Sunday, February 26

Teignmouth - Bollards and Stix - 26th February 2017

I learned an important lesson when laying today’s trail:  Don’t attempt to run with a backpack on containing a bag and a half of flour and a bottle of water.  All was well until I stopped to refill my flour bottle at which point I found a pastey mess inside my bag.  Thereafter, the flour that I put into my marking bottle was slightly damp and clogging the nozzle – not ideal.
Parking proved to be an issue.  It’s obviously a very popular venue on a Sunday morning as there is free parking in the winter months.  Fortunately, everyone managed to park somewhere eventually, but not necessarily in a marked space.  As far as I’m aware, we got away with it.
The trail looped around a residential area of town towards the quay and the back beach.  A long/short split saw the longs head along the back beach (initially the wrong way) while the shorts were confused by the lack of markings.  There was a massive arrow pointing the way, but a large group of people had inconsiderately stood on it to have a photograph taken.
Meanwhile, when the longs turned onto the main beach, they were met by a “spotty dog outing”.  The trail continued along the beach, and then on the promenade to the sweetie stop.  Another long/short split followed, with the longs heading up to the Teignmouth sign along the path beside the railway and then back along the beach which was hard work due to the direction of the wind.
On re-joining the short, the trail headed up Eastcliffe and into the park for a loop around – for most people.  As I was sweeping the trail, I was right at the back following Ball Bait.  I noticed that he had misread the check where he should have turned into the park so I followed him up the hill.  As I don’t generally run up hill on a Sunday, he got away from me, but I continued to pursue where I thought he might have gone – luckily this path was parallel to the path in the park, so it wasn’t too far out of the way.  Helpfully, I added some extra marks to get him back onto trail and then completed the rest of the trail on my own.  He was back before me – having re-joined the trail through a gateway!  All’s well that ends well. (words by Bollards)
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Coming up...

Sunday, 5 March
Budleigh Salterton Riding School, Dalditch La, near Budleigh Salterton EX9 7AS (map)- Spocky (OD: Cream Tea!)
Sunday, 12 March
The Crown & Sceptre, Newton St Cyres (map) - Groucho