Run Report - 26th July, The Jolly Farmer, Cookham Dean

WARNING - Never accept the challenge of a game of Spoof with David Abbott, if you do then you will lose and you will have to do the run report.

On a particularly humid evening Selwyn, Spider, Kate, Chris, Susie, David and I met up just across the road from the Jolly Farmer. We set off to face the considerable challenge of having no map, no GPS and possibly having to rely on David's sense of direction (see 12th July report).

However, after a few tentative minutes we were well on our way having found the correct route - basically running steadily upwards through some grassy fields, into the woods and down on to one of the tracks that runs sort of parallel to the A404. At this point Chris and I opted for an extra loop whilst the elite runners headed off through Quarry Wood and home.

Running conditions were good to firm underfoot and very hot. Rain, which would have been most welcome, looked likely but never appeared.

Elite Runners finished in around 48 minutes, stragglers came in around 57 minutes.

The pub (which is apparently owned by the locals) was perfectly pleasant, but the service was a bit slow. I can't comment on Spider's bar presence but after waiting around 10 minutes to get served, the barmaid actually decided to take a personal phone call half way through his order.

We were delighted to welcome Brett and Sarah who joined us for a few drinks. Immaculately turned out as they were, it showed us up as being a rather sweaty, lycra-clad bunch. All in all, whilst being a smallish crowd due to various holidays, we had a very pleasant evening in the beer garden.

In this spirit of friendship and openness Kate candidly admitted that she had been caught in a state of undress on her sons web-cam (there is a perfectly innocent explanation that I won't relate). Meanwhile, Chris, seemed intent on gathering a list of the best gastro-pubs in the region and David, being the louche bon viveur he is, knew just about all of them.

No pork scratchings!

Next weeks run is from the Chequers in Fingest, run starts at 7pm.