Category Archives: CH4 – Write Ups

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.

AV teamed up with KO again, hoping to redeem themselves after last week’s fuckup! We set off and immediately I was feeling weary. I’d have been better off heading home for a nap. Wrong at the first check, and I was behind Chilly Pussy at the back. Wrong at the 2nd check when Brownie pulled a jedi mind trick to read Graven’s body language. I trudged back around the top of the quarry, just glad we didn’t have to cross it, as it is a hell of a climb out the other side.

I was conserving energy as we went along the side of the rubber wall. Sooner or later we had to turn left and start climbing the hill, and that was the clever part about the early checks – we didn’t turn left, and kept hugging the wall. I managed to hang on to the back of the energetic FRBs (Brownie, Graven, Suckit, TMB), with Poo & a visitor. Finally we broke left and started climbing.

The hares added in a loop of pure evil. Clearly defined arrows forcing us to go back down before we would be forced to climb up again. My head wasn’t in it, and my legs were screaming at me to not bother, but I tried to push on. Up, and more up. I drifted through the pack like a ghost. A check and as I got there Brownie was coming back from the left, while the rest where ascending. I know where I am, and it was to be left?? Brownie had none of it, but eventually I persisted, headed left and found trail – a LONG 100m away. I was ahead and tried to find some energy in my legs – my legs said “fuck off”, so I called onon and pressed on.

My strategy thus far had clearly been to stick middle of the pack and conserve energy. Appearing at the front meant I was forced to check, and when I got it wrong the choice of climbing back up, or just rejoining the pack at the bottom wasn’t a hard choice. I was knackered. Nice set, with some good checks, and a weary byte.

Fly By

Trust me – you will want to watch the fly-by to figure out wtf happened on this one!!! (Link at the bottom)

I was late – escaping work is a struggle on Thursdays, so much that this was the first CH4 I’ve been on in months. I was about 15 minutes late setting off, with little hope of seeing another hasher on route, but what the hell? The trail, starting at the Sameong road football field, set off in the usual direction, towards the temple. A circle check at the bridge was kicked out to the left, so I set off in pursuit, but after 120-150m, I knew something wasn’t right, so I turned back and sure enough found the trail heading to the temple steps. Had the rest of the pack found this? What had happened ahead of me?

Some worshippers were making their way up the steps – very slowly, so I skipped past, trying to save energy, but also trying to push on. A V-check halfway up the steps, and thankfully it was kicked out to the left- firstly the hares had spared us the climb to the top, and secondly at least someone else was ahead of me! I jogged on down to the road, and circle check – fully intact. A nice pile of paper sat neatly in the middle. Hmmmmz…. I turned right, and climbed up the hill for 100m or so processing in my head, and realised how most of the pack might have shortcut. Turned out Poo had checked 200+m to find trail, and soon enough I was back on it, but no idea how far behind I was.

The next check was kicked out twice – straight on AND right. What were these halfminds up to??? I figured it was likely to be right, so went that way, and luckily found powder. A short loop up the hill and the next check was confidently kicked out to the left. A paper trail running down the hill. It took some finding, but eventually I found some powder heading across the quarry. It wasn’t marked anywhere near as clearly as the previous trail had been. Across the quarry and up the hill to a circle that had been completely decimated. WTF was going on? This was a check from a run from Cuckold a few weeks back.

Shit. What to do? I was pretty sure it was fucked up from the previous circle, so figured I’d head back there and see what I could find. There are multiple trails heading up the hill there, and as I set off up one, I heard people up ahead – it was Brownie, Piggy & Graven coming towards me. They confessed they were going backwards and ran out of trail. Together we found the interim circle, and after a brief discussion, they continued backwards, while I continued on. I was tempted to turn back, but also determined to complete the run.

From there I was on my own… Most of the checks were kicked out in the general direction, which made life easier, and the run really was a nice one – a bit of hill, but mostly teasing us with hills rather than a long slog. Thanks hares!

Fly By

Slipping out of work and taking the back roads, I ended up very close to the runsite, about half an hour late – what the hell, I should get some exercise. It isn’t clear whether Lumber Jack Off & Horny Monkey were drunk before they started setting the run, (but we suspect they were), but it was very evident they had been stuck into it for some time. With only the songthaews at the A site, I started looking for the run. I nearly gave up, when I smelt Horny sat in a bar. He stumbled over and pointed me in the general direction of the run.

I set off, and there was a bit of a scramble around edge of the temple grounds, and a bit of a hack through some shiggy to get up to the main trail. Circle checks that weren’t kicked out, this could be interesting… I heard Chuckie ahead of me calling OnOn, but figured I can’t have caught the pack! Sure enough he came running towards me as the out trail was the same as the in trail. He was some way ahead of the rest, but as I ducked under the barbed wire fence, Graven appeared. The trail split, and I headed up the hill to the left as hashers came down from the right. I saw Brownie, and gave him a call to see if he wanted to go round again. I’m not sure he understood, but Piggy cheerfully called out – we’ll catch you up, we’ll go round again! Poo joined them too and it wasn’t long before 4 of us were tracking up the hill together.

The trail was a lot easier to follow running with people who’d already done it once! Without them, I would have been struggling to find the powder in places. We got onto some nice running trails and there was a loop of a couple of km or so before we got back to the barbed wire cut away. Amazingly Piggy suggested going around yet again. I was already working it to keep up, so I declined and set off back, waiting for Poo to catch up. Interesting running a hash run like that, but it was one of Horny’s best sets… – ah sorry, it was probably all Lumber Jack Off’s work!

The circle was an event – a good idea for someone to drive Horny home after!