Hash 493 – Sun Inn @ Hungerford

We were looking forward to a run in Ramsbury followed by a BBQ in Jeremy’s  garden this Sunday – but ‘twas not to be.  Jeremy must have looked at the weather forecast and decided that today was going to be far too wet for a BBQ and so laid a trail in Hungerford instead. I turned up at the Sun Inn just before 11 and joined Keith and Kathy and Sue.  By about ten past it was still just the four of us plus hare Jeremy so the runners decided to set off and Kathy, not wanting to walk alone, went to look at Hungerford’s shops.

Was this going to be the second lowest turnout in our history – the lowest was on hash number 2?  No it wasn’t, fortunately, because as we started to run Viv, John and David hurtled into the car park followed shortly by Maurice with his dog and we just had a delayed start.  We didn’t see Annie and Margaret and John until the après, however, as they arrived even later (for very good reasons) – so the record was safe.

Lovely trail, as you would expect from Jeremy.  We ran for a short stretch along the A4 before turning down a track to the left towards the Kennet and Avon canal then along narrow stinging nettle-infested paths and over little streams before we came to the swing bridge over the canal by Hungerford Church – still all together.  As we ran beside the canal towards Marlborough however I began to drop behind and Maurice (plus dog) kindly kept me company.  As I was still recovering from some debilitating virus, I decided to run the short and Maurice (and dog) ran with me and so we put the world to rights as we headed back along the grassy flood plain below the canal.  We only lost the trail once.  As we crossed the River Dun (a tributary of the Kennet) in a particularly beautiful spot we naturally began discussing interesting things like fishing and the beauty of nature etc – until we found ourselves opposite a garden centre on the main road with no flour in sight.  We had to run back miles to the aforementioned river where we found an arrow.  We, who together have run more trails than you can shake a stick at, should have known better of course.  We got back before the longs as at the divide by a lock they carried on along the canal for a bit and then swung right and up and in a loop back to join the short trail about half a mile from the pub. Jeremy said the long was 8 kilometres and the short was 4.8 kilometres which seemed exactly the right length as we all got back in about the hour –
so we’ll have to run in kilometres again.

Maurice and I were the first back and so we set up camp for the après in the pub garden. The sun came out and we sat all together around one table in this flower-filled little garden in warmth and in good company.  I love it. Thank you Jeremy for a lovely little masterpiece of a hash.