DUAXC is well known for being the home of stunning strength & speed, but for one night a year we switch our talents for hardcore training & extreme racing into making one of Durham’s most intense and certainly fastest socials. The full kit bar crawl is definitely an event not to be missed, and is certainly not a night to be too self-conscious as we dash around college bars in lycra and short shorts. This year saw two departures from tradition; firstly our starting point moved from Hilde Bede to the DSU, and secondly the weather was not as bitterly cold as usual, providing some relief for those who decided to wear the shortest shorts.
The Athetics lads start off in civilized fasion
Whilst others set out their intentions for the night
Different interpretations of running kit are on display
Alex's love of his Yorkshire vest becomes a theme for the evening
From the DSU we moved onto the bar at Grey college. Fred led the way as DUAXC powered up the hill, moving at a speed faster than has ever been seen on a social in Durham before.
The hill takes its toll
'fanta banta': an innocent-looking, but somewhat inebriating drink
From Grey we made the short trip to Collingwood, the site for the traditional 'turning circle relays'. This involves drinking a shot of your choice before running a lap of the turning circle to handover to the next member of your team. Unfortunately this year we were thwarted by a guard who wouldn't let us take our drinks from the bar out of the entrance. But we were not to be denied, so masterfully we sneaked out of a secret exit and stealthily crept around the outside of the building to reach the turning circle with our drinks still intact*.
(*some would say we just walked out of the open back door, but this was not how it was seen through the eyes of the publicity sec)
The athletics and xc captains pick their teams for the relay
The last two to be picked are...
The race unfolds
After the race, which was won by Owen's team, we moved onto Trevs where another drinking race was organised. The same teams were used, but this time it was a bottle/strawpedo boat race.
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An example of perfect strawpedo technique |
| And a slightly less effective style |  |
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Blatant cheating |
This time the race was won by Matt's team, and shortly afterwards we made for our next destination, St Mary's.
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The small nature of the bar at st marys did not lend itself as a place for a long stay, so we were soon forging ahead to St Cuth's.
Action shots of crossing Prebends Birdge
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Time to pose for some photos in Cuths
Random pointing
From this point on the rapid nature of our travels started to catch up with us, the build up of lactic acid in our legs and liquid in our stomachs made running between bars a futile task. But still we went on, calling on our immense mental strenghs we strode on up the bailey.
Still going strong
Our next planned stop was Chads, but was considered too busy to fulfil our social needs, so on we went to our last college bar, Castle.
Everyone still in high spirits
And so ended our tour of college bars and DUAXC made their way to the final destination of the night, Loveshack.
A note of thanks should go to the social secs, Alice and Kat, for organising an excellent evening and I'll leave you with some photos of the standard dancefloor nonsense that followed.
