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Saturday 17th October – CSH3 – Does Nothing

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If we weren’t sure whether we could run at the Ag Center any more, we are now! Shortly after unloading the songthaew we were unceremoniously moved on. Fortunately the spot that Square Rooter used recently was close enough and the hare spared us part of his run around the fields at the end.

We set off along the road, and with prizes on offer throughout the run, the pace early on was fast. Turkish and Shagless sprinted off, only to run out of steam before we got to the first check. Everyone was willing to check though with the chance of getting a prize. At the first circle I went out to the road and spotted paper on a tree – it was another circle check so something wasn’t quite right. I started following the paper backwards, not calling while I tried to figure out how much was being cut off. A few minutes later, Turkey also found that circle and called everybody on. I tried to get people doing the true trail, but to no avail – Turkey led the way with only HRA and Obscene doing the correct route – I followed it round in a circle backwards and rejoined the pack as the trail went through the trees parallel to the road.

Jogging along the road with Chuckie it wasn’t long before we were on a very familiar little trail that runs behind the wall. Turkey was calling up front, but seems he forgot about collecting prizes, so I snagged a nice small heineken. Finally we passed Turkey as he came back from a short cut. The pace was fast and it wasn’t long before we came to the OnIn and welcome beer time…

10th October – CSH3 – Knockout

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Knockout teamed up with Chuckie, and we had another run at HTT… I love running at HTT, but after Sticky set 2 runs there recently and Mr. Poo plans a mini ball breaker, I wondered if the hares would find something different.

The new starting time had the beer monster fooled and we set off with little hope of cold beer at the finish. The GM didn’t even listen to the end of the hare brief before he took off for his few moments of glory. He was so quick off the mark that it took me a km or so to catch him, and I am not sure whether the hare brief had finished by then or not.

The first V check and I gambled left… Hitting the check back, I knew I could run through it, but given how the rest of the pack were still getting ready for the run, I went back, and sure enough the true trail looped back around and I chased Shagless on his one man FRBing. New rule, the GM sets off 5 minutes before the rest of the pack?

I got another check wrong and ended up following HRA (not so nice) and Junglicious (very nice) as we passed the football field. There was some concert going on, and the noise of bikes etc was ridiculous. Everyone was a bit confused and there was no way of hearing calls. I checked through the gate and up to the lake. I spied some pink paper on a tree near the lake, and gamboled over. I was back on, but not 100% convinced it was quite how the hares planned. I assumed HRA would come running up behind me in a minute and carried on.

My pacing was good and I felt comfortable – the checks now though were fairly easy to figure out myself, and there was nobody coming from behind. I got to the OnIn and saw Turkey on his way out. A nice run in familiar area. Most of the pack managed to figure out what the hares intended, only some of us were thwarted by the random concert that largely only attracts guys with noisy bikes. Said bikes plagued the circle, but fun nevertheless ensued.

8th October – CH4 – Toe Sucker (& Square Rooter)

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Deja vu! A trail from the back for the Ag Centre, where we hit the mountains… When I uploaded my GPS track, Strava matched it with a run I remembered, and thought had been set by Square Rooter – I accused him in the circle of recycling, but it turns out by chance he had set the same run as Cumalot – to the point that my bad checking choices were also picked up! You can read the previous write up here:-

http://www.chiangmaihhh.com/2014/08/01/31st-july-ch4-cumalot/

Today I gave Piggy a commentary on where the run went as though I was reliving the run. The little trail that runs along the back of the wall. The check where the evil hare had tied ribbon to barbed wire to protect us, even though the barbed wire wasn’t on trail!!! WOW Square Rooter – that is haring diligence! Decoy to the extreme – I learnt a new lesson in haring today! I was cursing you at the time, but excellent, excellent work!

I was way way behind after the early check and I jogged my way back towards the pack as we ominously headed towards the hill. The run had been billed as “Exciting”. Ack… Any other hare that might be appealing but for Square Rooter to bill his run as exciting meant pain for me! Yes, it was the hill that I had predicted, and I climbed up with Piggy, not far behind CW, giving Piggy a thorough briefing on where the trail was headed. The checks weren’t difficult, even though I felt I was running (or walking (or climbing)) in a time warp. CW, Piggy just followed me. No effort to check, just relying on my memory. I was bursting, exhaustion, the climb is a killer, a 200m elevation gain. Finally I stepped aside and let the train pass, just 200m from the ‘top’, but I was spent.

We turned abruptly right and descended. The FRBs broke free, and I was left with KO. It was pretty much straight down… down, down, down… Finally we hit the lake, and I knew we were around 400m from the cars, and the beers… The trail was marked sharply left… I declined and headed straight back in, pretty much as Cumalot had set in July 2014….!

3rd/4th October – CSH3 – Frozen Dick & Chuck Wao

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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!

1st October – CH4- Alice

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Alice comes into town for a week and steps up to set a run – what a man! This works assuming it is a good run….. and todays run was excellent – one of the best runs I’ve been on for quite a while. There was some excellent trail running, a few dodgy bits of shiggy early on, but apart from that some gentle inclines and declines… A healthy 6+km work out.

We set off and CW and I led the early section with me getting lucky with a few early checks. Out front I emerged up a bank to bump into Burrito Butt! Wtf! It appeared some walkers had inside information as I soon ran into Does Nothing and then Foxy. Finally I got one wrong as Foxy pipped me to choose the fork up the hill a the V-check. Back in front the hill was a grind, and CW stepped in behind me, while Gorf skipped past and took over FRB honours.

Gorf screwed up the next check – he got it right, but didn’t check far enough – man that guy walks faster than most of us run. He was still ahead when we found trail, so we followed him for a while until local knowledge gave CW and I the upper hand at the mud road. No idea why so many checked right, but it had to be left. A few more checks and I was going strong until a spot where I knew there would be a circle check, and it is a complete 50/50… Today I was wrong. The feeling of dread as you get to 110m and still no paper, ugh… I had to go back around.

Running out of steam and still a few clicks to go, I paralleled the pack for a brief period before joining CW for the OnIn. Excellent trails and a great set.

28th September – CH3 – Sticky Wicket

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Upon being asked to set 2 runs in 3 days, Sticky came up with a strategy… First up, set both runs at Huay Tung Thao. Second, why not just use the same run in reverse? The problem came when so many people bitched about him setting the run across the rice field, so I guess today he needed to find a way around.

I was slightly delayed leaving the office and got caught in the traffic leaving the university. Around 10 minutes late, I’d got changed in the car at traffic lights so was ready to spring out the car and set off after the pack. Could I catch them with a 10 minute headstart? The first circle was mutilated, so it took me a minute or so to find trail – not off to the best of starts! The trail basically followed the running track, but it seemed as though the hare couldn’t decide which track to use, so just cut randomly across the shiggy in between each lane.

Finally we crossed the road to the lane that avoids the rice field, and here I caught Tiptoe. Not too bad, perhaps I would see some other hashers. At the base of the mountain the check was kicked out to the right, so we were heading up and across the dam. Along the trail there are some good viewpoints, and I expected to see some hashers jogging across the dam, but nobody in sight. Was I that far behind? I caught and passed Kwazi with a brief conversation. As I came down the slope to the lake, Chuckie appeared in front of me! Wow! Was there nobody between Kwazi and Chuckie? He called onon as though he’d been checking so I slipped in behind him as we crossed the dam wall. Piggy suddenly appeared from behind me… Looks like I must have short cut somehow, and reports afterwards suggested there was a little loop that took the trail right back to itself, either side of the road.

Piggy took off after CW, and I settled into a comfortable, but slow, pace. The trail followed Saturdays in reverse, until we got back to the road and randomly hit the OnIn! About 1.5km still to go… Normally I like running on the HTT track, but this time it was monotonous. Somehow I had passed pretty much all the pack, but at least I got some exercise!

26th September – CSH3 – Sticky Wicket

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Sticky teamed up with Cuckold… Run location, Huay Tung Thao…. I love running at HTT, and stop there regularly for a bit of a jog, and I’ve set a whole bunch of runs in the area, so I wasn’t expecting too many surprises! We started from the entrance, saving 20B, but surrounded by others going about their exercise, several of whom I knew, but for some reason they didn’t feel like joining in with our original style of getting exercise.

We set off up the running track, and for a while I wondered if the hares might just take us on the 5k loop. Knockout wasn’t far behind as I got to the first check and I spotted paper off to the right – we cut quickly across to the smaller trails and weaved our way back up to the main running track. Another circle, and Piggy set off to check down the mud trail where we’ve often had circles. I stalled, but when he came back CW and I continued along and found trail heading through the small moobahn area. We were confident now that the trail would cut up to the dam and we would go across the dam. Sure enough it did, and we nailed the next few checks.

We were heading to the trail along the bottom of the hills, and as CW gained confidence he took off. Piggy joined me, and we jogged along for a while. CW was gone, and the next check had to be straight on, but Piggy to his credit did a bit of hunting around waiting for me to call. At the next check I got there as CW came back and turned to the left. I followed of course and we found trail heading through the rice field…. Ugh… At least we weren’t shot at today as we all climbed over the banks. Not long to the On-In and back down the road to the cold beer. A great run all in all, familiar trails, but there is a good reason I like running there!

Thursday 24th September – CH4 – Adorable Blue Balls

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On a Wing and a Prayer

Touchdown CNX. Rent motorbike. Hit KSK for padthai. Scoot down Canal Rd to the Happy Hash, endorphins already coursing thru the veins. 10.1 seemed a long way but signage was good, altho white crosses on dark red background were a test for this w@nker’s eyesight.

Is That All You Bring Away?
What! I know it’s low season but not that low. We hardly had a quorum/minian (ask Frozen). Quality makes up for quantity and ABB had recruited Sunspot to assist in the haring dept., although they had more issues with Sunny’s antique BMW breaking down than the job in hand.

The Long and Winding Road
Trail was clearly marked with white strips and went thru some lovely orchards and country lanes. The checks were pretty cunning and foxed Piggy(easily done) and even ChuckWao (not to easily done). The sandgroping FRB was constrained behind barbed wire fences on two occasions having checked wrong paths then tried to cut back across towards the on on shouts.
Alice’ endorphins were given a jolt by an early ankle sprain and near tumble, but adrenalin and ChuckWao’s concern got me through.
Knock Out was running like a machine, light on her feet, erect and glistening. So the circle heard her described. Poo and CW went like gazelles too and it was hard to keep up, given the lack of soft sand and goats I’m used to.

Keep On Runnin’
Piggy and Cuckold didn’t seem like they wanted to run to start with but once warmed up both got a shift on and the small pack worked fairly well hunting down paper.
ABB set checks in obvious places but didn’t follow the obvious routes much! One check was tricky, we all went wrong routes until KO found trail through a hedge and across a field of concrete footings that apparently shouldn’t be there.
The on in was well received and Piggy was shaking a leg ahead of me and disappeared round a bend when a large heard of cattle rushed him from the right. I feared what I might find, Pamplona on a bad day type visions flashed thru my startled brain. Thankfully he was pressed against the treeline and let the bovine stampede pass safely. Poo bounded up at this point and slowed to our sauntering meander. Which was lucky as he didn’t see the wildebeest migration ahead. Funnily enough the cattle went right back to the A site ahead of us. Perhaps they smelled the beer or fancied a bit of ABB gentle wit in the circle.
A respectful, geriatric circle was enjoyed before braving the tempest on the ride back to town. ONON in Anusan market was cold beer and tasty pizza til tummies were bursting. Great job hares!
Alice

19th Sept – CSH3 Gallery

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19th Sept – CSH3 – Taste My Buns

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I set off excitedly looking forward to a new runsite turning RIGHT off the Sameong road… Fighting through traffic I drove around the mountain and followed Sloppy up the hill until we stopped just a few hundred yards away from where Struggles to Cum lives and the area behind Doi Kham – had I known I would have driven the shorter route! Lung La was quick to set off the other way back to the city after!

Anyway, we were in for a virgin run! I’ve heard HRA talk about scouting that area before (and deciding not to set a run there). Sloppy has tried scouting there, and opted against it. Shagless tried, but gave up, and Square Rooter, who knows every trail in the area still hasn’t set a run there… What had TMB found?

We set off, and I had some inside information that helped me out early on, although I’m still not sure I understood what I was instructed – it was nowhere near the in-trail, so perhaps it was some hare misdirection tactic? Either way we went up a hill, cut abruptly left and back down to where the hare was waiting camera in hand. Sloppy got ahead and as we crossed the road he made good time climbing the hill the other side. This was the mountain that even Turkey was afraid to set a run on – as we climbed the trail we were nervous about what was ahead of us. We followed the main trail, which makes it hard to put checks, but the hare tricked us a few times with false trails, only to loop around and rejoin the trail just ahead of where we were.

The tactic worked well and kept Turkey, Poo, Sloppy and I together, and after a while CW and some others joined us. There was a lot of climbing (216m total), so the kind of thing Belly would enjoy, but wouldn’t be proud of. The thought going through everyone’s mind was – how would we get back down from the hill??? Had TMB finally found the holy grail of hares? In short, no… After she’d had enough, she turned abruptly left and dropped us off the side of the hill. Straight down, sliding, slipping on the wet muddy slope.

It was little surprise that some struggled to come in daylight. Rooter got all the way to the top, and then knowing there was no pleasant way down turned back and jogged back in from the opposite direction. The first sections of the trail were fantastic – great running and some great checks, had the trail continued over the mountain it would have made an excellent miniballbreaker!