GFH3 Run #1,698; 22 May 2013

Yes, you heard the radio weather announcer correctly:  86 degrees, and 90% chance of thunderstorms.  Oh, yay!

That's right, oh, yay -- because this is the day that our Mufti returned to us, looking suspiciously hearty, fit and well, walking with a jaunty swagger and the gentleman's walking stick that always goes with a jaunty s.  BC3 reports that he was demanding to be let alone to do things for himself a week after surgery; Mufti recalls wistfully that, "For the first two weeks, everyone comes to you.  After that, you go to them."  He was much less wistful when predicting that he would be the first runner in, and when threatening to leave Ole Fud in his dust on the walkers' trail.

Well, we're all very glad you did come to us.

So I guess Greg helped Tasty Cakes with the setting (on his bike, so he could do all the falses), and I'm guessing that Beef Strokemoff set the figure-9 walkers' trail.  Both of them excellent courses, and the walkers' trail was especially handy for the several runners who decided they'd had enough of sweating through the increasingly cloudy evening and used the pink arrows as a shortcut.  Incidentally, the hares report that in consideration of the weather, they cut a mile or two off the true trail, bringing it down to five-and-a-half miles or so.  Herndon offers some lovely opportunities for stream crossings and mixing the paved with the dirt and etc.

So it was a charming bit of exercise however one cut it up, and the back deck at Beef S's greeted returning hashers with plenty of icy drinks and a fancy wine cooler and an even fancier beverage dispenser full of extremely tasty sangria.  To give you an idea of the kind of spread the Strokemoffs lay on, pitch your mind back to the last time you heard anyone say, "appetizers" at a hash.  As in, "The appetizers are on the deck."  Pitch your mind back.  It was never, right?

What?!  No ice sculpture?!

The interior of the house featured a Mediterranean spread of seasoned chicken to go into pita bread and be topped with yogurty sauce and hummus and cukes and other veg, plus three salads and stuffed grape leaves.  It sounds ridiculous.  But wait!  There's more!  If you attended tonight you also received several kinds of cookies, some absurdly rich chocolaty bars, and baklava.  That would be homemade baklava.  Right.  Homemade.

The Mufti hollered the roll, and it was as if he'd never been away -- except that Bionic Babe brought out a cake blazoned with "Welcome Back, Mufti," and everyone "sang" "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," and the Mufti demanded three cheers ("hip, hip...  ON ON") for himself and his hip.  Welcome Axel, Lindsay and about a half-dozen other first-timers, and welcome back Leila (98 to the cup!), and click here for photos (some very fuzzy in the twilight), and goodnight.

And yes, there was a torrential downpour about 8:30 or 9:00, and everyone scurried inside.  It is a generous host indeed who allows post-run hashers into the living room.