I wanted to jot down some of experiences from my recent trip
to Wales and London as I am already forgetting what happened when. However, even though I’ve been back a week
now, I’m still recovering…
(note - some pictures here are "borrowed" from Lucy Preston and Chloe Vincent)
It all started in the wee morning hours of Tuesday June 5
when North Carolina trail running bud Mark Connolly posted on my wall about the
world’s first all vegan ultramarathon.
He thought I might find it interesting.
Hold still, my beating heart – did I hear that right? World’s first… All Vegan….. Ultramarathon…. ?
Really? Praise Seitan! That’s really all I needed to hear. Where do I sign up? It’s on June 16 – just 11 days away. So what if it’s 3800 miles away in
Wales. Plenty of time…. Mark told me he heard about the event on
the Ultra Talk Podcast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-ultra/id497318073
(fyi – Seitan is high protein wheat gluten frequently used as a meat substitute. (I know – crazy vegans…)
(fyi – Seitan is high protein wheat gluten frequently used as a meat substitute. (I know – crazy vegans…)
I’m not in the middle of anything too big at work, I have
enough vacation, a preliminary check of airline prices is expensive but within
reach. I’m not always great at making
the best of opportunities thrown my way (as demonstrated later in London), but
didn’t see how I could not at least look into this.
The run was just under a 50K and was to go up the 15 tallest
peaks in Wales (all the ones over 3000’) and was to raise money for Sea
Shepherd UK, kind of a rough & tumble conservation group that takes on
groups that do illegal whaling, etc. All
the mountains are in the region called Snowdonia of which the tallest (and only
pronounceable) mountain is Snowdon. (But
I think Snowdon has an unpronounceable Welsh name too)
The planned route: Starting at Pen y Pas as the sun rises the team will first scale Crib Goch ridge before going on to climb Crib y Ddysgl and Snowdon. They will then down to Nant Peris for a breather before they head up the torturous Elidir Fawr, and on to Y Garn, Glyder Fawr, Glyder Fach then down the scree and up Tryfan. They will then head back down to Ogwen Valley and their last breather before heading up the wonderful Pen yr Ole Wen, Carnedd Dafydd, Carnedd Llewelyn, Yr Elen, Foel Grach, Garnedd Uchaf, and Foel-fras. Even after the final peak of Foel Fras they will still have over four miles to run...
Here is the Vegan run’s website: http://www.vegan-welsh-3000s.co.uk/#/about/4560205792
And here’s a link about the Welsh 3000’s challenge: http://www.welsh3000s.co.uk/
So I messaged the group right away expressing interest and
by the end of the day, I had been on the phone with Kirsch Bowker, the
organizer in Wales, we had exchanged sign-up forms, I had been in contact with
Lucy Preston, Chloe Vincent and Andrew Spencer Taylor, folks coming in for the
run from London. I had also got the
time off from work and made plans with Verizon about getting a phone that would
work in the UK (which did not end up working so well). Lucy, bless her (geez - I’ve been in the
South too long), had also offered to let me stay in her flat in London with her
other flat-mates. In Wales, Kirsch was
letting runners stay at her place in the town of Llanrwst (“W” is a vowel in Welsh.) Somewhere in the middle of all this on
Tuesday occurred the “Transit of Venus”.
Perhaps that was a good sign and there’s something to astrology after
all…. Of course, the run didn’t turn out as planned
– maybe it’s because Venus is a stormy temperamental planet. There were other omens to come later.
The Transit of Venus
By Wednesday June 6, I booked my flight & based my
itinerary on travelling with Lucy, Chloe and Andrew from London to Wales on
Friday by rail & returning to London on Sunday. Gave myself one extra day returning
Tuesday. Trying to squeeze in all the
time I could, I would have to leave immediately after work on Wed June 13 and
get back just in time to go to work on Wed June 20. (Neither of those Wednesdays were very
productive work-wise….) Glad to let
others make the travel plans inside the UK.
If I had rented a car, there would have been a “crash course” on driving
on the other side of the road….
Perhaps I should just go ahead and introduce the main
characters in this tale. Obviously
spent more time with some than others so these are just my impressions. Apologies to anyone if they feel
mischaracterized or slighted in anyway, not my intention.
(I don’t want to know what their impressions were of me –
that could be scary… not sure I represented the States well…)
Kirsch Bowker is a non-stop Welsh whirling dervish and instigator
behind the Vegan Welsh 3000’s. She is a
longtime vegan and a force to be reckoned with. Mother of Maisie and keeper of Pinkle. Has Snowdonia as a backyard – can’t beat
that!
(Lucy, Kirsch)
Lucy Preston is from London, health enthusiast inspired to
become vegan via the book “Skinny Bitch”.
This Renaissance woman knows science (degree in geology), is creative
(works in P.R.) and is a caregiver, now taking up physical therapy (or physio
as they say in the UK). Lucy is a
runner but is just volunteering this time.
Next time, she’ll be out there.
Chlöe Vincent is a New Zealand native loving life in Dresden,
Germany. A hardcore vegan who can’t get
enough of exploring extreme trails and I’m pretty sure enjoys good expressive
music.
Andrew Vincent Taylor is a trip. Quick with a joke and fun to hang with – the
disco floor was his domain, but a serious English vegan who does wildlife rehab
and wields a mean plumbing wrench.
Joe Sawyer knows
Snowdonia inside & out. He made
sure everyone stayed on trail and survived.
Always cheerful, Joe loves his music, is well read & enjoys a good
philosophical discussion over a pint.
Roger Mills is a Welsh triathlete & ultrarunner with
eclectic taste in music. His laptop
kept us entertained Sunday with everything from hardcore to Sinatra. And he loves his football…
Ray Hasler is an incredible Welsh endurance runner who’s
been vegan for 20 years and a raw vegan for 10 years and is quite an
inspiration!
Mark Thomas is an English animal advocate & distance
runner who’s been vegan for two years & veggie for 16. His wife makes the best vegan brownies! And their cute little dog kept us quite
entertained.
Kate FitzGibbon is a long-time vegan champion cross-country
runner who represented Scotland in world championships and is also a champion
for animal rights and advocacy.
Steve Jones has been veggie his whole life! He also lives near Snowdonia. While he was probably our fastest runner,
his bio says he’s only been running for two years – amazing! He’s a philosopher as well.
Daf Davies, Aubrey Thomas, Marcus McTurk – these three guys
left an hour early, so did not get to talk to them much. Only Daf made the pre-race briefing but
Aubrey & Marcus did show up briefly at Kirsch’s Friday night. I believe all are long-time vegans with Daf
being from Wales but I think Aubrey & Marcus may be English (not
sure). All are rather imposing
individuals (not your carnivore’s image of a stereotypical scrawny vegan). All seemed pretty cool & friendly. Interestingly, an English friend here in the
states, has an American friend in England who apparently knows Aubrey &
Marcus, but I did not see them long enough to confirm or deny that…
Daf
Aubrey
Marcus
This wasn’t a race so much as an organized group run. The course was not marked. There were descriptions of how to go and a
GPS file showing it, but unless you’ve been out there, it would be pretty hard
to know where to turn. They recommended
having a GPS and a map with you. I
would need to get a map over there. The
Brits use an “Ordnance Survey” grid system which is pretty good – everything is
in decimal squares. The map of
Snowdonia we used was broken down into 1K squares which were then divided into
10 x 10 co-ordinates. Still – seemed
like the best plan was to run with someone who knows the area.
The loaner phone from Verizon supposedly had GPS
capabilities but I had a hard time getting it to work. In fact, I had a hard time getting it to do
anything useful – like make & receive calls & texts. It was a Microsoft OS phone – works nothing
at all like a Droid. And there don’t
seem to be many useful apps written for the Microsoft phones. If you’re in the market for a new smartphone
– can’t say I recommend Microsoft. I
did test drive it by giving Lucy a surprise call the day before my trip just to
make sure it worked – that was nice.
My next order of business is if I’m travelling somewhere –
is there a hash group? My only free
nights were Sunday & Monday. My
friend Google told me that London H3 hashes on Monday! On On!
No better way to meet the locals and see sights that tourists may not
usually go to is to run with the local hashers…. (Of course, there may be a good reason
tourists don’t go to these places, but it’s all fun.)
What else to do when I’m there? Fortunately I know several ex-pat Brits that
are Stateside. Jenna, Justine, Maggie
& Sarah gave me all kinds of brilliant suggestions. These
included going to Camden Market, riding the “Eye”, taking a boat or water taxi
down the Thames, Mags gave me a list of great vegan restaurants, and there were
many others. Unfortunately my time was
limited. Jenna suggested I try Marmite
and Hobnobs (the non-chocolate kind are vegan). Sarah requested some Wine Gums (which are
not vegan due to gelatin but since they were for her, I got them). The Wine Gums have odd ingredients such as
stinging nettles (which I encountered in London), black carrots, and turmeric.
Since Lucy & Kirsch were putting me up (or should I say,
putting up with me), I wanted to get them something. Was trying to come up with something that
represented the area where I live now.
I asked around for suggestions.
I had been thinking of books – maybe something by Pat Conroy and a
friend suggested Conroy’s cookbook. My hosts are vegan, so ran with the cookbook
idea and found a southern & western vegan cookbook (one side is called The
Dirty South Cookbook and the other side is Hot Damn & Hell Yeah!) Although I have yet to read Pat Conroy (he’s
on my list & have recently acquired Prince of Tides), I have the impression
he is the quintessential Palmetto state lowcountry author, so also got my hosts
“The Water is Wide”. Guess I better
read that one now…. Also got “Midnight
in the Garden of Good & Evil”, which I have read. It’s not SC (or PG for that matter), but
Savannah is close enough. Tracy, my
cookbook suggestor, was on a roll and also suggested checking out the gift shop
at the State Museum. I picked up some
SC tea there as well as some boiled peanuts in a can from Mast General. I thought music would also be good and got
them The Restoration’s debut CD, “Constance”.
I am totally blown away by that CD – it’s one of the most creative works
I’ve seen or heard by any band anywhere.
“Constance” is a concept album concerning life in the “dirty south”
that’s flawlessly executed & even comes with it’s own book. Also picked up Drink Small CDs – a legendary
blues icon from right here. I may not
have gotten the best CD, but it’s still representative. If you live in South Carolina and have not
heard or seen The Restoration or Drink Small, do yourself a favor. (Be warned - you may need a Drink/English dictionary to
understand what the heck he’s talking about.)
I digress…. So where
was I?
One thing I loved about my email exchanges with Kirsch &
Lucy is they would frequently describe things as brilliant. It left me feeling all shiny and smart. Love that phrase. Another cool thing is they tend to sign
their emails and Facebook posts with lots of ‘x’s. I have seen folks here sign notes with
xoxo’s but usually reserved for more intimate
friends. In the FB posts I have seen
from my new UK friends is they freely give out ‘x’s (but ‘o’s, not so much – go
figure). The ‘x’s do mean little
kisses, so it makes us Americans seem rather stodgy by comparison.
Weather on tops of mountains can be quite unpredictable (as
we were to confirm soon enough), so came prepared with YakTrax (shoe grips you
put over your shoes for traversing on snow & ice). I carried them but never needed them. Also rented a pair of trekking poles (I should
just buy a pair) which were quite useful.
But I did not have a jacket with an attached hood. All the brilliant kids had them and I felt
quite the opposite of brill in that regard on our run.
I did not test my luggage before packing. Last time I used my smaller bag was 3 years
on a trip to Scotland with my Rebel Runner friends for the Loch Ness
Marathon. The wheels on my bag refused
to roll then and for some reason never fixed themselves while sitting in
storage for 3 years. Go figure. Those who do not learn from the past….
I left Columbia at 7pm Wednesday & changed planes at
Dulles in Wash.D.C., leaving there around 10pm or so. Was a 7 hour flight but with 5 hr time
difference, arrived in Heathrow around 10am Thurs. Didn’t get a lot of sleep but adrenaline
keeps you moving more than energy drinks I think… Read a nice article about the British liquor
Pimms on flight, which I don’t think I’ve ever had. There is now a new item on my agenda….
Exchanged texts with Lucy who had given me good directions
& tips, but it was still a little tricky figuring out trains and tubes
while carrying around two bags of luggage which barely rolled, a PC bag &
my trusty Cooper River 10K rucksack over the sidewalks of London, filled with
the business people & the occasional punk in a kilt. Somehow I got there and it was great to
finally meet the mysterious Lucy Preston who I had been emailing and texting
for several days now. It some ways a
relief too, to know this is real and I’m not in some Twilight Zone episode
where fictional people have convinced me to travel overseas for nefarious
purposes…. Wow – I’m paranoid. Lucy was & is truly brilliant in every
sense. Seemed kind of weird coming up
to this business office, a P.R. firm with tons of luggage, but Lucy was cool
with it. Dropped it off & we went
off to lunch at a nearby little vegan-friendly place.
Lucy went back to work afterwards, leaving me on my own to
explore until she got off at 5:30 or so.
Maybe this is lame, but the first thing I did was go to a Starbucks
across the street & get on the wifi with my PC. I still had not gotten FB or most things to
work on my Microsoft phone. Little did
I know this would be my last time online for several days (oh, the
horrors…). I pretty much drained the
battery in my laptop. I did bring
American to UK power adapters.
However, what I did not realize was my PC power cord was 3 prong and my
adapter was for American 2 prong. Of
course, I did not have an American 3-prong to 2-prong adapter and never had
time to search for one anywhere.
So I then wandered around the theatre district and then over
to the big London Eye. The thing is
huge. It takes 45 mins to go round and the
queue to get in was a good 15 mins. I
spent too much time in Starbucks to have enough time to ride the Eye and get
back to Lucy’s work. Bummer. The park around there reminded me of the
park around the Eiffel Tower and other places in big cities that attract mimes & street
entertainers.
Made my way back to Lucy’s office & with her help, carted
my non-rolling luggage back to the tube & back to her flat. (Gotta get new luggage…) Met both her roommates, English Matthew and
American Sydney (from VA) who both had recently come back from independent
trips to Paris. Europe is great – some
other country & culture is always just around the corner…
We still had to pack for Wales. I had to repack what I brought so I only took
what was needed for this leg of the trip & plan out drop bags to have in
the van for the two planned aid stops.
Lucy also went over the map of the course. Lucy’s a veteran on the Welsh 3000’s but
still wasn’t sure about a couple of places, so I’m thinking I definitely better
stay with someone out there. No way
I’ll figure this course out on my own.
Friday morning saw us leaving the flat a little later than
we should have, so we really had to run the whole way to get on the tube to get
to the train, which is easier said than done when your luggage does not
roll…. There seemed to be a misunderstanding (on my
part anyway) when changing lines on if I still needed my subway card. It was getting somewhat formless anyway
after all that running & sweating.
I thought the answer was I did not need it, but that was the wrong
answer. When we reached a point where I
needed a card again and I no longer had mine, it was obvious I was trying
Lucy’s patience. She put up a good
front, even though I think she may have had visions of throwing me onto some
tracks. Somehow we got through it
though and even after texting Kirsch to let her know we’d be late, we got to
our train with just minutes to spare.
And Lucy spotted Andy & Chloe so we joined them in a booth on a
train for the 3 - 4 hour ride to Colwyn Bay, Wales.
Lucy knew Andrew and Chloe from a previous Vegan walk over
the Welsh 3000’s. I think Andy &
Chloe may have known each other from before that. Fortunately I brought my Silk Creamer over
from the states with me as it was useful on the train for tea &
coffee. Lots of lively discussion
including the ponderance of why certain languages like to ascribe gender to
nouns and others do not. For some
reason, this question kept repeating itself throughout the weekend.
Kirsch met us at Colwyn Bay. The train station was my first experience
with Welsh – I swear, it’s like they have another word for everything over
there! While I mostly heard English
spoken, all the signs were in both English and Welsh. But I did hear Welsh spoken a few
times. It has a very nice sound, almost
lyrical. If I understand correctly, the
town where Kirsch lives seems to have a higher percentage of Welsh speakers
than many due to its history. At some
point, the English forced out Welsh speakers from parts Of Wales and Kirsch’s
town was just outside that border, so many Welsh speakers migrated there. That was ages ago, but apparently the
tradition continues.
We picked up the Vegan 3000’s Van from some rental place on
our way back. Passed a nice castle
along the way back to Kirsch’s. Met
Kate at Kirsch’s. Andy was put to work
straightaway to use his famous plumbing aplomb to get the hot water work. Success!
Probably would have been a lot of cranky vegans otherwise… Lucy got to show off her freshly made awesome
Vegan 3000’s banners and Pinkles was presented with her own Vegan 3000’s doggie
bandana. She was the dog about town.
Then off to the pre-race review in the town of Betwys-y-coed
(I think) in a little café with many great vegan items on the menu, including
cakes! Another volunteer named Alan
was there. Alan is a vegan chef and was
going to staff a second aid station van.
The plan was that the first van should be good for all runners for the
first stop, but the pack would probably be split up enough that two vans would
be needed for both the second stop and one to wait at the end. (However, no one made it as far as the
second official stop, so I never saw Alan again after Friday.) After the review, there was a nearby outdoor
outfitters store walkable from the restaurant where we could get maps and other
last minute supplies.
Back to Kirsch’s for conversation, preparation,
consternation and anticipation. Aubrey
& Marcus made a brief appearance as did Kirsch’s lovely mother. Maisy was on-hand to present the runners
with various swag including gnarly Sea Shepherd flags and pins and the most
fragrant vegan soap ever. Joe gave us another
once-over of the course again. I now
had my own map & marked it up accordingly.
But portents were brewing if we only recognized the signals. In the middle of Joe’s dissertation, Mark’s
Jack Russell terrier jumped on the map and became a little whirlwind chasing
his tail over & over again over the mountains on the map, just like a storm. It was an omen, I’m positive….
Later in the evening, many of us walked over to the local pub where football
was on of course. And they had Brains
on tap! (Brains English Summer
Ale). A stateside friend, Robyn asked
if I could bring back some Brains, but I never saw it in bottles – just on tap
at the pub. But I did have to try it…. This variety seemed like a lighter kind of
Guinness. Seemed like half of the
locals in the pub were for England the other half were for – whoever the heck England
was playing.
It was not a late night though. We had to be up by 2:30 or 3 to leave by
3:30 so we could start the run by 4:30 to get in all the light we could. We did start out with head “torches” but by
4:45 or so, it was getting light out – or as best it could under the clouds
& rain. We started at a place
called Pen-y-pass and it was already miserable with rain and wind. Was going to start off in shorts, but it was
pretty cold. Had two pairs of running
pants with me and opted for a pair I had not used before because they looked
more rain resistant. This turned out to
be a bad move later on. We had planned
on a group photo, but no one wanted to stand around in the miserable weather,
so off we went. The terrain, from what
I could see, was not much like what I’ve run in the states. No trees anywhere, although it was grassy on
the hills. However, the trail was
mostly rocks – not much dirt. Despite
the clouds & rain, what you could see of the views was still stunning.
It was an even earlier morning for Daf, Marcus and Aubrey as
they hit the trail at 3:30am. They
decided fairly early on that this day was not a good one to attempt all 15
peaks, so chose to stop early & try again another day. Wise move, I think…
It was about a 3 mile climb up to the top of Snowdon. There may have been some peak before
Snowdon, but just seemed like part of the trail up. Even by 5:30 am, we were hitting traffic
jams. We passed other hikers going up
and even more coming down! But each group
gave the other a hearty “G’morning”
“Morning!” as if climbing up or down some mountain in pouring rain &
wind at 5:30 am is just an everyday occurrence. Ray mentioned some people could be doing
the 3 peak challenge – where you need to climb the tallest peak in Scotland
(Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Snowdon) in 24 hours. But the hardest part of that is the driving
– not the climbing… http://www.thethreepeakschallenge.co.uk/
Kate, Roger & Steve were the fast group. Chloe, Andy, Mark, Ray, Joe & I stayed
together as another pack. Joe made sure
everyone was accounted for. However,
we still met the fast group at the top of Snowdon and got a couple of pictures,
but we all held on to each other to keep from getting blown over. It was gusty as hell. Also discovered that rain hitting your face
at over 40 miles an hour feels a lot like hail….
I wound up getting behind the group a bit everytime I’d try
to take pictures. I had to spend time
getting my camera in and out of two bags
I was using to keep it dry (to little avail). Gong up to Snowdon was mostly a fast walk
climb. But going down and across to the next peak, it
was runnable. At least for more people. I learned why you should always try out
your gear. Something about these new
running pants I’d never used before, kept pulling my shorts down. Or maybe it was something else, or some
combination of my waist pack that I have used before and these pants – I don’t
know – but I kept having to stop to make adjustments. I’m sure I looked like a total idiot. Honestly, all Americans are not this
incompetent. It’s just me…
Coming off the mountains to our first rest stop, I saw a
sheep on the hillside which I thought was unusual, but next thing you know, the
hills were alive with sheep. I don’t
usually encounter sheep on my trail runs at home. Everywhere you looked there were waterfalls
streaming down the mountains. I didn’t
get the impression was usual. It was a
grassy climb down and with all the rain, it was frequently a nice slide down
the mountains. Still rocky here &
there and one of my fingers had a close encounter with one. Still stiff as I write this two weeks later,
so apparently I sprained or broke it.
Guess I just ain’t right, but what else is new…
At the bottom of the mountains, all those little waterfalls
emptied into a creek, which now appeared to be a raging river. Fortunately the bridge that crossed it was
still passable. Soon we were greeted
by Lucy’s banner and the welcome site of the Vegan 3000 Mobile - along with the welcome site of Kirsch &
Lucy who kept us nourished with hot tea and tasty vegan sausages. Kate, Roger & Steve were still at the
van when our group arrived, but they took off again soon. Mark decided he had enough fun at this
point. The rest of us took a fair
amount of time and while probably pointless, mostly changed into some dry
clothes again to get us through the next section. I thought maybe it might be letting up a
little, so went back to just shorts.
But there was no letting up really – the worst weather was still to
come. In fact, another ominous sign was
Kirsch brought up the weather on her smartphone and the wind map of area just
had circular arrows in what looked like one of those hypnosis patterns. That just can’t be good…. So anyway, I may have been cold in shorts,
but at least my shorts stayed on now!
When changing clothes, made another error. Changed my soaked hat for a new knit hat
borrowed from someone else. This one
was just a little loose which was just enough in these gales to cause it to
keep blowing off or falling down into my eyes.
So ended up just carrying it.
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Our intent was to finish this thing. It would be a good 11 miles or more until the
next planned rest stop.
The next mountain was just a never ending climb – must have
been uphill for 2-3 miles. The trail
was over grassy fields and the wind & rain was not horrible – probably
because it was blocked by the sides of the mountains. But once we started getting close to the
summit, it became all rocks and the wind & rain ratcheted up several
notches where it became difficult to stay upright in the wind. Just before we got to the summit, Kate &
Roger were coming back down. They had
enough of the wind and cold. Steve
forged ahead on his own. I didn’t take
any more pictures after this – probably would have ruined my camera and I had
to keep all my energy into not falling over.
I’ve been in some smaller hurricanes and their winds did not
come close to this. It was hard to even
breathe when the wind is whipping past you like that. We were on a lot of ridgelines too with
steep sides that would not have been pretty if you fell and rolled down. The talk was that if you got injured up
there, you’d be stuck in this weather as there’s no way a helicopter could fly
in it. They’d have to get a harrier
jet…. Joe said he knew the way back to
the road and suggested we pack it in too.
There was no argument.
Unfortunately the quickest way back to the road was over another windy
summit. You kind of had to laugh it was
so ridiculous and absurd to be on top of a mountain being pelted in a wind
tunnel where you could only take tiny steps to keep your balance, but the only
way out of the situation was to keep moving.
So we did. The way down the
mountain was over a lot of wet rocks – frequently going down the middle of
waterfalls, but somehow, no one took any major spills. I may be wrong but I don’t thing anyone had
yet called Kirsch & Lucy to let them know we were coming, but somehow they
were coming down the road as we arrived.
Perhaps Steve called them as he apparently made the same call to turn
down where we did. I think Steve would
have continued if he had not been by himself up there. But
we all made it back to the van in once piece and all were accounted for…. Yay!
Now back to Kirsch’s.
with a van full of soaked freezing runners who were all quite relieved
to have this over with, but with mixed emotions as everyone was disappointed we
could not run the whole thing.
On the way back, Ray discovered his car keys were nowhere to
be found. We stopped at the first rest
stop to see if they were anywhere over there and there was lots of talk of
locksmiths. But once at Kirsch’s the
van was emptied and the missing keys were found in some bag. Since the van was empty, it was then cleaned
for it’s return. Perhaps Kirsch hid
those keys as a way to get the van emptied and cleaned….
There was dinner & lots of beer and then the sun came
out. No one was real gung ho to go back
& pick up where we left off.
Spent lots of time hanging out with everyone choosing music from Roger’s
eclectic jukebox he had on his PC.
Being in the middle of the world cup games, it was not long before folks
ended up at the pub again. And the pub
was next to some disco, so Kirsch, Chloe, Lucy, Andy, Roger & found our way
there. Andy, Roger & Kirsch hit
that floor like they were magnetized to it, but after a few shots, Chloe, Lucy &
I were out there too. Soon it seemed
like the whole town was out there.
Andy was quite the trip dancing with everyone – and I mean everyone –
and going around picking up people two or three times his size and somehow
getting away with it all. Everyone
laughed. He seems to have a way with
people, that guy…. Somehow everyone
made their way back to Kirsch’s.
On Sunday, before Kirsch took the slightly hungover group of
Lucy, Chloe, Andy & me back to the train station, I did go on a nice walk along
the river with Kirsch & Pinkles who seems to have a talent for finding and
carrying trees in her mouth. Maybe they
were just branches, but they seemed incredibly large for this medium sized dog
to cart about. She was quite talented in
this regard.
Around this time Kirsch had a disturbing call from the
police about wanting to speak to her about texts from her phone. I
guess texting can be monitored there, which I think is a little disturbing –
although it may have been a text sent to the wrong person. We found out later that Kirsch’s daughter
had texted someone mischievously about “hiding a body”. It all got sorted out In the end….
Sad to say goodbye to everyone, especially Kirsch, who was a
wonderful host and organizer. Kirsch
did a tremendous job organizing the run, the websites, getting sponsors,
getting money raised for Sea Shepherd.
She had great help, such as Lucy, but of course the best people attract
the best help.
This time at the train, we somehow ended up in the “quiet” car
and could not all sit together. Being
in the quiet car did allow for a little sleep, reading and recovery from the
night before. But we were soon back in
London…
Plan was to get something to eat & find a German bar to
watch the Germans play later on. We
had our Wales luggage to carry around too.
While walking the streets of London, me dragging behind as
usual trying to get my unrollable bag to roll, had a missed opportunity
experience I am still kicking myself for.
I passed some type of flyer taped to an outside wall that had something
to do with the Kate Bush Homeground fan magazine. To say I adore Kate is like saying it gets
a little hot in South Carolina. I have
a few copies of Homeground and I thought this was just saying you could find
the magazine here. OK, cool. Will need to stop back later & get
one. Or grab one of the flyers if
nothing else. I didn’t want to hold up
anyone more than I was. To
flash-forward, later that night I was out exploring London & found my way
back to the spot, which was near an independent book/magazine shop, but the
flyers were gone. All right, I’ll come
back tomorrow – which I did. And no,
they did not have Homeground. Never
carried it. So what the hell was that
poster all about? I asked my friend
Google if she had any idea, and Goog’s told me about this: http://www.katebushnews.com/index.php/2012/06/the-homeground-30th-birthday-party-sunday-17th-june-2012/ Damn!
I need to be more observant & more obstinate & less oblivious –
maybe more obtuse? I give up. But to have gone to some Kate Bush party in
London would have been like a kickass dream come true for me. Geez.
Somebody else kick me – I’m getting tired of kicking myself.
Anyway, meanwhile back on the streets of Soho, it took us a
couple of attempts to find an acceptable restaurant (vegan sushi followed by a
vegan ice cream store) and it seemed like all the German pubs had expensive
cover charges and were going to be crowded.
So we decided on a pub in Lucy’s neighborhood. Chloe & Andrew went there straightaway
& Lucy & went back to her place & changed.
Again, I proved once again how totally incompetent I am and
how fantastic Lucy is. We were both
rushing around. I had recently acquired
a new new non-leather belt with this heavy buckle to kind of twists around
(still trying to figure out how to attach my MMT 100 buckle). In my rush, in some kind of freak accident,
I managed to clasp the end of the buckle onto the skin under my thumb on one
hand in a way that that hand was pretty much useless but it seemed like I
needed two hands to free myself without ripping my flesh off. “Uh, Lucy – got a sec?” I cannot blame her if she’s making fun of
this absolutely incompetent American staying at her place, but I don’t think
that’s her style. Rest assured, not all
Americans are this useless – just me…
Oh yeah – somewhere in here, Lucy also brilliantly bandaged
up my broken/sprained purple finger, wrapping it with another one for support
in lieu of splints. It eventually
became less purple, but I never kept up with the makeshift splint. Oh well, nothing like a broken finger to
have as a souvenir I’ll always have with me…
in addition to the case of Marmite, Wine Gums, Hobnobs & Pimms I
came back with.
While at the pub, I perused a “Timeout London” magazine to
see what was going on around town. I’m
sure they did not say anything about the Kate Bush party, but I did see that
Grace Jones was closing the “Love Box” festival that evening. Seeing Grace Jones would also have been an
80’s fantasy come true. If I had
planned my trip better & had known about this, I could have pulled it off,
but as it was, did not seem very workable.
So just decided to explore London some more on my own that evening. It was already pushing 10pm probably. Lucy took the time to write down great info
on places I may want to see & more importantly, how to get home, since the
Underground shuts down at midnight.
Lucy recommended Ronnie Scott’s, a late night jazz club, so I looked for
that (after an unsuccessful attempt at finding those Kate Bush Homeground
posters). I finally found it at 1am –
it was supposed to be open til 3, but the doors were all locked. Somebody must have tipped them off that I was
on my way….
Monday morning got a late start, not surprisingly. Lucy had extended her holiday to one day to
take an entrance test for new physio classes.
Monday is a hashing day and I had potentially talked Lucy, Chloe &
Andy into joining me, although Andy was kind of doubtful he could get there in
time. Again, Lucy took the time to
write down detailed info on places I may want to go & how to get
around. Lucy is quite detail oriented
and organized…. Was going to hopefully
meet Chloe as well as she was also staying in London for a couple of days, but
she was having phone issues, and that never happened. I had hoped to take a boat down the Thames,
which was a suggestion from my friend Maggie, but unfortunately, this never
worked out. I did take a trip to Camden
Market, a crazy neighborhood who’s only purpose for being seems to be to make
you a deal on T-shirts and more unusual
souvenir items. But it was a fun place
to walk around. And per Lucy’s
suggestion, had to go to Inspiral – an all vegan restaurant whose specialty
seemed to be cheesecake. So of course,
had to bring some carryout cheesecake back to the flat to share to hopefully
make up for me being such a pain to deal with….
Hash House Harriers is a type of drinking club that has a
running problem. They can be found in
any major city worldwide. All are
similar but they all tend to have local traditions, so it’s neat to see how
other hash “kennels” do things. This
hash started at 7pm in West Ealing, a somewhat out of the way borough of West
London on the way to Heathrow. All the running around was catching up with
Lucy, so I ended up making my way to the hash myself. Fortunately the hash started on hash time,
meaning they were all drinking at the pub and didn’t get going until about
7:30, which was good since I was running late. Hashers are easy to spot – a bunch of
ne’er-do-wells in On On t-shirts with lots of pints about. They had pretty much taken over the pub
anyway. I was not the only visiting
American as there had been a couple from Washington state too. All the Brit hashers were welcoming. Amazingly, I knew one of them. I had been to hash 3 years ago in Edinburgh,
Scotland (while there to run Loch Ness Marathon with my Rebel Runner friends
from Delaware) and one of those hashers was here, Eric. Yes, that was his hash name (hashers get
special hash names that are often quite, uh, colorful). Actually don’t know if I would have
recognized him, but he remembered me being the American visitor again. One major difference between hashing here vs
back home was there was no beer on trail which would be sacrilegious in South
Carolina. The hash did manage to find lots
of “shiggy” to run in (fields & woods & stinging nettles and barbed
wire to cross…). It was a good time (if
you like stinging nettles & barbed wire).
Tuesday was my return day, although not until the
afternoon. It was back to work for Lucy
too. Once again, Lucy brilliantly wrote
down some running routes for me along the Thames as my plan was to just go for
a run & then take off after that.
That all went well and I knew how to get back to the airport now via the
tube through West Ealing. But it was
sad saying goodbye….
Thanks to me friends in the states who helped me plan
this! Never would have heard about it
without Mark! Jenna, Justine, Sarah,
Maggie, Tracy, Robyn all gave me great tips to help plan this trip.
It was great fun to get to hang with Chloe & Andy on the
train and an honor to run with Joe, Mark, Ray, Kate, Roger & Steve. Wish I got a chance to get to know Daf,
Marcus & Aubrey.
Many thanks Lucy & Kirsch! It was an excellent adventure in London and
Wales and all because of you! I’m sure
if I look up “brilliant” in the dictionary, I will find your pictures. I can’t imagine more awesome hosts and am
honored to have you as friends. Love you both! xxxxxx
Scott
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