THE ALTERNATIVE WRINKLYS

I consider myself, my husband Michael, my sister-in-law Pat and brother-in-law John to be the ‘Alternative Wrinklys’; ‘hangers on’ if you like. I first heard about the Wrinkly Holidays from Peter and Brenda, but was always under the impression it was steered towards people who ran; after all everyone seemed to be a member of Wesham Road Runners. Imagine my surprise when John and Pat said that they had been invited to join a Wrinklys’ holiday. I knew that they couldn’t, and indeed wouldn’t run, so why were they going? Well of course I started to look into this more fully and realised that not everyone on the holiday was obliged to run. So, when Michael and I were invited to join the party visiting Zante in October 2005 we agreed to go along. To our surprise we didn’t have to make any arrangements ourselves, everything was done for us, even down to a taxi to the airport; we just paid our money and turned up as instructed.

With some trepidation we arrived at Manchester Airport, wearing our trainers (just in case), to meet the Road Runners in person. Everyone was friendly and accepted us without question, and we enjoyed a super holiday on a lovely Greek Island. Our hotel room leaked when it rained, and the balcony flooded, but we didn’t care, we were in Zante with a super crowd of people, who, like us, enjoyed a drink in a local bar on most evenings. I have to say at this point, the red wine was very cheap and unfortunately I had a little too much on just one occasion which resulted in a ‘head-in-toilet’ episode, but this was short-lived and both Michael and I had a wonderful time. We even attempted to ‘walk’ the ‘Predictor Race’ organised by Reg Chapman. There was never any pressure to join the group, everyone ‘did their own thing’ by day or evening; it was so relaxed and easy.

We wondered how we had fitted in and whether we would be invited. We received an e-mail from John Whiteman announcing yet another holiday to Croatia in October 2006. Unfortunately we were celebrating our Ruby Wedding at the same time and so therefore had to say ‘no’. However, another e-mail arrived inviting us to join the Wrinklys on a trip to Portugal in May this year. How could we resist? Neither Mike nor I had ever visited the Algarve and so we ‘signed up’. Again all the arrangements were made and passed on to us via e-mail in the usual way. We have just returned having had a fabulous time. Everything went according to plan, except that all our rooms backed on to the ‘Strip’, the loudest street in Montechoro. But, true to form, John, our leader, managed to negotiate, as only he can, and we were transferred to pool view rooms the very next day, without charge. What a man!

I do admit to feeling just a tingy bit guilty when, one morning, we were on our way to breakfast, after a nice lie-in, to meet two sweaty bodies coming up the stairs. They had been for a 6 mile run before breakfast! Unfortunately, this is something you have to get used to if you take your holidays with the Wesham Road Runners, even if they are known as “the Wrinklys.”

We are now looking forward to our next holiday to Sicily this September, and, although we are not convinced we will ever make the grade as Wrinkly Runners, we are confident we will be welcomed and accepted as social members of the Wrinkly Holiday Team.

Thanks again to John & Pam.

Written by: Judy Earnshaw

Submitted: 1^st June 2007.

Edited by Brenda J Earnshaw, WRR Editor