A really challenging run that was almost 100% off road

We try to make sure that as much of our runs are not on pavement as possible. This isn't very easy to accomplish because since we drive the start and finish points, there needs to be a place to park the cars for the busses that are bringing us there and waiting for us to finish and go home.

There are a few locations though and this week's Hare whose Hash Name is "Just Coming" had a really tough and hilly run for us that was nearly entirely in the jungle.

These places aren't really remote, because the idea is that we don't have to sit in the car for an hour just to be able to go on a run. The hardest part is done by the people that make the trail because they have to go out there several times in the week preceding the actual run to make sure the trail is marked and doesn't get washed out by rain. This is a non rainy time of year so there isn't much chance of that happening but it can be rather disastrous when it does happen because we try to use flour instead of paper as often as possible in order to be as environmentally responsible as possible.

You can tell from this satellite topography that it was entirely in the jungle. Some of this is protected government land and other parts are farms of some sort that is normally rubber or palm. As usual, we are trespassing by being on the land at all but we pick up trash and aren't really bothering anyone so of the years that I have been doing this we have only had a couple of times where someone got upset about us being there. Mostly, when people do have a problem with it they are normally blowing things out of proportion and being kind of jerks because we are essentially cleaning up the garbage on their land for free. We don't ask permission though so every time we do this we are potentially going to get in trouble.

We didn't this time though.

You can kind of tell from the above picture that this area is slightly hilly but it wasn't dangerous, it was just challenging. There are a lot of people in our group that don't care for flat runs so that is a good thing provided they aren't trying to kill us.

While that graph is probably difficult to read you can see that there was a steady incline followed by a rather steep decline towards the end. This is where the real danger lies, because when you are going down a hill it can be tricky to keep your footing because there are rarely any sort of trails out there. It might be a footpath but not much more. The Hash events are technically not a race. There is no prize for getting back to the start point first but there are a lot of people in our group, myself included, that consider it to be like a race and treat it as such. I normally finish within the first 10 people or so but then there are others that just walk the entire trail and do a bunch of talking to the other members for a 90 minute walk or so.

It is nice to be out in these places because it is normally so quiet that the only thing you ever hear are the birds. The roads are far a away and since Chiang Mai has over a million people living in it, getting some peace and quiet is one of the best parts of the whole thing. We communicate to others behind us on trail as to where they are supposed to go by shouting "On On" and in a place like this it is very easy to hear all that is going on. The only problem is that it is so quiet, that you might have some trouble determining where the shouting is coming from!

We had a good time and nobody got hurt. It was an excellent Saturday run with fantastic weather. Also, the smoky season seems to be coming to an end so that is a great thing.

We are still doing runs 3 times a week and all are invited. Check out our official website to see how you too can get involved.