June Social 2018 - Midsummer RunMonday 4 June
Fran Humphrey reports on this summer social run.
On a cool overcast evening 24 club members gathered in the car park of the Stable Bar at Mortonhall. They quickly coalesced into various ability groups and set off following the long or shorter route suggestions from Mike Stewart. The blown up StreetMap printouts Mike had provided proved interesting as they were lacking in many details we expect on O maps. But don't blame the tools - a good navigator should be able to use whatever is available. Most people seemed to take a little time to get their eye into the map as the scale was not obvious - until you had overrun!
Adaptability was the theme of the evening with each group deviating from the suggested routes because of the plethora of paths around the Braid Hills. The shorter route went into Buckstone Woods and and the loops Mike had suggested meant that groups kept seeing each other through the trees or at junctions. The longer route went over Braid Hill but one group returned via Buckstone Woods too, instead of repeating the Braid Hill loop, to get the distance in.
Most people arrived back at a similar time, well ahead of the time food had been booked, though not everyone stayed on. So there was plenty of time for discussion about the run and the Moncreiffe Hill event on the previous day. They were joined by a few non-runners and the latest Capital-O and O-Zone were distributed - for those who prefer the printed version.
This event saw a break in tradition from the Skyline run for the June social, which has been a feature of the ESOC calendar for many years. So feedback about the change would be appreciated - to either myself or Ewart.
Fran Humphrey
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