Run the Pubs (and Car Parks)

As regular readers may remember, around Xmas each year the Tuesday night runners do a run that takes in all of the pubs that we have visited during the year. This, it seems, was not enough of a challenge for Neil and he proposed that we should run not only all of the pubs, but also all of the car parks that we visit. This is particularly significant when it comes to our runs from Wilverley where we usual drink at Bank afterwards. As if this still wasn’t enough, Neil wanted to make it a round trip rather than the usual linear route. And, although to be fair he wouldn’t have known this at the time, he wanted to do it on a day when the temperature was in the mid 20s.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Neil didn’t get many takers for this venture and I’m afraid I wasn’t going to be one of them! Neil and Roderick set out from Fritham early this morning, heading past the Sir Walter Tyrell at Rufus Stone to the New Forest Inn at Emery Down and then on to The Oak at Bank. From there they went across to Beaulieu Road Station and then headed west towards Brockenhurst which is where I joined them at the Standing Hat car park. I had a distinct advantage at this point given that they had already run 17 miles by now.

We skirted round to the north of Brockenhurst and on to the car park at Wilverley which was heaving in the summer sunshine. From there we ran along the edge of the Inclosure (which sadly didn’t provide much shade) and crossed the A35. We parted company for a short while as we crossed Mill Lawn Brook. I headed right a bit to cross at the bridge and then couldn’t find Neil and Roderick again. They had stopped at the stream and, as you can see from Neil’s trace on my watch below, then spent a while looking for me before I, having continued on to the clearing beyond, eventually phoned them. We met again by Burley Cottage although I had taken a slightly more direct route along the cycle path.

From there we continued north to cross the A31 at the underpass, then cut through Milkham Inclosure to High Corner Inn where we were met by Christine with welcome top-ups to the water supplies. From there it was a familiar final push back to Fritham.

In total, Neil and Roderick had covered an impressive 34 miles on trails and through terrain taking 6 hours 35 minutes. I had joined them at the mid-point in both time and distance which says much for their determination to keep going in the second half. Congratulations guys – good effort! Look forward to seeing you on Tuesday night. 😉

Sadly, the day didn’t end quite so well. As were leaving the pub Emma slipped off the bench and caught the back of her head on the seat, as a result of which she took a massive bite in to her tongue. Hopefully the blood pouring out of her mouth didn’t put too many people of their drink. Emma made the most of it getting regular cuddles for the rest of the evening although she was in a particularly bad way at dinner time when eating was obviously painful. Looking at the large incision in to her tongue I could see why. Let’s hope she’s feeling a bit better tomorrow.

PS I’ve had to reduce the number of data points in the GPX below so that XML Google Maps doesn’t grind to a halt. Here’s the full GPX[urldisplaymode=nomap] if you’re interested in all the gory detail!

Run the Pubs/Car Parks Reduced GPX

9 Responses to “Run the Pubs (and Car Parks)”

  1. Michael Yeo says:

    Impressive! So will the three of you now be taking on the Coastal Path Relay by yourselves?
    Hope Emma continues her recovery.

  2. Michael Yeo says:

    ……”but also all of the car parks that we visit”

    The Canadian War Memorial would appear to have been bypassed!

  3. Neil says:

    Dave,
    Looking at the route I think you cut out all the bits where we were walking/
    stopped so we look like we were going faster than we actually were. Also I
    can see that Roderick and I made at least 30 minutes of bad route choices
    so next year we should be able to get the time down to under 6 hours. I
    don’t quite remember going below sea level (although we did find the odd
    bog).

    Thanks for coming along for the 2nd half. We certainly need the extra
    water, company and some-one with the ability to read a map. Still I managed
    to arrive home 3kg earlier than when I left which seems quite excessive. For
    some reason no weight loss books seem to suggest doing a 55km run.

    I hope that Emma is better today.

    cheers,
    Neil

    • Dave says:

      Ah yes – the Brockenhurst Dead Sea! I can’t help feeling that, given the profile, I would have been better off running the downhill half… Just have to remind myself that the vertical scale isn’t all that expansive. As per Mike’s comment: next year you’ll have to take in Canadian War Memorial as well! For now you can just watch those pounds pile back on!

      Emma still wasn’t happy eating at breakfast this morning but I didn’t get a good chance to look at how the wound was progressing.

  4. Neil says:

    Mike,
    I did think of going via the candian war memorial only that would have meant
    not visiting your house and deviating from the run the pubs route. But maybe
    next year …

    cheers,
    Neil

  5. That’s a great idea…but how can you guys can mantain so fit after visiting all these pubs? That’s a mistery!

    • Dave says:

      Sadly, the remote location of most of the pubs means that not much in the way of alcohol gets drunk due to everyone driving home. We do seem to get through a very large number of packets of crisps though!