The Golden Fleece is an event by the South Cave Scout Group, there are two choices of route that you can take a short (as if) 15 miler, or the long (I’ll say) 27.5 miles. It’s been a popular and successful event for East Hull Harriers and the long route has been completed first by one of our red brethren every year since 2013. This year was doubly successful as both races were won by an East Hull Harrier, Rob Weekes coming home first in the long route and Danny Wilson winning the shorter race.

Both courses start and finish adjacent to South Cave church and follow the same route until round about mile 7, where the long route takes a left turn, straight up a hill, which seems to make those doing it even more resolute and determined. For my part I was pleased to be taking the soft(er) option of the short route, which still has mud and hills aplenty.
Up until this point there had been quite a number of Harriers running more or less as a pack, with a bit of see-sawing for leadership of the group. In this improvised pack were Mandy Davison, Debbie Jacketts, Wayne Martindale, Dave Rimmer, Kirsty Wilson, Magdalena Zaremba and myself all doing the short route, while Guy Gibson, Carole Fee and Alison Burnett had opted for the long run.

At the split point for the two routes there was a very well stocked refreshment tent with drinks, jelly babies flap jack and numerous other snacks that are too tempting not to have, this may seem a little odd to runners, but it is after all primarily a walkers event and common place for them, with this in mind, we had our fill and felt justified doing so.

At this stage Kirsty, Magda and me became a trio and splintered off from the rest of our group, which was quite a brave move as we were basically going on instinct and vague memory for the rest of the way, however this proved to be good enough for us as we reached every check in point with no issues, we even advised others of the way to go at one stage – and more to the point, they believed us.

The countryside we were travelling through was fantastic and we all remarked how great it was to be pushing ourselves through the mud and hills as opposed to sitting at home watching telly and putting weight on, Magda and Kirsty were presented with the opportunity to work even harder as they carried the back packs all the way round, even though I asked at more or less every mile if they wanted me to be the pack horse for a while – actually I asked once at the end – but I know when I’m onto a good thing. Kirsty was burdened greater by carrying my heavy waterproof, an item that caused her to fall in typical Kirsty style in the car park, causing concern amongst all but those who know her. Mind you she got her own back by “mislaying” it in the church hall when we finished.

We’d even done some learning on the route when Magda was informed by a more knowledgeable (some may say smart arsed) walker that what she’d called a gate, was actually a restrictor – who the hell knew? Not us that’s for sure. But needless to say it was the cause of a few ironic giggles every time we came across another one.

All in all we had a great time doing the Golden Fleece and partly through the reflected glory of the achievements of our Harrier team mates, partly because of the much better that expected weather forecast, the three of us, plus Mandy and Debbie decided a beer basking in the March spring at the pier was necessary to complete the occasion.