telling them they were on the wrong trail.
Luckily Raeleen Keynes spotted the sign attached to the tree which was supporting her husband "Milton" as he regained his breath. Even then, "Roddy" had climbed half-way out of the gully on the other side before he could be persuaded he was on the wrong trail.
The pack finally regrouped at the intersection of Sutton Court and McLean Road before charging down the last 500 metres to the keg.
Our hosts provided us with a traditional Malaysian curry to celebrate the inaugural run which was quickly devoured by the now recovered runners.
"Roddy" McDowall was awarded the Hash foot of ale for his contribution to the art of orienteering. This was downed accompanied by mutterings of "Wait until it is my turn to set a run."
The venues for the next few runs are: 4th March - John Scott Park, 11th March - Haus Tennant, Wight's Mountain, 17th March - Haus McDowall, Ashwood Court, 24th March - to be decided, 1st April - Car treasure hunt in Samford Valley Country Club.
If you wish to join "the drinking man's running club" drop in at any of the venues around 5.45pm on run days or ring Pete on 289 **** or Steve on 289 ****. On on.

There are more early run reports to follow over the next few weeks....

Next run details
When: Sunday 10th January, 5 pm
Where: Corner 4th Avenue and Flinders Parade, Sandgate. A map!
Hare: Le W*nk (supported by Amazing?)

On, on!