Fun Run

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Tytn
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Joined: 31 Aug 2016, 23:29
Location: UK
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Fun Run

Post by Tytn »

It was cold and wet. Rain streaked down the windscreen, blurring the view outside. Occasional shapes loomed and passed by. I was tempted to run the engine again, letting the diesel four cylinder engine and the heater battle to warm the cab but I wore my coat so that probably wouldn’t help.

My radio made noises again, some squelch followed by static. I reached down and adjusted it again but not too much. Other poorly set-up radios were causing interference on my more precise radio and I shuddered to think what frequency they were on! I saw another car approaching in my rear view mirror and watched as it drove up onto the pavement to pass the barricade across the road so slipping the keys from the ignition I pulled the door release and stepped outside into the cold drizzle. Stretching, bringing a fresh wave of cool air up my jacket, I walked into the road as it carried on towards me and then I stopped ahead in its lane and turned to face the car.

I wore a high visibility coat. It was orange with silver grey reflective stripes, a woollen hat pulled down over my head and a scarf to keep the warm bits inside. The wind sapped all the heat out and I was going to be here for most of the morning. The car seemed to slow down so I held up both arms to stop them and as they came to a halt I slipped over to their drivers side, the window was wound down
“Sir, the road’s closed”
“But I live just along there”
“I’m sorry, we can’t let anyone past, there are some runners coming through here soon, the road has been closed for an hour already”
“I know, but I have to get through, it’s an emergency”
“Right, OK then, that’s fine”
“So you’ll let me through?”
“You’ll have to wait here a moment” and reached for the speaker mic attached to the inside lapel of my coat
“Checkpoint 7 to control” I called, and they answered almost straight away
“Control, go ahead seven”
“I have a motorist here who wants to travel down towards the train station from my position and they have stated it is an emergency”. There was a pause and I was sure he was scratching his head looking at the map, I carried on “Could you arrange for a suitable, ah, official escort to assist at my location please?”
“Certainly Seven, I shall notify them to attend, please ask the motorist to wait with you for the official escort” I looked down at the motorist, who seemed to look almost smug, as if they were getting their way.

I was expecting the white transit van but instead a fluorescent yellow figure on the plush and colourful motorcycle appeared, they pulled up a side road and stopped next to me and pulled his helmet off, and the motorist paled upon seeing the formidable police officer. I nodded to the officer who shook his head out of the helmet and looked gravely at the motorist
“Gentleman states he’s got to get through, says it's an emergency, and he drove past that barricade down there and over the pavement” the copper nodded, I stepped back to allow them to converse and walked back to the Marshall.

“You know that was your job” I told him
“But you’ve got a more formidable presence” he laughed. He wore a decent rain coat and a temporary one-time yellow covering.
“Are you saying I’m fat”
“Well, more that your coat glows more than mine” the cadets supervisor grinned. He was clearly fitter than I but also had a descent sized stomach
“I thought you had a cadet here with you?” I asked, looking around
“He was cold so I got him to jog down to the checkpoint and, er, check on them”
“But don’t you have a radio for that?”
“The radio is for official traffic” he replied in a stern tone but then smiled
“The lad needed to pop into the train station too, for, ahh, personal reasons”
“I see, I thought they called it things like ‘to freshen up’ or ‘to relax out of sight’ or have they changed it again?”
“No, there are a variety of reasons but if you use the latter one on most cadets they’ll go bright red”
“The poor mites” we laughed, the officer pulled out a long thin metal flask from his inside coat pocket
“More coffee sah?”
“Sure, why not Warrant Officer” I slipped my own flask top from one of my inner pockets, not a large one but you didn’t need much and he poured in the steaming hot liquid, hot black coffee with a hint of something that made it more palatable

“So, any more manning this position? I thought you started with two others?”
“I suggested they were needed elsewhere. The water station down the road will need people in a bit”
“Indeed, I saw that last year and it was raining then too. But they need to keep hydrated” he nodded, I glanced back to the car, the driver arguing with the copper
“Another disagreeing with the Police?” he offered
“Yeah, I wonder if we’ll see the van this time?”

We turned briefly on the small damp grassy patch at the corner of the road to look over at the excitement. The chap had stopped shouting and looked forlorn, and the Officer had his black book out. Paperwork was exchanged and both engines fired up and as the car reversed the Police bike switched on it's blue lights and he watched the car retreat. We wondered over to the officer
“Thanks for your help”
“No, that’s fine. That’s my 10th ticket today”
“I heard you had a problem down the road, at the roundabout in the village”
“Yes, some tried to push past Rod’s bike with their 4x4”
“I see, and you, ah, had strong words did you?” he nodded
“He was arrested and no doubt the book will be thrown at him later when we’ve delved into it to work out how many things we can charge him for. We need our fun on miserable days like this” and glanced at the small cups we had with us
“That smells like…. Hmm!”
“Cinnamon” offered the W/O
“Yes, that’s it, do you… Hmm…No, actually, I’d best not. I’ve already had a mug back at control and another down at the checkpoint by the roundabout”
“Ahh yes, I think he’s got a stove down there and makes it fresh”
“Indeed, delicious”
“Yes, and luckily he’s based next to some public loo’s” the officer smiled
“You are correct. You shouldn’t have any more problems from that chap, if you do then remind control and we shall be here shortly”

He pulled his helmet back on again and turned his bike and drove off, blue and red Strobing lamps, glinting in the wet landscape.

The road was mostly empty, it was within a large town but more of a residential area.

The white high top transit van, all of it's forward white and blue lights on was driving down the road, in the middle and behind was the first runner. Despite the incremental weather she was thin, dark skinned, black hair, no glasses but wore shorts and a T-shirt. Muscles strained and flexed in her legs as she jogged past, and being the first we clapped and I made a note. The following two came close behind less than a minute later so I reported to control their numbers and the approximate time and order, then that was it for comms.

We signalled people on, and clapped for a few but mostly watched. The Warrant Officer recognised most including some of the disguised ones. Our next excitement happened with a student group. They were clearly from the local university as all wore their rugby tops and bright yellow shorts. The shorts had that kind of shiny look that almost shone whilst at the same time showed most of their tackle as they jogged along. They were rather well endowed in that department and so I moved so I could get a good look without being spotted.

The group had stuck together, the faster members slowing down for the slower ones to keep in the group and patchy red and white faces mixed the group. Some were clearly fitter than others were and as they reached the turn where we were they slowed to a stop, panting hard.

Some of the clearly out of breath ones had faltered on a wall whilst another was looking a tad more worried. Something was said and the lad hurriedly trotted off down a side alley to a gate and one by one the others followed. Their lower legs and socks getting damp from the grass in the track until they all stood facing the wall and gate and at an angle to us started their strong waterfall, clearly they were well hydrated and desperately had to relieve themselves. Despite being a residential area, there weren’t many places you could hide taking a leak on this road, and the alley was the ideal place. It wasn’t long before the owner came out of the house and then the fun started.

“Stop them! Stop them!” he cried
“Why? They can look after themselves, you tell them”
“No, you’re in charge”
“No, I’m just with the comms, he’s the Marshall and they are adults themselves
“But this is your event and they’re damaging it”
“No they’re not, they’re urinating, but it's not damage”
“the wall, they’re damaging it”
“Uric acid won’t do that much damage especially with the amount of rain falling now today”
“I demand you force them to stop”
“You can’t demand I do anything but you are well within your rights to go down and have words with them yourself”
“this is intolerable, and you are all to blame, all of you, this is terrible. We are not the cities toilet”
“No, you’re not” I replied “But where else do you expect them to go?”
“I expect the organisers to lay on facilities”
“That is something you need to bring up with them”
“I want to speak to them right now”
“I don’t think that’ll help”
“Why, why is that?”
“Because they’ll be busy with this event, you’d best ring them afterwards, after the event”
“It’ll be too late then”
“What do you expect them to do? Come here and clear it up personally?”
“Yes!” he replied indignantly
“The contact details were on the paperwork that came through your door notifying you of this event”
“That rubbish, I binned it ages ago”
“Due to security reasons we cant get the number over the radio but if you goto the local park they can let you speak to the supervisor”
“Intolerable! This is intolerable!” he cried at us.
“You could go down to them and ask them? It’s probably not wise to physically try to stop them…” I trailed off, the man glared one last time and stalked off.

One of the lads came up, clearly in a happier state whilst another runner detoured down the track to rush to the hedge, their tackle came out pretty quick and the torrent gushed out from them. Their body visibly relaxing as the thick stream gushed out, splattering the bars of the gate, and creating froth on the center of the drive. The area was a good deal wetter now, and the noise clearly visible as the young men voided their clearly aching bladders. The house owner started to complain again, from his front door, and the lad that had walked up, relieved, slipped over and stated, in a stern voice
“Look mate, if you wanted to see our tackle you should have said, here, want to cop a feel?” and with that slid closer, the chap looked startled, then backed away sharply, and almost stumbling over his feet hurried back to the house and inside, slamming the front door. The next door neighbour had a couple of pensioners outside in their rain slicks and an umbrella
“I say, Oh I say” one called out, she was smiling
“You can certainly come and relieve yourself over here young man” she nudged her friend and the chap just smiled with a fix smile. The others came up from their relief, they joined in the wave and looked oddly at their mate before they hurried off on the rest of their run.

The Warrant Officer turned to me
“Well, there you go then”
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