Best apology, ever

The Ridgeway Relay is a team race that takes place each year over a 90-mile stretch of hilly ground. The race has minimal marshaling, sparse details for directions and on the later legs runners often see few if any other competitors. At one point this year I was eying up taking part, but the necessity of celebrating my 30th wrote that off.

As I understood from having talked to some of the Amblers in the days after the race, all seemed to go fairly well. There were only a few instances of anyone getting lost, and all three Abingdon teams acquitted themselves respectably.

So, it was something of a surprise when I was copied into an apology from the race organiser:

May I please take this opportunity to apologise on behalf of Marlborough
Running Club for any offence caused to your runners on Stage 10 by any
unusual sights they may have come across when running from The Ridgeway
to the finish. None of the runners mentioned anything to us when they
finished, but our marshal at the passage control was quite taken aback,
I can tell you. I can only assume that the imminence of the Summer
Solstice celebrations in Avebury next morning was in some way
responsible for the hoard of naked dancers camped in the valley on
Fyfield Down, not to mention the couple doing what couples do in the
long grass just off our route. 

I can assure you this is not something we've ever come across on the
Downs before. I will of course make a point of inspecting the route
beforehand next year.

As Tom from the club wryly pointed out: ‘Trying to drum up interest for next year already I see.’