Tuesday night was the last pub run of the season for the Harrogate Harriers. We met up at The Hopper Lane Hotel, then walked a short way to a path near the Fewston reservoir. It was cold and misty and windy out. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that we had to stand around in it for quite a while waiting for things to get sorted out before the run. Thankfully once we did get going, the start and finish of the run were in the sheltering canopy of a forest, so it felt immediately warmer. It also was immediately darker!

Unfortunately, this last run was not a simple out and back. It was a three mile loop. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the course wasn't very well marked, and not everyone got a good look at the map. I took a glance at it, but I'm horrible with map reading, so I could have looked at it all day and it wouldn't have made a difference. I was hoping the people in front of me knew where they were going. Well, live and learn.

When it was my turn to start, I indeed followed the two ladies in front of me - who promptly took a wrong turn that cost us a couple of minutes. Oh well. I was tired and not mentally up for a big effort, and was disappointed at having such an inauspicious start, so I tried to just enjoy the scenery and the run. It was indeed enjoyable to run through the forest and next to the water.

I caught up to one of the ladies in front of me. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling well and turned back. I couldn't see anyone in front of me, so I was on my own. I reached a point where I didn't know where to go next. I saw the faster runners already coming back, so I decided to just turn around and make my way back. There was ONE arrow pointing the way back, so I went ahead and followed it. I only saw one other sign on my way back, but it turns out I'd gone the right way. As I arrived at the finish, I informed the gentleman keeping time that I hadn't completed the entire route. Apparently getting turned around and lost was the order of the evening. My friend Emma was the last one in. She got turned around and ended up adding a good mile or more to her run. Several of the faster runners had gone back looking for her. We were very relieved when she finally turned up!

We made out way back to the pub and got cleaned up. I somehow managed to change my clothes in the car. (I joked that I hadn't gotten dressed in a car since I was a teenager. ) We'd put our food orders in ahead of time, so it wasn't long before our food was brought out.

After dinner, I'd ordered some tea. As the waitress set it down in front of me, I noticed a number of people staring. I looked around a bit confused and said, "What?"

The fellow nearest to me informed me that he thought tea was a British indulgence. Ah. I replied, "I'm weird." Actually, I've always loved tea. Though, growing up in the desert, I usually had it iced. However, I have always enjoyed it hot as well. I guess British people aren't used to Americans drinking tea.

Not only was this the last pub run, but it was a quiz night as well. I'd never been to a quiz night before. Apparently it's a big thing over here. Lots of local pubs have weekly quiz nights. We were put into teams of three by drawing numbers out of a hat. We then answered 35 questions covering a wide range of topics of general knowledge. Our quiz mistress kindly threw in a couple of American questions (though I disappointed my teammates by not knowing the Bears played at Soldier Field - well, I don't care about football!).  Each team wrote their answers on a piece of paper, then at the end everyone swapped papers to check answers. My team did abysmally, but we had fun!