I drove over to Huay Tung Thao for another afternoon run around the track – what would the hares put us through? A rainstorm came through as we were thinking of setting off, which delayed things slightly, but not long before we set off. Up the hill it felt like a regular after work run – nobody else seemed to be running! Around the track, but it did seem like there was paper every 100m or so. A good km into the run finally we broke off the running track and over to a circle check by where the trail runs down to the mountain. The circle check was like an arrow – or was it a double cross? I headed down the trail, and after 120m or so found paper. I called, and jogged on, knowing the next check would be at the bottom of the hill, processing what I knew about the hares and trying to second guess them. Shithouse, a fairly new hare, the obvious choice is towards the lake, and Poo mentioned in the harebrief that it was 8km, which is about the distance around the lake. I turned right, and after 140m or so found paper. I was so close to giving up and turning back – what was going on!?
It’s a great trail – I love running along the bottom of the mountain, and while doing so I started planning the route ahead. Another circle check, and I was fairly sure where it was going (8km ringing in my head!) Sure enough there was paper, across a waterfall and the up the hill. Dang – here it would be so easy to just cut across to the right and rejoin trail, but I’m ahead so I pressed on up a bit. Just past a junction another circle check, but there is no way I am going any higher up this hill! Sure enough I found paper heading back down – I was 100% so far. The perfect hash coming up? Not likely, already weighing down in my mind were the aqueducts….
It’s been a while since I’ve been over those aqueducts… I’ve set many runs over them, and been on many runs over them, and I hate them every time! A balance beam of terror hanging over a plummet to near certain death, or perhaps a nasty scrape. Some are avoidable, but involve a bit of a scramble – and sadly the scramble takes longer than it takes the nimble CW to dance over it. Piggy wasn’t enjoying it either, and he followed me scrambling under for a couple. CW gleefully running away from everyone ahead of us. It turns out Taste My Buns doesn’t like aqueducts either, and she had Turkish escort her over one set like a father escorting his daughter along the aisle to a wedding neither thought was a good idea.
By the time we’d passed the aqueducts it was clear we were going around the lake. By this point I was tired… CW was gamboling away ahead with a rejuvenated Tasty. Looking at my GPS told me that to get back in 8km we had to take the most direct route, and sure enough we did. I got back into the game long enough to check the wrong way into the army base, and lost time trying to get out again (there is more barbed wire than there used to be… – Turkish would agree). I rejoined trail with KO and Sex Pistol, with a long trek back on the tarmac to home. I walked for a while, and finally decided to try and push the last km (it was the 8th km), which I knew was largely downhill, so I broke 6 mins even stopping to tie my shoelace! Back at the A most were already milling around in that post-run stupor.
Nice run guys – if you’d had the circle at the corner and saved us the first and last km, it would have been great!