Things always change, people change and that’s just how it is but hey, I never thought for one moment that I’d be ordered to scribe a run that I just hared! Of course it was a fantastic run right? Probably the best run of the year? So how do I go about trying to get this sorted? I can’t talk about running cos I never did that and I was way too bladdered to talk about the circle, having only blurred memories of it! So I guess that only leaves our haring experience to chat about! Well I suppose that started a few weeks back when my haring buddy and mate V.V. asked if I would help him set his 98th Pattaya Monday hared run. “I found a brand new A-site” he said, “lots of room for parking and not far from town either”.
Well fair enough then! So off we go and attempt our first re-con. The a-site has the 3240 on one side and a very deep endless creek on the other with a barbed wire fence hidden in the long grass boxing the entire area. Finding a suitable way across the creek that bordered the
a-site proved to be difficult. It took more than 35 minutes of bashing our way through the long grass before we found a gap in the fence and could get on with the re-con. Of course it wouldn’t be a V.V. run without involving a creek or two and we soon found a way across the first deep one out into the open spaces and tapioca fields on the other side. From then on it was fairly easy going with meandering trails winding their way through the tapioca fields, and only mild slopes and a couple more creeks to cross before working our way back to the a-site using a small trail on the side of the 3240. We never use GPS and depend on following our noses to get the job done. It has to be said that V.V. is probably way out in front with his Nose for direction! If we add the checks and the occasional false trail then the whole thing was probably no more than 5 or 6 km and around 45 minutes to run. In fact MUDCRACKER came back in just 35 minutes but that was no great surprise. I mean this is a guy when in Pattaya, runs for fun a couple of times a week in the pitch dark, through the trees, and for two or more hours non stop!
The rest of the pack and the more realistic front runners (led by MRS HEAD) did actually come back after 45 minutes which was just about right for the day. Nobody had to go through water, mud or shiggy and there was not an ‘angry Bee’ or dog to be seen anywhere! We laid the trail in the morning, me with my stapler hanging stuff on the trees, and V.V. throwing down the occasional piece of paper. We were lucky that we had cloud cover but by the time the run started, it was blazingly hot so our more traditional Monday run of less than one hour was probably appreciated. So what about the rest of the haring experience? Well I can say for sure that the traditional cold beer after the re-cons took much more time than we spent out on trail. Future haring partners be warned! Permission to use the a-site, well V.V (bless his fungus toenails) had a good chat to the manager of a small nearby factory and ‘sort of’ gained approval to use the land.
The circle did start early and everyone seemed in the mood for fun. We had around 6 or 7
US Navy guys visiting and of course they spent some time on the ice and even the ice bucket, which probably took more of their breath away than the actual run! It was good to see TADPOLE back at the hash with her friend OLIVE OIL. No doubt the presence of the Navy guys may have had something to do with that? GM HELLBOY was in his usual jovial mood and did a good job in dealing with sinners, as did the other attending RA’s. There were some anniversaries, with mugs awarded to a couple of people and HELLBOY was very happy that I was wearing my PH3 1996 Christmas t-shirt! Sorry but that’s about all I can remember of the circle stuff. I mean to say, a hare also has to take care of the down downs and whatnot too!
Hope everyone enjoyed our run and thanks for a good, friendly and fun circle. See you on the next run.
On On Tampax