Category Archives: Blog

A run in Maerim? It’s been a while since we’ve been running there, so I was excited that my lab finished early enough that I could make it… Dashed out of the room to the car, only to find I had forgotten my shoes, so had to swing by the house on the way to the A. Fortunately I had enough time, even though the A was much further than expected… Tucked away in a spot I had never been to before.

We had visitors and virgins – nearly as many as regulars! After a brief chat and harebrief we were set off – while I’ve been trying to get into the habit of walking at the start, it was downhill so I tried to shake out my sore legs from yesterday’s exercise. At the bottom of the hill a circle – I looked left and saw a gate, so turned right and headed around the corner – I was on. And this process continued for some time – The pack of visitors were clearly faster than me, but they spent their time holding hands, cuddling etc. at the checks, so I was staying ahead and just kept guessing right. Poor Cartoon behind me was left with 2nd or 3rd choice each time.

Finally after 4km, the visitor couple caught me up, overtook and had first choice at the check. It was so sweet as they didn’t want to leave each other, but were forced to check different trails. Ever the gentleman, when he found the trail he waited for others to catch up before running off. By this point, I was happy walking in the pleasant countryside – and was quite content when I saw the cars before I got to the 7km promised by the hare! Good run all on trails that were new to me!

SS likes going off on long runs, so expectations were high that we would have long one, with plenty of good runnable trails! It’s been a while since I’ve been out at the quarries on the left of Sameong road, and some things have changed a little. We set off the wrong way around the small lake by the temple – it maybe added an extra 100m or so, and meant we had to go through the long grass. Then a circle check by the temple.

I headed straight on and around to the right towards the other exit of the temple, and sure enough, eventually I saw paper. At the exit there was a V check, and this time I got it wrong, so was behind much of the pack as we went down into the quarry – once upon a time the trail was quite wide, now it was a narrow balance beam with a death defying drop off either side – I didn’t enjoy it much, and ended up inching my way along on my ass.

After climbing up the other side, I caught up when the FRBs came back from a false trail. We were now limited as to where the trail might go, and another circle had me checking maybe 140m before I found the paper. We headed through a gate at a clutch point – I wondered how we would get back, and as CW caught up we chatted about why there was no check. We continued with no checks – no wonder the hare had plenty left over for the hare brief.

Trail seemed to stop, and then continued up a steep climb, looping around in a circle. Then a sign saying go back following pink paper. We ignored it, and followed CW & Piggy ass they called “ON Rambo”, taking us back along the trail we’d already been on. Finally we went back and followed the pink paper back to the A – almost 4km in length – wow! Rainy season – could probably have done with a shelter!

4th of July – apparently a significant date for some Americans. Fireworks? Hotdogs? Fair enough! The highlight for me was having Does Nothing come out for a beer – he does stick very well to his name, but I did enjoy his splash of Sex Pistol! Lets hope he comes out again soon – it really wasn’t any trouble with Purple Fart ably assisting.

We rolled up to FD’s back terrace, and there was a big crowd. Gorf & Scooby in town for next week’s Lanna was a little scary given my level of fitness (or lack of). I walked up to the first check with CW, and I went left while he went right. After 60m there was the OnIn! 😀 I was seriously tempted to call it a day! Someone insisted it was old, and we should check past it – why bother? But I dillied around for a bit, and was way back when it was called back in the opposite direction. With the FRBs in action up ahead, and a few checks that were just straight on, along narrow trails that were hard to run, or pass anyone, it took a long time for me to make any progress. Finally I heard people checking ahead, and then finally got to a check that nobody had picked yet.

I remembered this check from a week or so back, and it is a good one. As soon as I got there, and given that it hadn’t been solved yet, I made an about turn and headed up the least obvious hill, where there is a trail but it is impossible to see. Meanwhile everyone else had fanned out the other side of a barbed wire fence, looking up at me with bemused expressions as they tried to figure out how to get back to me!

I carried on up the hill and then got into a bit of a jog, knowing I would nail the next few checks. A “V” check, and this had to be left – Right would take you back around the hill towards where they had been checking before. The next one would be right, left is too soon, and FD likes this ridge trail – he’s used it for the CH3, the Bunnies and again for CH4. I just had to keep my eye out for the cut back down to the left as there was certainly an FT up ahead. CW started catching up and distracted my attention. Damnit – the FT. Even though I was exactly right with where to look for trail, it took me a while as he’d found a slightly different connect than he used last week. I found it after 80m or so, and the pack howled like Red Indians as they chased me down the hill.

Gorf caught me and must have been frustrated on the narrow trail for a while before he managed to find a way to skip past. Scooby and CW past soon after. I was moving faster than I wanted to, but kept my eyes looking to the left to try and spot where we would cut back over the hill. Sure enough Gorf came running back from a False Trail, but by now I realised I was overheating and needed to slow down. I found my own way back from here.

Balls! When 2 balls get together, what can you expect? Back out to the lake at San Kampaeng, and we were promised in the harebrief that we wouldn’t accidentally get onto Mondays paper – but who knows about any other run?! From the way Snowballs fell out the songthaew, I wondered how long he’d been drinking… – was it before they laid trail?

We set off in the direction we were pointed, but even though we were going around the lake in the usual way, it took us a while to find the first paper. Not the best of starts! The first circle was by a few cows. I’ve put checks here before, so know exactly where the 100m point is – CW was some way past it before he called us on. I was jogging gently, as it was me, CW & Blows Herself with a bit of an advantage as we went along the canal. We could have done with some more paper, as it was alternating calls of “ONON” and “Looking”.

CW suggested we stuck together as a 3some, as it looked like it wouldn’t be easy… Moments later we were split apart and all came in separately from different directions! I found a couple of checks a bit confusing – even though we were right, I wasn’t convinced it was right, and ended up exploring a little and then on some other paper, that I think was from Cartoon… After looping around I was back at the canal, and tempted to head home. I was 45 minutes in, but with plenty of daylight, I changed my mind and went back to where things had got confusing, and braved my way up the steep climb. Each time I got to paper, I had to pause and try to pick out another piece – tricky when I was off trail, and the route seemed to sharply turn from left to right and back again. Finally at the top of the hill, I assume there had been a check there, as there was paper strewn on the ground leading into the middle of an overgrown ‘field’. It took a while, but I did manage to get back on paper, and there was Tiptoe & Ball Breaker.

I was back on familiar ground now, headed back towards the lake, but again I got off paper. This time I gave up and carried on on my own – ending up the wrong side of the lake and coming in the wrong way. Most of the pack were there to quiz me on what had gone wrong. I had barely finished the story when Chuckie came in – also from the wrong direction, also solo…

“A bit confusing”, was an understatement!