Just back from a great outstation in Lampang! I could spend time writing about how great the hangover run was (set by yours truly), but I guess we should focus on the main Saturday run… We were at a resort in Lampang, and drove a couple of km uphill from the resort. An early start to make sure we could all finish the long 9km run in daylight – it nearly all worked out to plan!
Having scouted and played golf already, I was promising myself to take it steady early on… but with a downhill start I couldn’t resist and ran off followed by the kids (child of Gorf & child of Motorboat). First check, I gambled left, figuring we would head towards the hills. I picked a trail that went steep downhill, and was so gutted not to find paper, only to hear the calls down the otherside of the hill. I had to climb back up and descend the otherside, still with the boys following me eagerly!
Ack, this sucks! My home field advantage is gone completely at an outstation – there were great trails all over the place, but I had no idea where any of them went! Despite my intention to take it easy, I was all over the place, and never right. Fairly early on my gut said we were going to loop to the left (anti clockwise), but it seemed every time I thought we would, we didn’t. After 3.5km my golfing beers started reminding me they were in my stomach, begging me to calm it down… So I did. The pace & intensity had been pretty high with Gorf, Sloppy Rod, Turkish, Mr. Poo and Knockout doing most of the pacing, while even the likes of Geisha Gash & Superbitch were keeping up due to the quality of the confusing checks.
I trekked up the hill following Shit House & Toe Sucker. Keeping a consistent pace, I finally passed them as they paused for a break. Ahead was ABB, dipping in and out of sight, but I didn’t seem to be closing on him at all. Shagless suddenly appeared behind me and we jogged along for a while together, enjoying the views. There was one point when we emerged from the forest to a beautiful lake, with trees still standing out in the middle of the water – we both seemed to pause to take in the vista. I could still hear the calls ahead, and they started getting closer, only for me to discover they were the other side of the lake and I had to go around it.
At the end of the lake the hares were waiting with water, which was much needed. Most were given the option of a Wimp trail (VERY badly named, it was a challenging normal run!) or the “Rambo” – I wasn’t given the choice and ordered off on the Rambo trail. With some refreshing water, it seemed like a good idea for a couple of hundred metres, but I was down to a walk around the lake, and then stuck at a walk as the trail went uphill again. I wasn’t helping the FRBs at all! There were some nice trails to descend on and I got back into running, enjoying the exercise and enjoying the peaceful solitude of the jungle, again it was poetic. The occasional call from ahead told me I wasn’t far behind Poo, and as the trail switchbacked down the hill, I got closer and further away again.
Finally we emerged from the forest and hit the road by a temple. I saw paper on the corner, but then didn’t know whether to go straight down the road, or to the left. I spied Sups with some other walkers to the left, and jogged over to see them. Through a gate was Chuckie’s truck. Until here the trail had been marked excellently, but here it was a little confusing, and I was more than a little tired. Not seeing trail, Sups mentioned that we could go down the road. I headed across the field towards the road and found a pile of paper strips on the ground. Maybe this was right, but the calls from ahead were gone. On the road Sloppy appeared around 100m ahead of me and he seemed to wait for me to jog over. He was confused with the trail, and confused why he was on his own. Back off the road found a trail running parallel with Motorboat, Toyboat and another hasher (apologies, I was too tired to remember). They had lead the way on the “wimp” trail, and Sloppy took off again. The trail went back to the road, and the road looked easier to run on, so I trekked along the road while Sloppy explored the forest next to me. When trail ran out, we ran in together and were surprised to be the first back (apart from Pamela).
Still now nobody really knows what happened, except that we all had a lot of fun, a lot of good exercise running some great trails that were all virgin to me (and almost everyone else). The run was fantastic. We could have done with some light for the circle (perhaps the hash should invest in some outstation lighting?), perhaps the food could have been better co-ordinated, although everyone was as happy as I was with my pizza! Who knows what Anything etc. got up to, but they got back just before darkness! All in all, an excellent outstation – many thanks hares!