Sandbach Striders

Paul Nicholls kindly volunteered to lead this week’s extra-curricular run round Haslington and Winterley.  We arrived at Paul’s house, and having had our crotches sniffed by his (extremely large but very unintimidating) dog we donned the head-torches and hi-vis and set off into the wilderness.

The route according to Garmin and Google Earth

 

Being dark and mostly unfamiliar paths, I cannot inform you of the precise route, dear reader.  However I can report that we headed towards Winterley, turned right and worked our way back towards Haslington via fields and tracks.  However the risk assessment for this week’s run was a little lacking.   Having been faithfully assured that all the cattle would be tucked up in bed, weduly encountered a herd of cows blocking the entrance to the first stile.  The decision was taken to circumvent the herd, which led to crossing the field boundary in a different location.   Unfortunately this turned out to be similar to jumping Beechers’ Brook and some heavy landings occurred.  In the following field we encountered what would be best described as a bear trap, which thankfully failed to snare Paul’s legs. 

Two or three miles of running through dark, cow pat spattered fields ensued until we reached Crewe golf club.  At this point, Paul informed us that he usually took his trainers off and ran bare foot through the grass (presumably avoiding spent tees).  It was sorely tempting given that our trainers were smeared with cow pats, but there was no barefoot frolicking on this occasion.  At this point I lost my bearings completely as we weaved round the greens of the golf course.

Michael, Paul, Tom, Perry, Jill and  Chris at the Hawk Inn, Haslington

Eventually we emerged, like moles emerging from their burrows into the bright lights of Haslington – right opposite The Hawk pub.  Quite frankly it would have been rude not to stop for a pint, so we did.  I was dripping with sweat by this point, having overdressed somewhat.  So the kindly landlord stoked up the coal fire just to make sure that we were thoroughly dehydrated (presumably a ploy to make us buy more beer).  I endeavour to provide a fully detailed race report; thus I am pleased to say the Robinsons Black Beauty stout was spot on.  Unfortunately Giles needed his head torch to be returned before 9pm (before it turned into a pumpkin) so the drinking was curtailed and we returned to Paul’s house to have our crotch odour reassessed.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable run and I would recommend the head torch running experience to other members.