Kwazi Moto took us 25km out of town along the new San Kampaeng road. We were curious to know what he had in store, and it was an impressive start with a palace as a shelter! Unfortunately things were already going wrong with the hash cash forgetting the beer, but Lung Laa thankfully remembered and stopped at Big C. Given how far out the run was, the bus just showed up in time at 5. That delayed the hare brief enough for Skid Mark to also straggle in.
We were off and within a hundred metres we had the first water crossing, which left Skidmark laughing, Chuck Wao looking for a detour and the girls jumping on backs. Then we were into our first rice field and with rice in full bloom we were scurrying along little walls trying not to cause too much damage until we crossed back across the water and found Chuck Wao waiting.
The trail then took us through a small village – through people’s gardens and kitchens and along the road some way – did we come all this way for this? More water to cross as we got out to the edge of the hills and we were finally moving along some nicer trails until we hit the rice field. I happened to be running along with Chuck Wao who treated me to a tirade “morally wrong”, “set back farang Thai relations a decade”… It was a long way across the rice paddy and not at all pleasant.
Finally back at the road and a circle check that was at least 150yards to the paper and then to the On-In. Runners gradually appeared unanimously slating the run as a disaster…