Today is the annual Ball Breaker event: Do you have what it takes to earn the shirt?

The answer to the above question is "yes." You do have what it takes to earn the shirt because anyone that so much as turns up for it gets a shirt, that is part of the tradition. Every year we have a run that is nearly 30km and it is called the Ball Breaker. It is by far our longest run of the year and we always have multiple bail out points and very few of the people that start the run actually finish it because we are a bunch of louses.

For the few of us that do have what it takes we will be privy to the nuances of what "Just Cumming" and "Cool Ball" have spent the past 2 weeks preparing for us. It takes a long time to prepare a half-marathon of off road trails, particularly when the two scouts aren't even 100% familiar with the landscape themselves.

That is part of the fun though. Nobody other than the hares, who are not allowed to join us on the run, have any idea where this trail is going to go. All we know is that it is LONG.

We have been promised plenty of jungle, some of which is quite dense, some hills and even a few water features. We have been promised that there will be no necessity to actually enter the water, which would be a terrible trick to play on the runners given that jogging or even walking with wet shoes would almost certainly result in disaster.

These pictures are the only clues we have been provided about what we can expect and some of them appear to be on well-traveled farm trails but knowing what I know about the hares, this is all a trick and we can expect some serious off-trail searching for the true route.

This last photo indicates that there is going to be some elevation in our travels as well, which was to be expected. As always there will be many places for people to stop and get a ride back to camp if they so choose. If a person wants the highest honors, which means they will receive absolutely nothing extra for doing so, they need to complete the entire trail as well as consume a beer at each of the checkpoints. This is how we know you are a true athlete because any ol' person can run 25-30km, but can they do it with a belly full of beer? I think not!

While merely computer graphics, this is the shirt that has been designed for this specific event. As is always the case, if you signed up ahead of time and registered, your Hash Name will appear on the back of the shirt as well.

In the next few days I will be posting pictures of the exhausted masses after the run. For those that have already signed up, good luck tomorrow. It will be a good time. See you there!

On On!