Pony and Crap

Did my usual trick of arriving just as the runners set off, only it should have been so much better. Left work early, got a tunnel bus and found myself at Hung Hom in plenty of time to catch the East Rail to Tai Wai and then the Ma On Shan line to Shek Mun. I’d even have enough time to change before we started. And it only got better – I managed to grab a seat for the East Rail sector.

So I joined the devolving human race in a hunched, myopic micro-examination of the delights of my mobile phone, emerging from that semi-comatose state as we pulled into the third station, Tai Wai. Why does it say Nam Cheong? Doh!

Anyway, the hare Stingray gave me a short cut that he said would get me “back in the game”, and indeed it did. After a jaunt along the Shing Mun nullah, trail started heading south toward the Lion Rock hills. In a little park where the parkie had tried his best to obliterate trail they caught me up. The “twail” of front-runner Liberace, with Eunuch bambiing along behind him, then Jason, and then some tall bloke who I later found out was visitor Crazy German. Mango Groove, Creme Brulee and Serbian Bomber followed on. Geriatric and Gunpowder Plod were also out on trail somewhere.

Stingray does love his closed checks and Ts, doesn’t he? And they kept the pack together pretty well. At a highway crossing I had the man go red on me and lost the pack, then lost the trail, so I intuited my way back to the park in Shek Mun that we’d started from, with Liberace charging past me on the on home. I finished with Eunuch. Geriatric, Plod and Crazy German were already there. Much later, Jason, Mango Groove and Creme Brulee trooped in, and then, much later, Serbian Bomber parping about his 11km run. Why was there such a gap?

Turned out that Liberace, first to the R/W split with Eunuch, had simply done his own trail because “that’s where we always go”. Even though there were no marks. Eunuch followed blindly. The actual rambo route went up to Tate’s Cairn Tunnel then along some apparently delightful trails on the mountainside before dropping back to Sha Tin. It’s been said before: never, EVER follow Liberace!

Back at the park, Back To The Future turned up having been unable to find the start, then Radio 1, to untooth accusations of us being a gay hash. With the top executives absent (Catch Of The Day on PR duty at the Rugby World Cup, One Eyed Jack on sick leave) Geriatric took the circle, assisted by Eunuch, whose suggestion that Jason be named Show Jumper (for his exhibitionist fence vaulting on the run) was rapidly corrupted by the circle to My Little Pony. Welcome, My Little Pony!

We weren’t finished, as Serbian Bomber took the reins and in inimitable fashion renamed Liberace Mango Groove and Mango Groove Liberace, then proceeded to award each a dozen down-downs. Could confuse a stupid person. For one night only. —Golden Balls

Hare Stingray

Runners Gunpowder Plod, Geriatric, Crazy German, Liberace, Eunuch, Golden Balls, My Little Pony, Mango Groove, Creme Brulee, Serbian Bomber

Non-runners Back To The Future, Radio 1