| September 10th 2004 (Friday) | |
| You know, we wondered that too. We scanned the horizon for the good ship Zara from our vantage point above Braye, and the minutes turned into hours... |  |
| We began to get rather concerned. And then a bit more concerned. |  |
| Figure 7(b): "Ruth is concerned." | |
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And then concerned enough, to ask, casual like, whether maybe we should check with the harbourmaster? Or whether maybe we should have made a note of the boat's name before we left? And maybe taken a list of mobile phone numbers ? Oh god, what have we done? Should we raise the alarm, or were we being namby pamby's ? They were bound to be fine. But was that good enough? They were now six hours late, the tide on Alderney doesn't wait and worst of all we had a table for 10 booked for curry that night. So, when Mel phoned at about 7, having drifted into mobile range, we were at that moment phoning Bembridge Coastguard. And I was imagining myself at least 3 places higher on the club handicap PBs with all those club members gone missing. They were fine. They finally turned up about 11 PM, explaining that they had arrived 10 hours late, and made me embarrass myself with Bembridge coastguard, "because the lasagne wouldn't heat up properly". Gits. With the water taxi not running they had convinced the owner of the B&B to come and get them. We saw a man down on the jetty unable to start the outboard of his rib and who would be out on a night like this but some poor chap dragged into the Extreme Alderney experience, so we went to say hello. It was a long 20 minutes getting an engine to start, and my feet got soaked swinging the boat round for him. A complaint, I might add, which got me very little sympathy from the sailors.
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| Mel explains politely that
after 23 hours on a boat, her make-up was not as it should be.
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Nor was Will's, frankly. |
| September 11th 2004 (Saturday) | |
| Start time was a civilized
noon, so everyone got a bit of sleep, despite apparently some snoring. Race
pictures all look the same don't they? But here they are. Needless to say we got
1st and 3rd
and 1st supervet on the half, and 1st on the 10k, but lets not mention
some of those times. You can see them on the results pages anyway.
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There's only 9 here. Will must have already started. No wonder he won.
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| Everyone else gathers. |  |
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| And they're off. The traffic
jams will take hours to clear.
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Beckenham Runners move in packs. Except for Will. Obviously not a team player. |
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The Finish Line
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You can see actual sweat on the foreheads of these pained faces.
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Winners! |
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Will is interviewed by Press and TV |
Stu wins a paper cup |
| So What Happened next? Follow on for more Extreme Alderney Part 3! | |
