Maejo, convenient for me, so decided last minute I’d pop out for a run. The directions were 2nd U-turn, the small lake, not the one at the Tiger’s Head. I assumed it was the square lake at the bottom of the hill, but there were no signs at the 2nd U-turn. I headed towards the Tiger Head, but started making calls. A hint suggested it was “that place Libbers likes to set runs” – which told me Praphat’s Farm in Maejo. Sure enough I followed the canal and found hash signs – called the songthaew to help them along.
As I got into the farm (very close to where I’d set on Saturday), I saw Libers moving signs around – the route through the farm was tricky – he said some of the routes were blocked with pvc pipes. I found the runsite without a problem, but I was on my own, and clearly Libers didn’t have enough signs. I gave him some more and he set off to place them. I meandered around – 10 mins to runtime, and no hashers in sight. Changed and ready to go, at 4:30, I strolled along one of the trails, and sure enough found some shredded paper. Should I just run? Nah, I went back to the A site. I heard my name, and some voices coming from somewhere, and then Brownie & Graven appeared up the hill. I suggested we set off and after a brief phone call we set off.
By the 2nd check I could hear Pigshit behind – I got that one wrong, so by the time I came back from a 200m check back (WTF?), I was with Scooby following him up the hill, with Poo not far behind. Piggy was ahead, but I wasn’t sure where Graven & Brownie were. They were even further ahead it seemed. The trail crept along the side of the hill over to another Cross check. Graven & Brownie were already through it, but we had to solve it again. Piggy went right, I went left, I guess Scooby & Poo waited for us to call? Finally after 200m again, I hit a check back. I wasn’t interested in doing checks anymore – 100m is ok, but 200m is not fun. Rather than climbing back up the hill I went around the bottom and joined the others on the correct straight trail.
Not much further and there was Brownie coming back from a check. A bit further on and we found Graven stood in the corner of a field. A tricky circle that went back up the hill and looped all around the edge of the orchard, but I intercepted Graven at the far side and after a bit of scrambling up and down, we came out to the motorcross track. A strange cross check. I guess it would have been mentioned in the harebrief? I set off to the right, around the edge of the track, and found paper about the same time that Graven called on to the left. Strange – it was a cross check, so he can’t be on yet. I followed my paper and from the groans the other side of the track, I guess they had found another check back. As I arced around most of the pack cut across, so when I got to a circle on the other side, the pack was back together. Lucky I got first choice and headed towards Saturday’s A bucket.
I was on, but Brownie was on my tail. Another circle check – this time kicked out already to the right. I turned left, following paper and tried to get Brownie to go right. It was one of my checks from Saturday. He paused to make sure Piggy destroyed the check so as not to confuse anyone else, and then they were on my tail. Another V check, and I just got first choice. I chose right, leaving Brown Finger with an evil 500m false trail. That put him out of it completely. Nasty hare. Luckily I ran through Saturday’s runsite, scrambled across a ditch the other side of the road, and there was the OnIn! Just a run around the lake to the finish…. Where there was still no beer monster, and no beer… 6:34min per km pace is quick for the hash, very quick.