The Otley Run. Just those three words can bring about several emotions in the minds of a Leeds student.
a) Excitement
b) An assortment of cringe worthy embarrassing memories
Or c) and most commonly, the sudden need to throw up.
This ladies and gentlemen is the pub crawl to end all pub crawls we fondly refer to as the Otley Run.
Nationally famous, The Otley Run is a pub crawl from Headingly, through Hyde Park and the University, and finally finishing in the City. Of course each run varies but most visit 12-16 pubs along the way, which in comparison to the Australian pub crawls I’ve been on is super hardcore!
Could a lightweight (Cadbury to you Aussies) like myself be able to take on such a challenge? I was about to find out when we embarked on the International and Study Abroad Society’s Saturday Afternoon Otley Run.
Dressing up is a quintessential part of having an Otley Run. The theme for this said pub crawl was ‘British Stereotypes’ and so with that in mind fellow Australia Myf and I came decked out in our best David Beckham impression – minus the stick thin wafer of a wife of course. Was an excellent choice for a costume as it allowed for comfortable clothes and suitable shoes for such a long walk!
Our Otley Run began at Woodies in Headingly, and it was only as we were taking a cab out there did we realise how far we really did have to go. I clearly remember looking out the window at every pub we passed (the majority of which were on the list for this very event) and thinking: ‘this is going to get messy…’
If there was a prize for the best costume (which just quietly there should have been), our other St Markian’s Tash and Lizzie would have won hands down. The girls looked just ‘dahling’ dressed as English tea ladies complete with hats, gloves and tea cups. Tea cups which they used to drink their vodka out of, not exactly the purpose they were designed for but traditional all the same. As for the others there was an assortment of Queens, tweed attired horse people and chavs. The Chavs were my personal favourite and the most realistic; I think we must have passed some identical look alikes on our way down the crawl! There were also a few other crawls going on the same time as ours and we saw many people dressed in weird and wonderful things. A shout out has to go to the guy wearing a full elephant costume complete with trunk….
I made the number one Otley Run mistake at the second pub, The Three Horseshoes. Repeat after me: ‘The Otley Run moves quickly. Therefore thou shall not order a pint unless one can be guaranteed of consuming said beverage in the allotted amount of time’. Adhere to this rule I did not, and had to skull half a pint to catch up with the very fast paced crawl. Learnt from my mistakes at the rest though and did not dally with my drinks – an Otley Run is not the time for a lazy cider, it serious drinking business….
As the crawl wound its way to the City, we walked from place to place caring less and less about the troubles in our worlds. There is a general rule that if you make it to the Library/The Eldon you have done a fair effort but we were going along just fine. We stopped for refuelling at the Library for one of their famous Cajun Chicken Burgers (with Curly fries right Tom!) only to be told they had stopped serving food. It was as devastating to a drunk, hungry Leeds student as if we have had just been told our right arms were to be amputated. Although that would be troubling also because how were we to then hold our drinks….
So we traipsed down the road to the Eldon where we approached the bar with fingers crossed that they were still serving food. To our immense excitement they were and we all ordered in rapid succession as if our very lives depended on it. And then after our food did come, I ate four chips and then proceeded to empty my ENTIRE meal on the floor. Excellent. Luckily, we managed to salvage some of it, and a lovely girl who worked there got the kitchen to supplement the rest. Which she reminded me to tell anyone who asked that I had paid for….
After the Eldon we were meant to pop in at the Old Bar and the Terrace but as someone accurately pointed out, both would have been full to the brim with Freshers from Freshers Ball, so it was to my relief that we bypassed both and trooped down the road to The Fenton. And this would be where myself and most of my crew hit our wall. We had been crawling for over eight hours and we had reached the point where we could crawl no longer, so after 11 odd pubs we admitted defeat and headed home in the rain.
At least I can say I survived my first Otley Run and lived to tell the tale to other unsuspecting students who think a trip to the Elephant, Tav and Mansions is classed as a ‘real’ pub crawl (for you Adelaide people who know where they are anyway..). And here are my observations from the jam packed drinking afternoon:
Is having a vodka at every pub on The Otley Run a massive achievement for me?
DEFINITELY
Are the photos I took the only real memories I can rely on from the afternoon/evening?
MAYBE
Will I ever forget the sight of the group of grown men dressed as Oompa Lompas?
PROBABLY NOT!
X
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