It was a cold, dark night in Stratford-upon-Avon, the streets only illuminated by streetlights and all was quiet except for the smacking of people’s shoes hitting the pavement as they ran. It was 10:45 at night….why would people be running? Who were these insane people?
Shocking…it was us running trying to catch the last train out of Stratford for the night. How did we come to the conclusion to run? Well the play let out around 10:45 and the train was at 11:15. So already a tight crunch to begin with, then add in the fact we have one person with a cane and another who is very sick. Of course, the one time someone really needs taxis there are none to be found. This finding quickly turned into Alec looking up how far the train station was, “Guys it’s only a mile, who’s down to run?”. There were groans of disgust and some excited hands flew up in the air. So we got prepared to run, for Alec that was taking off his flip-flops, others of us tied our jackets around our waist or put our hair up. Once everyone felt prepared off we went into the night, I would like to say this run went without mishaps or close calls, but no good story is without issues. There were wrong turns taken and close encounters with cars, but luckily we all made it to the train station in one piece. As we sat on the train platform trying to catch our breath we began to talk about the play we just saw and how tired most of us were (jet-lag is one cruel beach). Luckily the train opened its doors and on we went to knock out for a nice hour long nap before walking home.
Pro tip for prospective people: Take up a form of cardio early on and get some fashionable running shoes to wear…trust me you will thank me for it later.
Shakespeare in Oxford! 