1499 and counting...

Not a monster! At 5.6k even Kan Kai found this run easy!

With the advertised hare crying off at short notice, new GM, R2D2 was faced with fielding yet another Egg family run at the end of his first week in office. With a number of regular runners opting to run with Petaling Hash in KL and some notable but explicable absences the turn out was expected to be low. But as it turned out, so to speak there were a healthy number of runners including a number of new faces and at least one returnee.

Early arrivals at the advertised run site were left wondering exactly where they should park since the hash sign left only a couple of hours earlier had been thoughtfully comoyed by the local rag and bone man. But once the location had been re-established and the GM had called order, two runs were announced. Both runs headed off around the reservoir, splitting as soon as the trail entered the rubber with the long run continuing Westwards and upwards, the short run turning South.

The first F takes its toll: Schmuckme Witherspoon, Hoi Yai, Palm Job and Hans make their way back towards the pack

Thirty minutes later after a long climb and a brief peak at 234 meters, the long run descended via one of the already doomed logging tracks to rejoin the short run only a couple of hundred meters from where they had left it, then gently jogged along the Southern side of the reservoir to be back at the run site in about an hour.

Stick Insect explains why he is at the back of the pack after falling prey to the 2nd F
Meanwhile, some of the short run judging the experience to be too short had turned and departed for a second circuit, arriving back at the run site some time after the full long run pack had completed their travails.

Only 234 meters? New runner Tony makes it to the top of the hill.

New runners were Tony Perry, who is apparently some sort of alter ego to Balls Up who was not in attendance although offspring Kan Kai was, and notably made it round the long run in the lofty company of the FRB's such as they were, and Emmy and Fern who are habitues of Ko Yo and buddies of Jump Shot.

Go west young man! Kan Kai points the way at the last check

Returning runner was Yolks Poke and sinners were After Ours for nanny parenting, having freaked out when Eightball had elected to leave the collected hash brats enjoying themselves in the crocodile infested reservoir, Only a Yolk and Crackwurst for unauthorised inflation of the rego for next week's 1500th run to 100 Baht, Egghead for yet another pair of new shoes, and Only a Yolk again for having been deemed responsible for the loss of the comoyed hash sign.

It's a dog's life. Pak Ma mourns the absence of chicken on the menu

Hares were the entire Egg family, Egghead for the long run, deemed adequate by the faint praise resulting from the GM's enquiry about what everybody had thought of the run, and Only a Yolk, Yolk's Poke and Peppered Pussy for the short run. Once again the end of the circle did not signal the end of the afternoon as Beer Truck Driver III slept blissfully on in the beer truck while most people elected to just carry on drinking and enjoying themselves as the sun set reluctantly in the West.

The acceptable face of the Egg family contemplates another cold bum

Next week sees SH3's 1500th run. News of Songkhla Hash's demise have probably been greatly exaggerated, since a sizeable number of people continue to insist that there is nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, and so long as someone is prepared to step up and make the effort to set a run, there will, it seems, always be enough takers to turn out and enjoy the fresh air, the countryside, the running or walking, the beer, but most of all each others' company. Long may it continue!

For the record, the 1500th run will be set by Beavershot and the run site will be at the Tung Jaeng restaurant on the new Yala road. There will be quite a lot of free beer, which is why the rego has gone up to 100 Baht, as well as dinner and entertainment afterwards, and Beavershot our late lamented GM who is setting his 50th run next week will be sponsoring a special T shirt for active and regular runners to mark the event.

Be there (if you've got nothing better to do)!

On! On!