When I got up the pollution levels were still in the “yellow” range, so when they were still there at 2, I ruled out hashing and jumped on the treadmill instead. 10km later, and the pollution was still yellow, so I grabbed a beer and settled down for an evening at home. By chance I checked the PM levels again at 4, and they turned green. I was tired, so laid down on the sofa for half hour pondering whether to go or not. Finally dragged my ass out and got to the run site around 15 minutes late. It is always interesting doing a hash run differently, so when Lunglaa pointed the direction I wondered if I would see any hashers at all!
It was the standard ON OUT. I’d forgotten my watch, I’d forgotten my phone strap, and for some reason couldn’t get my phone to connect to GPS. I quickly saw TMB walking back towards me – she’d just set the ONIN, and scoldingly told me to ignore it and gave me a hint where the trail started. It would take some pretty amazing checks to let me catch up, and my legs were struggling to warm up again. My progress was hampered further at the next circle, when I couldn’t quite figure out how it had been kicked out. It seemed to be to the left, but after 100m there was no paper, so I went back, and spotted another small square that was more to the right, so I followed that one 100m or so, again nothing. I know all these trails join up a bit further on, but do I really want to gamble when I can’t hear anyone calling? I went back again, and this time found the trail heading straight up the hill along a smaller trail – they trails would have come together if I’d just carried on in the first place – not to worry, I wasn’t in a hurry. I was starting to feel for the hashers that have to follow the FRBs figuring out the checks again.
The trail headed up the main trail into the hills, and a flash of colour ahead, as I rounded the corner I saw a trio of harriettes! Was I already back in the pack? Nope, they were heading back towards me presumably finished with their foraging! I pressed on, but I knew I wasn’t going that fast. The trail headed right at another circle – another familiar trail that had me trying to guess how they would get back to the OnIn – looked like a fairly short run around the edge of the valley, I can do this! And then a nice check, where the trail turned abruptly left, and up. Bugger! This looks like we are going over the hill – Belly has done this before…
I was so tempted to peel off to the right… Nobody would know, nobody would care…. But without a working GPS, it wouldn’t be easy to figure out how far I’d gone. I pressed on, and it wasn’t long before I spotted Sheep Shagger and Happy Ending, carrying objects which are probably better described as boulders than rocks! That must make hashing harder! It was still up hill, so I took my time. I got to the “top” – it isn’t the top, but the trail has a clear left or right option. Last time I was here I gambled right, and lost a lot of time, this time, it had to be right both because I knew where the ONIN was, but also the paper was torn in that direction. Here Stumbling Dyke & a visitor jumped out of my way as if they thought they would be blocking an FRB – hah! It was downhill though, so I managed to get a bit of a jog going.
I came out into the valley the other side, past some small farmhouses. I was down to a walk, but then there was a straight stretch so I could see quite a way ahead, and there was Cumalot! A target! A reason to jog, something to work towards. I jogged as best I could on tired legs and slowly cut the distance, and as I did, I spotted another hasher just ahead of her. Finally I got close enough to have a chat, but then I found I was going backwards again – did she speed up? did I slow down? Damnit I was tired! And hot! Geez, I started noticing the heat. Running in aircon is easier!
The trail was good – a nice route, but the challenge was getting the better of me. It’s been a while since we did that route, but the only thing running through my mind was how they would get us back to the ONIN – even the shortest route involved another hill climb around the back of the mental asylum. I had set off determined to do the whole trail, but my body was sending me a clear message. When the trail hit the road, I knew where I was, and I knew where I was going. I was going back down the road. I saw Shagless and Pigshit walking back from a false trail, that hadn’t been marked well enough. Next time the trail hit the road, there was Cumalot again – I wished her well on the hill – she took a closer look a the direction the trail was headed, and promptly fell in behind me to short cut along the road. At the end I was spent…
The cohare (thesaurus boy) has given me a selection of words to include in the write up…. So here are somethings that nobody said about the run “sublime”, “sensational”, “insouciant”, “masterful”, “majestic” and “melifluous” (sic)! I guess we could say that KO was mellifluous in the circle, and she showed a degree of insouciance about the late return of a visiting hasher! At the Yummy Pizza ONONON, the thunderstorm and lightning was pretty majestic, sublime and sensational, while this write up is pretty masterful! 😉