When Chilly Pussy and Anything get together, they are evil… Last year they set the 2 most brutal runs of the year, what would today have to offer?? Belly Dancer had to make his own lunch as Anything wasn’t back in time from setting it – ominous! I’ve not really run for a few weeks, but None of Your Business was keen to go along, so I dragged myself out to the runsite – near Ob Kham.
We set off and for the first km or so there were no checks – Chuckie and I just ran along together until the trail turned right into a familiar quarry area. THe first V check had CW go up the hill and me go around the bottom – I hit the check back, but there are only 2 real options, and both trails meet up again, so I paralleled. We lost sight of paper a few times, but picked our way to a circle, after which the trail started heading up. Man it was hot!
We climbed with Skiddy not so far behind with I Got Gas. Another couple of checks had me and CW working as a team, with a group within earshot behind. The trail arced up a ridge to the critical point – is it going left or right? Right seemed further, but it was back towards Chilly Pussy’s house, and where Belly had been seen darting off towards at the start of the run.
We were still out in the middle of the jungle, and a circle check. It turned out to be the last circle check, even though there was a good few km to go, complete with twists and turns. Brutal? Yes, very! Anyway, I got it wrong, and made a bad call arcing around, so ended up way off the pace. Did I mention the heat? And my trainers were causing blisters. We still had a few hills to go. Up and down, aaaargh!
I saw Square Rooter behind me, and finally caught up with I Got Gas, Skiddy, and saw some guy from Phuket a bit ahead. It turns out Throbbing Ninja snuck through while I was checking as well, and she ran a phenomenal run. Where did that come from? The last runners were in the dark. Brutal – yes!
On On On at Barbindoll’s new restaurant – the good turn out had them struggling for chairs! 😀