The Pub Jog

History

Everything you wanted to know about the Pub Jog and more..... a work in progress as the memories gradually appear through the haze of old age! Any contributions please email the author (link at bottom of page). Last updates November 2010.

In the beginning... The Pub Jog was started in Week 10, Autumn term 1988, initiated by the then club president and secretary Dave Hunter and Steve Mills. Among the early participants were the legendary Jonny 'Lightweight' Slowe and Mike 'MC' Hope. The current route is largely unchanged from the very first Jog.

Pub Jog 15 featuring some of the original Pub Joggers, from left to right: Tracy Brown, Dave "Chunder" Wood, (forgotten name), Mike "MC" Hope, Jonny "Lightweight" Slowe, Chris "Strickers" Strickland.

Tell me why I hate... The Pub Jog has been on a Monday for every occasion except one.. Pub Jog 15 was held on a Saturday (end of week 9 summer term). BIG MISTAKE! Pubs all crowded with locals and no Top Banana (or the Market Place Disco (MPD) as it was in those days) afterwards.

Student apathy... Since the very first Pub Jog they have been held at the end of week 10 of every term.. except one. This is why the summer Pub Jog number is no longer divisible by 3 (as the more alert non-arts students may have noticed). Summer term 1998 the exec at that time all had more important social engagements to arrange.. apparently.

The first mistake... Somewhere round about Pub Jog 8 someone thought it would be a good idea to have a lunchtime Pub Dash on the day of the Pub Jog.. i.e. at lunch do the Pub Jog route but have a short at each pub instead of a pint, then do the Pub Jog route as normal in the evening with a pint at each. Needless to say this was only ever attempted once.. without much success!

BBQ... A more successful tradition that happens on and off is a 'Pub Jog' barbeque for lunchtime before the summer Pub Jog... social sec take note!

Pub Jog 7... this Pub Jog will for ever go down in history as being the firstPub Jog when someone has been picked up half-way round the route by an ambulance and taken to hospital. The culprit, "Stevey G" (full name kept anonymous for legal reasons), collapsed and woke up in hospital next morning with a drip unfortunately removing fluid from his arm instead of supplying it! Incidentally Steve is now a pillar of the community, teacher and father of two (at last count)!

Since then... there have been at least two further hospital incidents involving falling over an inaminate object and being picked up by an ambulance at Phantom Coach (nice one Dan) and more recently someone managed to spike themselves as they climbed over a security fence (but they went to hospital by car so it doesn't really count!). Oh, and someone managed to do serious damage to themselves jumping over a 1 foot high hedge and had to be collected by the head of UK Athletics (his dad).

Long arm of the law... However, to the best of my knowledge no one has ever been escorted away from the Pub Jog by the police. We've had a car come round for a second look a couple of times, but so far no nights sobering up in jail for anyone.

The Greyhound... A tradition of the club that I'm actually glad has faded out is the 'Greyhound' which was a regular on the first 15 or so Pub Jogs. This is basically a drink which nearly got the club thrown out of a women only college in Durham on one particularly eventful night! It goes something like this: one measure of Drambuie, one measure of Cointreau, set fire to it and place your hand over the glass so that the glass sucks itself to the palm of your hand. Then wave the glass around, stuck to your hand, as long as your dare, peel it off and down it in one. Not for the faint-hearted (or weak stomached).

When 10 became 11... Look closely on the back of the t-shirt for Pub Jog 12 you will notice the 'Coombe Abbey Inn' crossed out and the first mention of the Hearsall Inn. The previous Pub Jog the Coombe Abbey was under new management, who decided that they didn't like the look of us and refused to even let us on the premises... so we went next door instead! By the next Pub Jog the management had changed again (hardly surprising) so we went back but kept the Hearsall Inn too which is why to this day we still go to both!

Other RIP pubs... More recently (as of 2008) we have also lost the Earlsdon Cottage (renovated and became an over 21s bar) replaced by The Old Clarence and even more recently (2010) The Herald, the original starting Pub, has closed down now replaced by a quick one at The Varsity.

Change of name.... You may also notice that up until Pub Jog 15 we used to go to a pub called 'The Buttontop' as the second stop. This is in fact the same pub as the Farmhouse we stop at now, just a change of name.

Broken hearts... Just too many stories to put here, but probably best if I don't (Stan will thank me even if no one else does). Basically be careful out there!

Canley Ford.. It was always traditional to run THROUGH the ford rather than along the raised path next to it which did make for wet feet and in some cases wet everything. Unfortunately the council in their wisdom decided to make the place 'look prettier' by putting stupid boulders in convenient positions so now I wouldn't recommend running through the water unless you're completely stupid or drunk.... oh. Unfortunately modern day students seem to think a trip to Kasbah nightclub from Earlsdon is more exciting :(

Too much effort...? Before the City Arms became a Wetherspoons it was the Pub Jog venue for sit-up and press-up competitions.. the usual format being who could do the most of each in a set time limit amongst those brave enough to make a fool of themselves. It certainly gave the locals something to laugh at. One year the author of this page had to grudgingly relinquish his press-up crown to a girl.. but in my defence she did then go on to win the 1500m at the World Student Games! The sit ups still continue, but now outside which isn't always ideal!

Errmmm.... Another tradition which is occasionally still with us, but which I probably shouldn't mention in such a public forum as the Web is.. errmmm.. let's just say that as the Pub Jog is in it's final stages people usually start flagging.

Sad b*****d...? The record for most number of Pub Jogs done is held by this page's author, currently (as of June 2022) standing at 93... an unbroken run from Pub Jog 5 when he was a 2nd year undergrad.

FOOD..... A history of the Pub Jog cannot be complete without at least a fleeting mention of 'Gabriels', the fish and chip shop we descend on in a horribly drunken state. Despite the state of us by this stage they always provide us with much needed nourishment! Unfortunately this feature ended around 2018.

RIP more Pubs... Since entry above we have also lost The Farmhouse (was Buttontop) due to it becoming more of a restaurant, Royal Oak after a particularly messy end of Pub Jog one year. But added are more pubs on Craven Street (Craven Street Club and Four Provences), and the Old Clarence.

Covid The Pub Jog was clearly put on hold over Covid for a few terms, but there was an online version put on to replace it for one of those occasions. I give you Pub Jog 94.5, held on 8th July 2020!