Thursday, September 3, 2009

A silvery moon over Blackwattle Bay

Sounds like a pre war dance tune - and dance we did last night at Dan Redfern's moonlight giddy up at Glebe. In the last run of the 'moonlight madness' series, over 60 punters had their pencils handy for the first night run on this great area. Dan must have been listening to the old Tom Rush tune 'The Circle Game' in his setting, with a wide circular disposition of pots confronting the arriving addicts. The only concession to the head scratchers was control #27 in the middle of the Glebe streets. Hard to loop in, but worth 30 and hard to ignore. Many did however, replacing this tempter with a clean wide run around the edge. The only choice being, do I go east first or west (or up the middle for the slower runners). Most seemed to head east, or south - possibly drawn by the interesting smell at pot #17 (what was that?).

Lots of good flattish running was to be had with such good street and park lighting on offer, the LED's were hardly troubled. No reports of doggy problems, although more than one runner had a hand on the Glock as they ran past the dog obedience class south of the start. The 1:7500 map scale meant everything zoomed into view quicker than expected, although the Johnson Street stretch (29-15) was one of the few legs that got the 'legs' into top gear. The foreshore legs (28-20-5-2-25) were especially enjoyable at night with the city/Pyrmont lights as a backdrop. All in all, great fun in this bonzer spot.

Michael 'Tyson' Burton and Kar Soon 'As I can' looked to be our leaders last night with 570 points apiece. Michael ran all but three ten pointers (pots 2,3,4 in a strange sequence entirely unrelated to position), but back early. Where #2 was an easy add, #4 was a reasonable deletion, and might just qualify for last night's 'lonely pot' award. The high fencing around #3 also required a little too much time, sucking a number of runners in - myself included. There will need to be a bit of map updating here, as more paths are open in the area and the nice bush remnant gone.

Other scoring noted by correspondent 'Pork Pie' were, Peter Annetts 'Of Tax' with a strong 560, David 'On the way to Adelaide' Bray, Malcolm 'X' and Wendy with 540 and Gil 'Howzat' Fowler carding a respectable 510. Shane 'O' Henry posted 500 big ones, in front of a pack of mid to high 400 runners and the geriatric brigade following on the rails. Rosscoe managed to pip Waz by 10 although the doctor can be excused after posting a sensational marathon in Adelaide on the weekend - and no doubt still being a little 'stiff'! Carol Jacobson signaled a strong summer series to come with 360, well in front of rival Sue 'Model T' Thomson's 260.

Good Madness running all round, and a great programme over the winter months. Big thanks to David Stitt 'Field Thunderbolt' for coordinating this series and to the setters, especially Dan last night, his first outing in the setters chair.

This now leads us to the upcoming Sydney Summer Series - where the programme is now posted and the countdown has begun. Five weeks till #1 at Balls Head and the (hopefully) biggie at Kirribilli. Much excitement coming up; new maps, new area extensions, old areas revived, classic maps on show again - not to mention the apres O pub location guide (watch for this). So get your T shirts out of storage, orders in for the 'Pain Away' ointment and think seriously about a new pair of flashy running sox. Series number 19 is almost upon us!

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