The gentlemen of Chiang Mai Hashing convened for the 3rd outing – this time an HRA affair in his favourite area – this time the A-site was in a farmer’s field up the hill from the canal road football field.
I have run that area many times, so I didn’t expect to find any new trails, and also having hared quite a bit with HRA I have a bit of an idea how his mind works, so the set didn’t surprise me, but it was still a fun set. In the harebrief he promised us 53 minutes for the FRBs and that was pretty much spot on – indeed I looked at my watch towards the end of the run to see how much time we had left before I decided which way to check.
We started off with a bit of climbing and a conservative pace. Shrek was ahead early, but seemed to misunderstand that when you hit a “FT” you should call out “FALSE TRAIL”, not just grab the sign and run back. Bad Shrek – no biscuit! A bit further on trail he was telling us about how he tapered for 3 days to prepare for today’s hash – is someone becoming a racist?!
We crossed back over the road to the trails closer to the football field, and then there was a nice circle to FT combination. It would have worked out even better if most of the pack hadn’t short cut their way up to the FT, but for sure the pack was together. Cartoon and Mary Poppins lead the way for a while with Titty Smoker in the mix as well. For me I seemed to have to keep thanking ABB as he kindly stepped aside for me to pass him – should I say thank-you? Should I say thank-you every time? I am grateful, but it seems a bit weird if I have to thank him again a few hundred meters later because I’ve screwed up!
Thankfully I got back into the game at the front for a bit, but HRA did manage to get into my head a bit – I know he is meticulous, and he will pull down old paper. There was one check where I found some ripped up old paper that looked like HRA had pulled it off and then dropped it, and sure enough I was right! But then there was a check that there was old paper still hanging from a leaf – surely I was wrong, but this time I was right but the paper hadn’t been taken down… So the next check I found old paper and carried on only to be way back again and having ABB step aside for me to pass again. Haring on a new level!
The pack was still together, but Shrek was edging ahead. A bit of confusion towards the end, but we were so close to home. I wanted to use my kick to finish, but there was no kick. My nose was telling me where the A-site was, but my legs were telling me they were fine as they were. Titty Smoker took off after Shrek, I walked in with Piggy. Good fun set, good exercise and then a comfortable, social, chilled out chat.