Upon being asked to set 2 runs in 3 days, Sticky came up with a strategy… First up, set both runs at Huay Tung Thao. Second, why not just use the same run in reverse? The problem came when so many people bitched about him setting the run across the rice field, so I guess today he needed to find a way around.
I was slightly delayed leaving the office and got caught in the traffic leaving the university. Around 10 minutes late, I’d got changed in the car at traffic lights so was ready to spring out the car and set off after the pack. Could I catch them with a 10 minute headstart? The first circle was mutilated, so it took me a minute or so to find trail – not off to the best of starts! The trail basically followed the running track, but it seemed as though the hare couldn’t decide which track to use, so just cut randomly across the shiggy in between each lane.
Finally we crossed the road to the lane that avoids the rice field, and here I caught Tiptoe. Not too bad, perhaps I would see some other hashers. At the base of the mountain the check was kicked out to the right, so we were heading up and across the dam. Along the trail there are some good viewpoints, and I expected to see some hashers jogging across the dam, but nobody in sight. Was I that far behind? I caught and passed Kwazi with a brief conversation. As I came down the slope to the lake, Chuckie appeared in front of me! Wow! Was there nobody between Kwazi and Chuckie? He called onon as though he’d been checking so I slipped in behind him as we crossed the dam wall. Piggy suddenly appeared from behind me… Looks like I must have short cut somehow, and reports afterwards suggested there was a little loop that took the trail right back to itself, either side of the road.
Piggy took off after CW, and I settled into a comfortable, but slow, pace. The trail followed Saturdays in reverse, until we got back to the road and randomly hit the OnIn! About 1.5km still to go… Normally I like running on the HTT track, but this time it was monotonous. Somehow I had passed pretty much all the pack, but at least I got some exercise!