Poo teamed up with KO from out at Baan Pong Resort – a great area for running, and a bunch of trails that I’ve been exploring recently – what would they give us? I picked up some clues from the hare brief, and listening in on what the hare was telling the visitors. With visitors we swelled to around 40 runners – the whole Happy Hash on a Thursday seems to be working out.
We were set free, and CW and I walked back out of the resort to the first circle. I headed to the trail near the ricefields behind the hill (Poo had mentioned a hill, and a 4km wimp trail, so I kinda thought I had him pegged. Sure enough there was paper and calling ONON, I broke into a jog. At the next check, I nearly turned left as I thought I’d seen something white down to the left, but glancing along the main trail there was definitely something white along there. Sure enough I was on, and jogging along comfortably. At this pace I would stay clear. WTF? A pitter patter from behind and as a visitor caught me up, I had to speed up to get to the next check first – and he looked in great shape!
I went straight, but slower, and again got it right, buying a bit of time. The pace was quick – certainly quicker than my comfort zone. Another check, and I was fairly confident with this one, right again as I found the white paper heading around the tiny square lake. Straight into another check, where the obvious trail was straight to the left, but my gut said take the right trail, and sure enough – I was on fire! Unstoppable! Surely I must be way ahead by now? But no, right behind me the pack was on my ass. Another check, and I made a mistake 
I should know where the cut through is by now… It isn’t the first time I’ve made that mistake, and damnit!
Of course we were headed straight to the cut through, and came down to the lake with quite a pack of runners, all of which looked like they were fresh, while I really didn’t feel fresh! At the lake – surely he was going around the lake? It wouldn’t be that exciting, but… Surely? There must be a W/R split here taking the wimps back to the resort and sending the rambos around the lake. My overheated head couldn’t see any alternative to the puzzle. I headed left, and when it was called to the right, I was sure it was just dropping to the lake side and then back to the left, so I jogged around the corner to see where they would surely rejoin me. I could hear a bunch of people shouting and calling randomly from just below me down by the lake – maybe not completely standard hash calls, but we did have a lot of visitors, and they were getting closer. I paused for a bit as they would appear any minute, and after a short rest I could rejoin the pack…. Eventually a group of cattle herders appeared shouting at their cows, and I realised I was extremely fucked… The hares had outwitted me…
As soon as I realised that, my stupidity dawned on me. Poo wouldn’t just run around the lake.. With Poo you should always expect devious figure of 8 tricks. I was way way back! Still, its a nice area to run in, so I followed trail for a while, gradually overtaking people, and hearing comments questioning why I was so far back… Ugh!
Then it was a long steady jog to the dam and across the dam. Lucky it wasn’t too hot, and I just plodded on thinking that would have been a good spot for a beerstop. Sure enough around the corner there was a beerstop, but for some reason I still thought I had a chance to get back into the pack. Ha! The trail started heading up hill again – I’ve been up there before, so opted to cut down to the lower trail and followed the side of the creek, while I could hear CW heading the other direction from the otherside of the creek. I know there is a place to cross that creek, but couldn’t remember how much further it was. Finally I hacked my way over, and man it was much more overgrown than I’ve ever known it – an ugly hack that I barely made it through to find Crap Thai being kind with his laughter!
I was spent, I just wanted to get back and have a beer by this point. Really excellent set. The true trail was much better than what I ended up doing.