Striders First Weekend trip away 3/4 July 2010
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There were 10 clc striders plus an excitable evan who participated in the first club trip away. The setting was llanwrtyd wells, the smallest town in Britain although it appeared to be a village maquerading as a town. So small infact we were able to do a complete tour during halftime of the Germany argentina match!
The first sporting activity was a game of cricket with distinctly
wonky stumps, no one is sure who won due to the lack of runs. A quick change and time for dinner- by this time many an addlestones cloudy had been drunk and we resorted to mocking lee as he proclaimed ‘i don’t really drink or smoke’whilst holding his 4th pint in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
With lee, nath and gps positively chomping at the bit for food we sat down to a lovely meal- 3 courses, starters mains and desserts -apparantly lee has enjoyed 3 courses many a time- especially in Bratislava!
At this point we discovered that carla enjoys a wide ranging diet and wouldn’t mind trying a spider or two given their high protein content. She was dissapointed to hear though that her spider of choice ‘the taranchula’was ‘quite quick mind’and she’d struggle to catch one!
Next in sporting terms was a game of pool. The titanic Tussle of lee versus rich c ended in a 2 1 victory to rich! Not to be defeated - lee resorted to more macho tales and how he wanted to get a good 2 hours of tabbing in before breakfast! This apparantly involves running with 5 stone of gravel in a backpack.
Bellies full of food and drink we went to bed! Rich thought this was a bit tame at 12.30 but we’re well honed atheletes you know!
First man up was rich s who made the mistake of setting his alarm an hour early- which didn’t go down to well with carla! By 8 am we were set to go for a lazy sunday run that is until rich informed us we were about to run 480metres uphill and pointed to what appeared to be a mountain. A few of us thought about going back to bed at this point! We set off at a steady pace, lee with his 5 stone of gravel who after 2 minutes stopped and said’I don’t think I’ve much chance of running with this’as he staggered down the road!
The next few miles were a hard old slog uphill but the views from the top were amazing! The decent back was fairly unauothodox and mainly involved Gingerly walking down a stoney boggy bank. This took gps and nathan completely out their comfort zone, quote from nath’i didn’t sign up for this’. It wasn’t long before we were at ground level and nathan and gps eyes lit up as they were back on road and battled to race each other home!
The race for the showers insude and we sat down to breakfast. Gps and I relied on the black pudding to replenish iron levels and rich relied on some coffee with his sugar in an attempt to repair himself!
It wasn’t long before we were packed and ready for home but not before a stop off in hay on Wye. At times I doubted whether nath would get up the hills with 5 stone of gravel in his boot!
Whilst the cultered among us browsed the book shops in hay on Wye, rich and I raided the fudge shop for souveniers!
Thanks everyone for such a good time, and special thanks to gps for organising it all.
Rachel