I don't care what the Weather Man says

This morning, I woke to see it was a bit damp outside.  Whilst doing a few things in the morning I get caught in downpour and there was thunder and lightning.  The radio suggested there was a yellow weather warning for the South East with risk of localised flooding.

I even posted on my Facebook that it certainly looked like it would be ideal conditions for a Hippo running a trail race.

So I set off for Harvel (a small village between Jcts 3 & 4 of the M20) just before midday. I got to the village a bit quicker than I expected and was greeted by Henry VIII.  Just the sort of thing you expect in Kent on a Saturday afternoon?

There were some menacing clouds, but the Sun was putting up a good fight.  I parked in a field as directed and made my way to the village green to pick up my timing chip.  Straight away you could see this was going to be a fun friendly event. Even the portaloos were individually labeled.  I particularly liked this one :-)

I have heard a quote before, that the best events are the ones organised by runners for runners and I couldn't agree more.  Especially with some of the prices now being charged for 10k events by some of the PR companies that have jumped on the running bandwagon. Anyway I digress.

To start there was only myself and one other PWR, Janet and we were surrounded by a sea of luminous yellow of our local friends/rivals the Orpies.

Slowly but surely the Black & White turned up and we numbered over 30 runners.  I haven't been running much and due to work I haven't managed to go on a Tuesday night club run for a couple of months now, so it was good to catch up with a few people that I haven't seen for ages.

The predicted monsoon had turned into glorious sunshine.  Perfect for sitting on a village green and having a beer, probably not so good for a 5 mile trail run.

800 runners lined up just before 2pm and soon we were away.  The first mile was on a country lane (closed to traffic) and then we ventured onto a trail path, this gave some welcome shade.

There was a drink stop at 2.5 miles and along with jelly babies you had a choice of water, lager or ale.  This was my kind of drink stop.  Now I am not a man to turn down a beer, so had an ale.

What sort of run is this I hear you cry.  Well the Harvel 5 is organised by the Harvel Hash House Harriers and in case you didn't know, Hashing is a form of non-competitive cross-country running with the main objective of working up a decent thirst. Great emphasis is placed on the social aspects - particularly the refreshment session at the aprés-hash. It's a fun activity and must not be taken at all seriously.

There was still plenty of mud on the course despite the lack of rain.

I finished in a time of 45:05 which is not too bad considering I am not in the best shape of moment and I stopped for a few minutes at the water, er I mean beer stop to drink my beer.

Medals were presented by local children and then it was time to re-hydrate with a pint of Kent Brewey Pale, direct from the cask.  This was accompanied by some home-made cake courtesy of Jo one of the PWRs.

All in all a delightful afternoon and run. And I even managed to catch up with a few people that I was cheering on last week at The Kent Road Runner Marathon.

Oh and to top it all, the medal..... Very unique.  It doubles as a bottle opener!

It seems that I am back running and back blogging!

Until the next time
TJH