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Brian & Teresa’s Run 26 August 2008

On a dull August Tuesday - after a day of watching the sky and defying the weather to turn wet - 15 cars turned up at the car park in Painswick for the first run we have organised.

At a little past 6:30 Lynn & Brian were the first away on this testing route of 27.6 mile (or thereabouts) run. Graham was breaking in a new navigator - Mike Pollack - and later made the following comment on how good he’d been compared to his usual… (Sorry this has been censored to protect GB)

The fist mile was a twisty circuit of Painswick before they headed out West through some narrow lanes and after 4 miles they fell off the edge of the Cotswold escarpment, down a 1:6 gradient, to Harescombe. This was to test the brakes.

After 4 miles at low altitude they were headed back East up to Haresfield Beacon up a mere 1:4 hill climb that tested the clutches (yes that was the funny smell) and proved that the temperature gauges could move into the red zone.

Soon they were back in the streets of Painswick again before heading out to the Duntisbournes via a dubious cross-road on the tulip (OK! it was never a Cross Road but it gave some good entertainment) for a test of buoyancy and sea worthiness in the ford. Unfortunately some very brave souls (or lost souls?) went through the ford marked “Unsuitable for Motor Vehicles” and got a little damp - but full marks for bravery!
Everyone - including the “Famous Four now plus Two” - arrived at The Daneway Pub (which was a great relief because there was no mobile telephone signal available anywhere in the pub or its grounds had anyone called for assistance). Here mine host served good English pub-food and excellent Ales. The Titanic Iceberg Bitter ABV 4.1 which had travelled from the Potteries - see link à http://www.titanicbrewery.co.uk/beers.html  - was excellent and very apt for those who took the long Ford at Duntisbourne.
All our eating drinking and merriment was accompanied by the strains of live folk music although no one got up do a jig - very disappointing!
So now over to others to devise routes to extend our knowledge of the County roads before we do our next testing run in August 2009.
B&T