Finally I got to run on a CH4! First time in >2 months, but I wasn’t even recognised as a long time returner! Never mind, I know nobody misses me! Seemed we were light on FRBs, but having just come out of 3 hours exam invigilation, I was up for some exercise. The A was by the small lake by the temple, near the large quarry just along Sameong Road. The hare tried to tell me how she couldn’t remember the area at all, but I was pretty sure we’d been everywhere there was to go here!
Hare brief done and we slunk off towards the temple. Great, a circle check in the middle of a meditation temple. The monks were peacefully sweeping the leaves from around the powder and then a storm of hasher come through. That circle took >10 minutes. I checked everywhere I could think of checking. We scattered all through the temple grounds, more effective than the military at Dhammakhaya, if Phra Dhammajayo was there, we would have found him, but instead I felt bad for the disturbance, as we were only looking for powder. The main problem was that the hares had switched to paper, so even when I found some paper I wasn’t that confident about calling it. Finally we were off, and soon back on to powder, and general mix of hash markings – to be honest we could have been running several trails, who knows?!
The first few checks got us all, but Robin Banks seemed to be nailing a few, which meant I generally got to run further in the wrong direction than I normally would. I was pushing hard, trying to gain some fitness before the inevitable heat kicks in, but was getting everything wrong. Finally we cut out to the large quarry, and a V check. It could not be right – that was just taking us home to the cars, and I’d pretty much checked that far off the first circle anyway. I headed left following Tasty & Graven. We were right, and another circle had TMB going right to nowhere, and Graven not keen to go left. After I encouraged him, he scampered up the hill and I followed. Surely a false trail? We both knew it, but he sportingly took it on, while I slunk off to the right and found paper.
From there it was one way home, and I settled into a gear. No more slowing down at checks… No more following paper to inevitable false trails… This was time to head home, and behind I heard Suckit, and then Graven, and 3.5 was there somewhere too. Somehow I held them off and jogged in. Good exercise, nice run, thanks hares!