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Time for an HRA run. Enjoying the hashin’ more now the weather has broken – it’s still hot, but it is bearable. The football field, familiar ground, but it’s been a while since we’ve been here. CW and I walked off at the start letting the boys lead the way – that was until they struggled to climb a bank and then we set off properly. First check – nailed. 2nd Check – nailed. 3rd Check – nailed. 4th Check, into the hills – nailed. This was a good start! Next check. Fooked bigtime! I kept on up the hill, and even when I knew I was wrong, I wanted to carry on around the ridge and rejoin the trail. A long way off, I had to turn back and play catch up for a while.

A couple of good checks, and finally I got back into it at a false trail. For a while then I was caught the wrong side of a gulley – I could see paper just to my right, so pressed on. CW overtook Toesucker and lead the way up the hill. Piggy likes running uphill and caught up, and took over when CW went the wrong way. The pace was reasonable, and I got back to the front when Piggy checked straight, and CW couldn’t see another option. That put me back down at the road, and there was HRA. Seeing the hare at that point on trail, coupled with hints he’d let out during the hare brief, gave me plenty of information. Time to put it to use.

We set off up the hill behind the temple, and now it was my turn to lead. I managed to hold them off and get to the top first. As I saw paper, I looked over my shoulder to see Piggy & CW following me off the check. I need to buy every advantage I can get, so when I spotted paper to the left, and figured there was a false trail ahead, I set CW off towards the deadend. I was right, but my advantage was momentary, before I completely fucked up the next check. Damnit.

I was chasing CW & Piggy down the hill, while they thought they were chasing me down the hill. CW speeds up if he thinks someone is ahead, so with his afterburners in gear, and the trail heading downhill back to the A, I was just trying to move along. Great trail. So nice to be running again without quite so much heat.

KO teamed with Poo to set a run out towards Sameong. KO has been mixing up her co-hares recently, and the past couple of runs in the area caused lots of confusion – perhaps Poo would help? I didn’t listen to the hare brief, but when we set off it seemed like it was a live hare with KO just ahead of me desperately stapling paper to trees… Huh? This would last long – normally a live hare at least gets a little bit of a headstart! Fortunately after half a km or so she pointed me off and there was trail already marked.

We looped down the road I’d driven in on (eventually), and yes, that first check you completely foxed me! I hadn’t seen paper when we drove in, so chose the option to get off the main road. I was wrong, and rejoined the pack behind again. Christ it was hot! The 2nd check wasn’t so much of a test, although quite a number were wrong, I followed NOYB in the right direction. Did I mention how hot it was? We followed the rubber wall, so there were no options to the right, it was either straight or left.

Another check, and NOYB checked left and ended up back in the resort just next to the cars. Had it been me, I might have been tempted to grab a beer and sit down! Another check – either straight or left. Piggy and I went left, and sure enough we got paper. Piggy wasn’t 100% convinced as the paper seemed a bit close when he turned around and looked backwards. But we looked closely and it definitely had the trademark “KO” on it. We jogged on and then saw KO ahead of us waving! We waved back! She kept waving! We kept jogging and waving! She came running towards us, not waving but panicking. We met and had a discussion. I was hot, and would be happy to carry on – proficient short cutting, the beer must be cold by now? KO was insistent, and reluctantly we turned back to do the trail.

Interestingly here, none of us guessed quite how this trail would be used – we all assumed we were going backwards on it (afterall the trail was hidden from one direction). Back to the trail, and we continued. Hot and reluctant. How many times do I have to climb this hill? We went along the rubber wall, and missed great opportunities for checks. Why? Whenever there is a clear missed check alarm bells start ringing. How close was the trail?

Finally we turned left away from the rubber wall, and I got to a check. Hole in None was checking my first choice to the left. Chuckie checking my 2nd choice to the right. Toe Sucker guarding the circle, refusing to check the other trail. I knew it rejoined the trail to the left if I could just get far enough before anyone called On. I tried my best, but the On call came from the left. Having climbed the god damn mountain a couple of times already I wasn’t going back, and cheerfully slipped in next to Piggy & Hole in None at the front. They left me for dead. Did they realise it was uphill, do they not feel the heat?

We cut off to the left and went back down the hill we’d just climbed up. Huh? We’d done this before. Frenchman was up front, and CW & Piggy caught me as we got back to the rubber wall, this time it was on our left, and our only options were straight or right. Frenchman was way ahead, but got confused and came back for moral support. I had figured out what was going on and saw my opportunity. I ran past all three of them heading for the arrows pointing us back up the (fucking) hill we’d already climbed. My spurt was feeble, and the heat hit me. From there is was just a case of finding somewhere I could cool off.

The circle was great! The OnOnOn was great, even though when the storm hit we were lucky to not be killed by flying umbrellas or tiles dropping on our heads…

Dick the Wonder Boy came into town with Dick Lover to team up with Sleeps with Stuff, for a run out in Maejo. It was fucking hot. The mountains were on fire. It was someway out of town. For whatever reason the numbers were down as CH4 heads into quiet season. Not so far for me to drive, so I was happy, except, did I mention it is fucking hot. Seriously >40 degrees, we are insane to be running in this heat.

Before the run I tried to make a pact with the other FRBs to just walk today, but it didn’t take long before Poo started jogging. Asshole. I had to jog with him, because I wanted to go left at the first check (having seen it on the drive in). I went left, and was completely wrong. Damnit. I was so tempted to short cut over to where I was sure the trail would go (and it did), but had to trudge back around and slowly make my way back to the front. Visitor from Japan was ahead, but seemed to misunderstand checks – rather than calling ONON, he came back to the check to discuss what he had found.

We continued following sparse amounts of cigarette paper. In places there was none, and at best it was every 40m or so. The pack was kept together. We all followed trail, so by those definitions it was a huge success. Towards the end I got a smell of home and started to piece a few checks together. Needing to check 150++ off each circle meant HRA & Piggy had to check 150++ in the wrong direction, so with teutonic ease I arrived at the OnIn.

Check Out the FlyBy

5th of May… Apparently important in Mexico, so we acknowledged it somehow, by hashing as we normally do. I’ve missed a lot of Happy Hash runs this year, but NOYB and I made it over to Ob Kham to see what Frozen & HRA had put together. The short version is that is was a great run. The longer version; we kicked off with a hare brief, that wasn’t brief… HRA was fearful that Frozen couldn’t get the job done and stepped in to explain the difference between paper strips that had 55 printed on them, vs those that were written on. Enough already, I’m hot, lets go.

I trudged up the road with Square Rooter following and then Kwazi sprinting after me. Found trail after the first check, but was drawn away at the 2nd, so spent some time catching up. Did I mention how hot it was? Quickly Gorf stormed past and as I got to checks there were the spirited “HA HA” calls that replaced our regular OnOn’s for the day. At the road I spied the hare, and it was Noyb that led the way up the road. I followed and processed the route, getting my head around where the hares might be taking us. Lucky for me, at the next circle, nobody had tried the trail up to the left. That was my clear first choice, and sure enough there was paper.

CW followed me as we headed up to the ridgeline. He was a good sport at the next check – it had to be right, but he took the dummy option to the left. I started tagging a few checks together, but Gorf was always on my heels, and skipping past when I slowed on the narrow edges. He got to a V check first, and I was 50/50 on it, so he took the decision away from me. He was wrong to the left, I was on to the right. At the next circle, I cut around the mountain, slowing to give Gorf time to check far enough the other way. And then I screwed up. Damnit! I was slightly off where I thought I was, and screwed up. That was the end of it. From there it was a solid slog, Mano a Mano. Somewhere ahead people were running, I was following.

Nice trails, nice route. I have no idea how the true FRBs do it, especially in this heat. Maybe I should work on my fitness and catch up. Or maybe I should grab a beer. The circle was an eclectic, tequila fueled, misadventure.