Belly Dancer teamed up with Krap Thai out at Baan Pong Resort – a place that has had so many good and bad runs! At 3:45 Sloppy called me and we decided to head out to see what BD had in store. Traffic was heavy, but we got there just in time for the harebrief, and that is probably about as much as I am qualified to comment on – I really don’t know much about the real run!
The harebrief ended and the run began with a circle check. Cue Graven Image – the checks are to bring the pack together, if you put a check at the start it only spreads people about. I am inclined to agree, but was trying to get my phone synced up with GPS. I failed and I’d forgotten my watch. The obvious way to go would be out of the gate and left, which meant the real way was probably back over the bridge. I headed that way and finally Piggy called us On. I saw a few bits of paper before another circle. Stained Penis (?) a visitor from Myanmar was stood transfixed as though bewildered what to do. He had grabbed a handful of paper, but didn’t seem inclined to do any checking! I got here first so its my job to deal with the paper? WTF! No sir, it’s your job to go check!
He was wrong, as was I, but when Piggy called the trail back to the left headed towards the ricefield it seems whoever was at the circle thought it was me calling. I decided to run around the small lake to catch up with Piggy, and inadvertently took much of the pack with me. Finally we were back on trail and after a couple of bits of paper we were at another circle at a random bridge at the edge of the rice fields. Surely we weren’t going through the rice fields? I gingerly crept around the edge in the hope of not trampling the farmers fields too much. We spread out hunting for paper. Nothing. Until we spotted Turkish suddenly sprint off. 2-3 minutes later he started calling! You might get away with that in the jungle, but seriously – you are in the middle of a rice field, we can all see for a good km in all directions!!!
We were scattered, I carried on along my parallel burn waiting to find out which way we would break. Another circle, and I was surely 100m to the left and could see no trail. My guess would be to the right, and Sloppy was on it. Finally a reluctant call, not at all confident. I headed across the rice field, trying not to cause any damage. I was well towards the back of the pack, but there was paper headed around to the right, one strip, while the rest of the pack were still scattered all across the rice field. I called “RU?” more than once. Mostly met with silence, otherwise unconfident “ON”. I was with Piggy, and later Frozen Dick. We had a good view across the field, and nobody was moving confidently, nobody was calling. Apparently they were chased away by an angry farmer, but nothing was making sense. I couldn’t figure out why they were in the ricefields without paper, and continued trying to solve the previous check. Finally I found some paper – it looked like the hedge had been cut back so maybe the trail had been cut back with it. Finally I found a couple of bits of paper remaining, so I was confident I was back on trail.
But then again, nothing. I knew there was a decent trail running along the bottom of the hill, and figured there would be trail somewhere there. After 3 checks and 34 minutes I phoned Belly (I normally don’t carry a phone, but this time I had the phone even though the GPS wasn’t working). He hinted that I should head to the white water tower. Holy fook. In the distance I could see a water tower across the field a km or so away. I went back to meet up with Piggy and Frozen. Frozen told me there was another water tower just behind us, and the hare probably meant that one. Did I really want to run across a rice field on my own on the off chance there was paper there? I decided to head along the perfectly good running trail (passing another water tower) and then there was another bit of paper!!!! Fresh, clean, recently stapled…. But all on its own. WTF? What the hell was going on with this run?
FUCKING TURKISH DELIGHT!!!! Who in their right mind uses paper as marking when scouting a trail?!?! I found out later I was running around in circles on TD’s scouting paper. I was convinced the rest of the pack had fucked up, and I was trying to solve the hare’s puzzle, only to find out later I was duped by the Turk. I finally got back on trail at a kicked out circle. Headed towards the hills I bumped into HRA, but again we promptly ran out of paper. I hadn’t seen much paper at all, despite putting the effort in. I had a feeling we would head for the cut through, but when we did find trail it was heading straight up a shiggy rocky mountain. I followed for 200m or so, but it was headed straight up, and not cutting over to the nice cut through the mountains. I had no idea how far behind I was, or what else BD had in store for us. It was 45 minutes into the run, and I had hardly seen any paper. My options were to try and follow trail, fearing being stranded again on a pitch black mountain… 2) Head for the cut through and find my own way back along the lake, or 3) turn around and head for home. I chose to turn back – the beer was v. cold by now!
We all got back in time for one of the longest circles I can remember!