Tag Archives: Chuck Wao

19th May – CH3 – Pigshit

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Piggy with another run up in Maejo. As I got to the runsite just before the run start there was nobody there. Seems the traffic at the 2nd ring road caught everyone out, but most people arrived with a few setting off a little late. The first check took us to the left before a cross country scramble up to the abandoned village with roads, but no houses. The trail took us diagonally across it before ducking down onto the canal road. I was getting things right until there, and at that point from looking at my map, I was VERY close to tangling with the intrail – had I gone gone slightly different I would certainly have found some paper, but fortunately it was called in the other direction.

Perhaps Piggy thought we would get bored of the lovely running trails in the area, so instead he dragged us along a creak, cross country through shiggy. Finally we got through to some more trails and the lead was rotating between Poo, Chuckie, Lumber Jack Off, I Got Gas and I. And with a testing check finally Turkish caught up. I was clearly disoriented as I kept turning left when we should be turning right, but the checks were good enough that we kept getting back together.

Poo nailed one check, but didn’t realise for quite a way, leaving us well behind, only for him to run off paper, and come running all the way back to where we were parallel to him a few yards to the left. (This was Piggy’s strategy for not intersecting the trails as I mentioned earlier. From there it was straight on back, although I’m not 100% sure we went the way Piggy intended us to…

17th May – CSH3 – Square Rooter

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Square Rooter teamed up with Sloppy Rod from my least favourite runsite – the park near the zoo. Sure enough he sent us off up the side of the waterfall with the prospect of a Wimp/Rambo ahead. The first circle check was a no brainer and I stepped ahead of Chuckie to make sure I picked up trail up the hill. Sure enough we were heading up, until we ran out of paper by a pile of ripped off strips. We called looking and carried on up the side of the waterfall – being a popular area, it seemed like the trail might have been sabotaged. It had, but it turned out we’d gone through a V check, and the pile of paper was what was left of the check back. Behind us NOYB was leading the way on true trail, while myself, Chuckie, Turkish and Lumberjackoff carried on up the hill.

With no trail to be found, we hit the main road, and turned right to head down the hill along the main road. Surely we would find trail at somepoint? It was a long way down, and a long way around, but finally I spotted some paper on a tree, and sure enough a circle check (as yet unbroken) at the side of the road. We carried on down the hill – not On. Back up the hill and there was Tasty Buns and NOYB coming out of the temple. Over the road a trail headed down and there we found paper, finally we were back hashing.

After a longer than needed climb, and a long run down the road, I was just trying to keep up as CW set the pace up front. A few more circles and then nothing… A check, but no trail for a long, long way – until we found the hares still setting the in trail. They’d been so worried about having lost a bunch of hashers that they’d forgotten to set the end of the trail.

Again the trail ran out at the road, so Turkey and I just ran on in for a beer. Had we been able to follow the trail, I think it would have been a nice set – some interesting flattish trails discretely hidden at the foot of the mountain, only something got lost in the hare”brief”. Something was also lost when the hares forgot about JC’s 700th run.

15th May – CH4 – Throbbing Ninja

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 6.0/10 (1 vote cast)

A Throbbing Ninja run by the familiar trails near HTT. So familiar that Turkish Delight was out for a training run, saw us and came and joined in the fun, wondering what the hell we were doing there! He was on good form too, sprinting off at the start, and staying up with the FRBs throughout – the training must be paying off!

Memories of the last TN run cause nervous tension with the mountain looming – would she do it again? We set off and having been told it was about 4.5km, the mountain seemed the obvious direction. The usual place for a circle check. Right towards the lake, left along the bottom of the hills, or straight up the side of the waterfall? My gut said we were going to be going straight up, and for once I was right. I have bad memories of setting a truly terrible run up that trail in the past – I’d scouted the hell out of the area, and it didn’t end well – what would happen today?

Another couple of checks, and it was straight on up, up, up. Chuckie like a mountain goat crept up behind me, closer and closer, until when the trail took an abrupt turn to the left across the waterfall, he took over the charge. It wasn’t easy going, precariously balanced on the side of the hill with no real trail, just scrambling from paper to paper. Finally a trail, and the hares teased us by letting us use it for about 100m, before again cutting off into the unknown.

Finally we started descending, and Piggy, Turkey and Chuckie were with me as we charged down a nice trail. When we did get to a check, they didn’t think twice about following each other straight down, leaving me to do the dummy check back up the hill. Sure enough they were on, and the trail descended straight down to the main trail at the bottom of the hill. No check? Huh? Straight along the bottom back to the first circle, with the only confusion coming when we expected there to be checks and there weren’t. OnIn, and back home… It could have been worse!

After the circle was a visit to Coffee Monster, nice new restaurant / working place off the canal road.

3rd May – CSH3 – Turkish Delight

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)

What would Turkey do for us / to us? At Huay Tung Thao the trails are familiar, but there are options. A familiar starting point had us running towards the mountain, and of course there was a circle check waiting at the base. It is a great spot for a circle check, but kind of gives the game away early – if we turn left, it is towards the moobahn, if we turn right it’s towards the lake. I opted to check straight on towards the waterfall – I set a run there previously, it was a truly shitty run, that climbed up the waterfall in the vague hope there might be trails up there. I figured Turkey was the kind of hare who might copy that fuck up. Fortunately I was wrong, and we were heading to the lake.

It crossed my mind that he might just run us around the lake – I’ve heard that he previously just ran us around the 5k running track! But, nope, I led Chuckie across the dam and around to the entrance to Huay Tung Thao. Then things got a bit confusing… There was a circle check, and soon after I found trail, around the same time Chuckie also found trail. At closer examination, I had found the wimp trail just before it joined the main trail, so I carried on and joined the walkers who were checking off a circle check.

We were tight up against the barbed wire fence – the otherside of which was the army base, where there are men who have guns, and have been known to use them. The sensible option is to not run near highly trained soldiers, particularly during a period of political strife. I saw Sups checking away to the right, and opted to check even further to the right – so far that I found a great running trail. Such a great running trail that I couldn’t resist running on it! And would you believe it, after a while I found paper! I assume the hare had just set an impossible 700m check…

Rather than running off, I went back to join my fellow hashers and help them through the unfamiliar area – am I ever thanked for these duties I perform? Nope… Anyway, we 2nd guessed a couple of obvious skiddy sticks to get back to the OnIn. Some call it short cutting, some call it intelligent hashing – my boys called it “winning” – apart from Tip Toe who did an even better job of ‘winning’.

1st May – CH4 – HRA

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)

The new CH4 runday, the new CH4 runtime – who would show up? how many? I arrived early, missing the traffic from work, and past Frozen Dick & Microwave getting some extra exercise on the way to the run – on their bikes. Microwave set off for a bit of a recce to find some trail. Turned out around 30 or so hashers showed up, one of the larger CH4 turn outs for a while. It was nice to see Ninja, Taste my Buns, Beautiful Box join us, and I’m sure there were some guys too – oh yeah, Sups was there. Not a bad start!

Eventually HRA let us have a hare brief and set us off. So called virgin trails – ha! Anyway, we set off and Chuckie and I walked for a while before starting a jog and eventually getting to the first check together. One of us should check left, buuuut… nah… Unlikely! So we carried on and found trail. I’ve never been to the left there, but nor has there ever been a hash set to the left there – I figure it’s a dead end! The next check we had to split up, and I opted for the regular route to the left. Somehow it was None of Your Business that found the 3rd choice and called us on. He led the way for a while as we headed into the hills. I enjoyed following Knock Out, Ninja and Itchy up the hill, and as we got to the top I caught up at a sneaky False Trail that was omitted from the hare brief.

We followed old trails up a ridgeline, and another circle check was surely going to take the trail up the the buddha statue on the hill… Nope? Seriously? He wanted to take us down to the gully? Damn! A circle check at the bottom of the hill, had me guessing it was to the left. I followed Itchy for a few paces before LumberJackOff called from the other direction. Where was it going? Turns out he was calling on old paper. Sure enough we were back up the hill, back to the trail by the little buddha statue – I could have saved myself the down and up if I’d just gone with my original theory. What the hell, we descended quickly to another familiar runsite.

Chuckie went further to the right – further away from home, while I mossied around a couple of trails, only to find Pigshit looking at some paper! He’d been absent all trail and then showed up ahead – had he spent some time at Graven’s private hashing school??? We charged down the hill to the Wimp Rambo split – a glance at the watch and it was already nearly 45 minutes – did we need the rambo option? Ugh, being first there, I guess I should do it…

Next circle check and I am a complete fucking moron. I should know the area better than that, but found myself checking out on a peninsula, while Graven’s favourite padawan called “RU?” from the other side of the lake, mockingly, like a blind man who really hadn’t seen the trail he was following! 😉 Back on trail, and back with the pack, somehow Taste my Buns was up front – nice running! We climbed through a barbed wire fence, while Horny took the arduous route over a tall gate. Down the road – we were homing in on the A. Taste my Buns was leading the way, and bizarrely she went right at another circle check – that wasn’t going anywhere. Chuckie alongside, and only Lumber Jack Off lumbering ahead, I made my move… We were nearly home, everything was falling into place, one more check, turn left and we are back in…. Except it wasn’t left, it was straight on… and coming back from 150m or so I was back behind None Of Your Business! He looked over his shoulder, saw me, started running, looked at his watch, figured it was too far, and the lazy boy gave up.

We had an extra loop around, but it was all kicked out as I came through, having the luxury of watching Chuckie and Horny congratulate each other as they found the final check and hence the OnIn.

Rain for the circle temporarily moved us up the hill to shelter, and then back to the the original site for a delayed, but entertaining circle.

21st April – CH3 – Turkish Delight

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 9.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Turkey Turkey Turkey…! With the promise of virgin trail we set off to the depths of the Sameong road, just past where we have had several outstations, including Poo’s wedding. Virgin? We’ll see. The chosen runsite was a random corner off a random backstreet with the intention of a circle in a mosquito infested rice paddy.

In case the run was shit, at least we’d be able to look at Turkey’s artwork on trail with smiley face checks in place of regular circles. We were off, and Belly did his trademark sprint, getting a check or two right, but he was polite enough to let us pass when the trail headed narrowly up the side of a barbed wire fence. From there we went up. Straight up. We were close to some nice trails, but rather than finding and using them, Turkey had chosen to take us straight up the shiggy.

Periodically there were checks, and Brown Finger and Pigshit carried on up calling ahead of me. After an eternity we got to a trail and that was the moment that changed the run. It went from a crappy scramble over terrain that there is a good reason not to run on, to a great run! Around a nice lake, we avoided the skiddy sticks and headed up a bit further, before a great check took us back down. The pack was fractured by here with Graven, Brownie and Piggy joining me on the descent – what will we do next week?

As we got out of the hills, we hit a road and a rice field. I know this place!!! This was Poo’s wedding run!! This was where Chuckie and I ran 5km off trail in desperate search for trail! Beautiful area, great trails, so we went back down the road! Another couple of skiddy sticks to dodge and then a good check that took Brownie and I the wrong way letting Gravy slip past for a 3 out of 3 farewell weekend! Nice running sir!

All in all, a nice set, but I much preferred the downhill over the uphill!

14th April – CH3 – Mr. Poo

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 9.0/10 (2 votes cast)

We were all somewhat hungover from the Songkran run… Mr. Poo the hare was so hungover that he’d forgotten to bring enough powder, felt too crappy to set the trail, and opted to do a live hare – only to find that he was a bit too hungover and might not make it on his own. He picked Chuckie for a co-hare and so we had 2 live hares – neither looking in good shape.

They set off and we watched them duck in to the right, 5 minutes and we set off in pursuit. The first check was easy – we’d seen where they had gone. we were gaining. I nailed a few checks and things were going well – particularly when the monks told me where the strange farangs had gone. Having run here before I had a hunch where they were headed, and sure enough I got to the crucial intersection. Up the hill? Or along the bottom?

Damn, I guessed, and guessed wrong. Graven had already checked that way too – as he’d ignored the early part of the trail and just headed straight to the ‘crucial’ point. It was up the hill, but how high up? Most of us got it wrong due to some ambiguous calling from up ahead and found ourselves above the trail over a steep cliff. I opted to parallel for a bit longer, only to find that I wasn’t paralleling, I was getting further away – they were going clockwise after all… Must be a figure of 8. Back down to the ‘crucial’ point, and sure enough where there once was circles, now there were arrows. Tip Toe ahead of me?? and Frozen?? I guess the hares had changed the trail in between the FRBs and the DFLs! Somewhere ahead Brown Finger and Graven were calling, and at the final circle I joined them.

A cheeky loop back behind a ruined temple brought us back to the A – I recall the same hare using the same loop previously, so I managed to run into the circle site while the hares were still sweating. Short, but sweet – I don’t think anyone needed to do much more this time!

12th April – CSH3 – Skid Mark

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

THe start of the Songkran runs, and Skiddy was the hare out in San Kampaeng / Bo Sang… A new run site, that looked flat and surrounded by rice fields… We expected bridges, we expected rice fields, what would be delivered? First up – we were delivered his co-hare – GasMan… Uhoh…

We set off straight into the dried out ricefields, and a circle check. I kept going straight, while people fanned out to the right, reluctant to try crossing the dried up mudbed to the left. A bit further along and there was a dodgy bamboo bridge crossing. Clearly Skiddy hadn’t found it, otherwise he would of used it. I surely wasn’t on, but there were no calls from elsewhere. I made my way across and through the rice field, spying what might be paper in the trees beyond. It was, and I was on. No sooner had I cried “OnON”, then I cried “OOOOOOW!”, like a girl, as I smashed my knee into a wooden stump. Blood oozed down my leg, but I continued. When the trail turned abruptly left to a circle, I knew the trail was going back, but took the long way around to the road, slowly catching up as we headed out into another set of rice fields.

The trail ran down the edge of the ricefields, and not far ahead Graven started leaking off to the left. Smart man, I peeled off before he did and we paralleled across the field – around 100m or so from the end of the field, and it was no surprise when Brown Finger called circle check ahead. The only problem was the stream I had to scramble across, but I was back on trail the other side – intelligent hashing – right?

Laying trail through the field is tricky, and there were more calls of “Looking” than “OnOn”. We lost trail at one point, so I fanned off to the right – a long way off to the right, ending up on a trail the wrong side of a large rice field. Bugger… It wasn’t looking good. I could barely see them a few hundred metres away to the left, but at least my trail was runnable, and when I hit the road, I heard “Checking” to my left, moments before I saw powder on the road ahead of me. Result!

It wasn’t far from there to the beer stop, but far enough for Brownie and a bunch of others to pass by. Beer stop – always a good addition.

We then headed to the W/R split, and the unpleasant part. Scrambling through thorns, barbed wire, scrambling along a tiny concrete path. I got lucky with the skiddy sticks and found myself ahead again. Only, I had to lead the way through ricefields – not just along the burns, but straight through the crop… wtf? I don’t know if it was waiting to harvest, rice, grain, feedstock or whatever, but it wasn’t pleasant trying to avoid trampling down the fruit of a mans labour. We got through, and a final circle check before the On-In. A climb over around a gate was a nice finishing touch, but with the pack limping in, bleeding and cut up, it was a testing experience!

6th April – CH4 – BMY & CW

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 7.5/10 (2 votes cast)

It was the day after BMY and Big Top’s fabulous “mini” ball breaker (circa 15k = mini???) and I was looking forward to an easy, scenic hangover run through some of the beautiful countryside we are so blessed to find in abundance surrounding Chiang Mai.
Dr Byte and Chucky Whoooooooooooo had promised us something special – a live hare run to impress the many visitors who had joined us on the Sunday Happy Hash as a precursor to the celebratory 1000th CH3 run on Monday.
All through the previous week, the hares had suggested some charming hills and complementary flat trails – Chucky the supremo uphill gardener haring the hilly bits and Byte making sure we didn’t get to deploy the KY gel on the flat bits.
And so, after convincing our visitors on the songthaew they were in for a treat, it was a bit of a surprise when we arrived at the A site – a concrete shell of a house on a large dusty building site full of similarly incomplete, ghost-grey structures. Not to worry I thought, the lush green hills were only a short distance away. Surely we would be heading in that promising direction . . .?
The hare brief was suitably brief, with BMY suggesting the girls set off 10 seconds after the hares and the men a full 20 minutes after . . . mooh-ha-ha-ha! But the girls didn’t fancy the idea for some unimaginable reason and we all headed out on the chase after the obligatory five minutes had elapsed.
Belly Dancer spurted forth like a lame hippo in a tutu straight towards the main trail leading up into the hills, ignoring the paper trail the hares had set. Did he have inside info? Or had he been “misinformed” by the devious hares? Sadly it turned out to be the latter. The trail led us out into an open expanse of fields where a centrally placed circle check had us checking left towards the hills. But alas, the hares, intent on fucking over the FRBs at any cost and ensuring their own anal virginity – well at least for the purposes of this run – turned right, right back into the construction site via an un-happy-hash-like gully where I was fortunate enough to be on hand to give Itchy and Sleepsy a hand down and then a conveniently placed hand back up again – mooh-ha-ha-ha.
More grey dust trails, past more grey shell houses and over a familiar main road; and then we reached the familiar criss-cross warren of running trails used by the local fitness community. Good flat running trails. Many checks to hold us back. Lots of puffing and panting after yesterday’s “marathon”.
And then we emerged from the rabbit’s maze onto a flat, grassy field – it somehow reminded me of Newmarket race course – and back to the main, main road, where the trail led us back to the main road that we had previously crossed.
A long tarmac run; but this was Skid Mark territory and he rightly predicted the old favourite under-the-fence hole. So under we went and were thankfully off the tarmac and back on a dirt trail, the one with the familiar sneaky offshoot to the right, the one leading back to the building site and the A.
I followed the trail to the concrete fence surrounding the building site until I hit a false trail check back. So it was up and over the fence. None of Your Business found the trail on the other side and was first home, punching the air with obvious delight. There were a few stragglers but nothing to cause concern as the reliable Tip Toe was on hand to lead them on and in. Welcome back big man!
Great circle hares, but Big Top was probably right when she said that had it been any hash other than the Happy Hash, you would both have had willies over your heads for the tarmac and dust content of the run. But what do we care – this is the Happy Hash, right? Who needs willies when simple wit and humour will more than suffice?
As with most Happy Hash circles and on-ons (this time at the magnificent Sheryl’s), the magical blend of beer, good-natured splashes, fine food and welcome camaraderie, cast its spell upon us all and all thought and talk of the run eventually dispersed into a delightful alcoholic fog.
Good job hares! But I wonder what would have happened had None of Your Business caught Dr Byte before the end of the run . . . mooh-ha-ha-ha?????!!!!!
Ah, I do so love the Happy Hash!

31st March – CH3 – Belly Dancer

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 7.0/10 (3 votes cast)

Short Version:-

“Nobody died, so it can’t have been that bad…” (Anon)

Long Version:-

Belly is back! (With a vengeance?) 3rd day running in hot temperatures, and we were off for a 5:30 start… Surely he’d given up on the idea of the 9.99km for the 999 run? Apparently not – an hour of daylight would be fine for a 10k run! We skeptically set off, letting Brownie run ahead to do some checking for us. We promptly got a V check, and promptly got confused with Brownie going one way, Baldrick going the other. We didn’t know which way to go, but they both ended up at the same place, so we went that way, and found a circle check. Most went down the road, but I cut through an orchard and found another V check. I went right, and people called check back to the left moments before I hit a check back to the right. Muchos confusion, but I made my way across to the other trail and continued – nervously…. Another V check, and I was tempted to head to the left, but the trail straight on looked good enough, so I carried on. Paper dangling from trees to the left so I carried on, paying little attention to a blob of powder off the trail to the right – it might have been a check back, but the trail was clearly marked up ahead. Turkish and Brownie followed me and the trail turned terribly up, scrambling up a ridge. “This has ruined my day” I heard behind, and slowly crept my way over leaf covered rocks with no clues where to put my feet. Still we are on trail, so why was nobody following us???

It turned out that was a dummy trail, that wasn’t supposed to be part of the real trail. When we finally got back down we were way behind. Turkey screamed “Don’t leave me!” as Brownie and I set off in pursuit. After some distance we finally reined in Frozen Dick. Yup – Sups was still a long way ahead of us… Thats what happens when you follow trail I guess… Anyway, we got up to the lake, and came to a mutual decision that we would just go for a jog around the lake and back. I estimated about 7k, and we could just about manage it in daylight, so why not? We saw some paper going up the hill to the right, but kept going on our plan. Sooner or later we got some more paper, jogging along having a pleasant conversation.

Amazingly out of the blue ahead of us we heard shouts, and then Horny Monkey shot out of the trees, presumably coming back from checking the wrong way. Apparently we were back on a hash! Brownie was itching to go, and I felt like a dog owner walking his dog through a field of rabbits. Brownie looking longingly into my eyes until I gave him the nod to go on the chase. He did, and I carried on my plan to jog around the lake.

The trail went up a hill straight on, while the road went around to the left, so I continued my plan to jog around the lake, unaware that hashers were checking in the area, until Graven came running up alongside me, and we spotted paper. Interesting, somehow I’d become FRB! What should I do? A bit knackered from the weekend, plus the extra mountain, I should probably just continue around the lake. The trail cut off to the right into the trees, but we could see the paper about 10m to the right all the way along the road. Graven and I kept going and sooner or later the trail came back onto the road. Finally we could call On-On, and the pack were some way in the distance behind us.

The trail cut off to the left, towards the lake, but it had to rejoin the road sooner or later, so of course we carried on (I was still just heading around the lake). Brown Finger caught up with Graven and I and started pushing the pace along. Powder crossed the road from the left into the forest to our right. We paused. They were reluctant, but I remembered the trail was quite nice between the hills and back onto the mud roads the other side of the hill. Brownie and Gravy took off like rabbits being chased by dogs. I considered my options. I couldn’t keep up with the pair of them. I was on my own. It wouldn’t be daylight much longer. I’d already done quite a distance. It was 47minutes already. I wavered, and then chose to head back down to the A. Pretty quickly I was back on paper! wtf? There was paper everywhere!

I clocked up about 7k, which was enough for me. Not the 9.99, but at least I am alive! All in all the run was good – and I mean the run that was set by the hares was good, rather than the run I did… Only, it could have been a bit clearer and 1 particular place… Beer in hand, it’s time for the circle….

I think Skiddy did a good job, but to be fair I have no idea what was going on… It seemed to flow though…. If I don’t understand a splash, I normally assume it was the fault of the person giving the splash… But when it happens again and again, I start to wonder if my own mind is getting twisted up. I sat on the ice “You fuckers”, and I was off again. I hardly had time to quietly ask Chuckie why I had been there before he asked me why he was there. Sometimes lacking sense makes sense, and at least we got a “Useless Piece of Shit”.