Like
ninety nine percent of people I like to think of myself as of above average
intelligence. Obviously forty nine percent of those are wrong but that can’t
possibly include me. For instance, I am far brighter than the people who have
taken part in the Asch Conformity Experiment.
So
anyway, changing the subject entirely, I was doing the Two Breweries fell race recently. This an 18 mile hill run from Traquair to Broughton,
starting and finishing in breweries. The weather that year was terrible, strong
winds and a lot of rain, but it was still oddly enjoyable, especially charging
down Trahenna unable to run in a straight line due to the gales sending me
three feet to my left every time both feet came off the ground (Beware
Trahenna...)
As the
route approached Stobo Castle I found myself following a man in a white top, I
have no idea who he was so I shall call him A. He was about 30 yards ahead of
me. A similar distance behind were two other runners, whom I shall call B and
C. Please don’t laugh at my naming, I once spent seven months living with a cat
called Cat and two sheep called Sheep and Sheep. The owl is still called Owl.
Anyway,
there I was running along a farm track following A when B (or maybe C, I forget
which) shouted to ask me if I knew where I was going. I shouted back that I
didn’t but that I was just following him, pointing at A. A obviously heard us
as he stopped and looked back at us and made the shrugging gesture which
indicates that someone is completely clueless as to where they are and that
they had simply assumed they were going the right way because everyone else behind
them was going that way too.
I had stopped
just by a junction in the tracks, I knew we were supposed to turn somewhere
around here. The track we were on came from my six o’clock position where B and
C were and carried straight on at my twelve o’clock, where A was. There were
two tracks off to my left, at my eight o’clock and, over a gate, to my nine
o’clock.
B and C
ran up and joined me as I was getting my map out but B already had his to hand.
We were all stood there looking at it as A ran back down the hill and joined
us.
I decided
that the correct route was the track at our nine o’clock, over the gate and
then along the left-hand side of the woods we could see in the distance. B
decided that the correct route was the track at our eight o’clock, down towards
the other woods. I insisted that I was right but A and C both agreed with B.
The three
of them set off down their chosen route. I looked at my map again, sure that I
was right, but not wanting to lose valuable time proving it with a compass
bearing, I had just lost two places to B and C and had time to make up. I set
off following the three of them down what I had just convinced myself was the
wrong route.
I have
absolutely no idea why I did that. I again refer you to the Asch Conformity
Experiment, google it if you haven’t heard of it, it’s quite interesting. .
After
about five minutes we came to a small loch. B stopped and looked quizzically at
his map. There shouldn’t be a loch. He pointed at some trees up the hill to our
right, the woods I had indicated initially. “We should be over there” and then to me “You were right mate.”
They set
off towards the forest. He had sounded confident so I just followed…
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