Laff it up

Well the old Garmin conked out on yesterday's recce and there's no time for another try. So enjoy a few laughs today because there might not be many on Saturday!

Back to the wetspot

Misdirections? Leave it to Beaver this week!

Hashers who like it wet and sloppy may recall the Beavershot run of December 20 last year. You know, the one for which Egghead put up a  ridiculous map that really said much more about his twisted mind than that of the hare. Anyhow, that's where we're running from again this Saturday, and if the new-found rainy season does its thing on schedule, don't expect to stay dry for long!

SH3 Run #1795, Saturday November 14, 2015, 4:00 p.m. (we mean it this week!)
Hare: Beavershot
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.7k and turn left for 10.2k, then turn left and bear right at the Y junction after 200m and follow the road/track for a further 2.2k to the runsite.

Twisted mind? Surely some mistake! Or maybe he was thinking of HH3, who coincidentally will be running from just off Poonakan on Sunday (15th November, 4:00 p.m ) Misdirections are something like: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.6k and turn left for 8k then right (at Wat Keow Kloy into Poonakan) for about 6k then turn right and go about 400 meters to the run site on the left opposite Tungnai school. Hares, it is believed, are the sex people, who last week set one of the best HH3 runs in living memory, but don't let that put you off!

Cherie's Lament

Typical! They steal me from my family (Money? What's that?) and dump me in a wilderness of that nasty green stuff that we use as a latrine and expect me to eat it. C'mon guys. Do you drink the water out of the toilet bowl? (Don't answer that Lucky!) Then they fill my house up with nasty sweaty people who seem to think that I'm some kind of dog; yeah buddy, just try that stroking crap again and you'll find out what a horn is for!
And then... do I get to run? I mean was I even asked? That little tart Lucky goes off again with the tall guy who feeds me bananas and bread (at least someone in this hell hole understands what an ungulate likes!) and I'm left entertaining the lame and lazy, when given half a chance I'd be out there at the front of the pack - until I happened to pass some tasty tree or other when I might just have to stop for a quick browse....

Ok Cherie, calm down! You were registered. Sadly, too late to be iced but we now have a new goat runner who should we happen to have another 4 parties at Egg Towers will have to be named so get thinking!

What did she miss?

About 7k all up with a total ascent of about 30 m - it was flat! The beer stop which represented the end of the short run was at about 4.1k with the result that by the time the short runners reached it and had been transported back to the run site, the long runners were already safely at home.
A party followed which went on quite late and involved consuming large numbers of beers. Neither Yardo nor Stick Insect felt capable of driving home and took advantage of the presence of handy Saffers who had not been quite so ambitious in their alcoholic consumption.

Inside if wet

Saturday's SH3 run is a triple birthday run celebrating the proximity if not the actuality of  the anniversaries of R2D2, Egghead and Peppered Pussy's births. Let us draw a veil over the precise numbers individually involved but if we tell you that their combined birthdays total 141 it shouldn't be too difficult to work them all out.

Whilst the run cannot itself be magically translocated inside, if, as seems possible, the weather is little inclement, what follows can.
What follows will be a party which should feature lots of good food and a little (or a lot of) beer. All are welcome. The runsite and the party are both at Egg Towers - see allegedly confusing, but accurate map below or follow the magic misdirections:

Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1794, Saturday  November 7th 2015, Run starts 4:00 p.m. (ok, 4:15 at a push)
Hare: Egghead
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k and turn left then go 5.2k (don't go straight ahead at 4k but follow the road as it bends round to the right) and turn right through the temple arch at Wat Borogam, then follow the road for 200m and turn right, keeping the temple wall on your left for about 300m. Turn left at the T junction and then after less than 100m turn right to the car parking area.

No news yet of the whereabouts or whoabouts of the HH3 run on Sunday. Details will no doubt be available on Saturday or will be posted here if they become available sooner.

Halloween Nightmare Run #1793

The long run overall length was 8.6kms, which included the 7 checks, 6 false trails, and one check-back. The total ascent was 311m, reaching a maximum height of 199m, after a rather nasty steep & muddy climb of 140m. The front runners returned to the runsite in about 90mins, including about 10mins spent at the beer stop after an easy jog down the "mountain" along a construction track. Even though Buk Toy was only a few minutes behind the long runners, he returned with assistance of his hand torch in the rapidly fading light. The short run was a very short 2.7kms, with a total ascent of just 76m, but it did involve getting their feet wet at the “river” crossing.

The horror! The horror!

Saturday is Halloween, when unclean things stalk the earth and wreak vengeance on mortal man. With that in mind, this week's SH3 run will be set by Buckyardo and will be from a completely new runsite in a completely new area as can be seen from the maps below which seem to depict an area somewhere to the North of the Malaysian border - but don't count on it!

A general map of South East Asia - Thailand is in the middle

A more detailed map of where unclean things will be stalking the earth this Saturday

For those more comfortable with verbal instructions:

Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1793, Saturday 31st October, 2015, 4:30 p.m.

Hares: Yardstick and Buck

Misdirections: From the Kao Saeng intersection take the old Yala road to the NYR / OYR intersection, at the Ang Thong traffic lights (or get there along the New Yala road from the Ko Yo intersection). From the traffic lights proceed south on the old Yala road (OYR) for 8.3k then turn right at the hash sign just before the mosque. Proceed 3k along the bitumen & concrete road through the village following hash signs or paper to the runsite on the concrete road.

If you are coming from Hatyai, go to the intersection of Kanchanawanit road and Route 43 (the Klong La intersection, beyond Macro) and head East along route 43 towards Chana for 20.6k (which is 7.8k beyond the junction with the 3031 from Wat Nern Pitchit). Turn left at the hash sign for 2.3k along the concrete road, to the runsite on the concrete road.

Sunday's HH3 run will attempt to restore some good Kharma to proceedings  by revisiting the site of last Tuesday's Full Moon H3 run, which in case you missed it, was notable for the large turnout of locals from Ban Wong and Napong who graced the occasion and in our honour put on a Nantalung at the run site! On a less auspicious note, Sex Sprinter managed to drop Buk Toy's GPS during the setting of the run, but happily a thorough search the following day was successfull in locating it - still devotedly recording it's location despite having been thoroughly doused by a monsoon during the night. To propitiate the deity who restored this ancient navigational artifact to its rightful owner, Sex Sprinter will be donating to the run on Sunday (you know what's coming next!)... a tray of 50 eggs (Ha! Fooled you!). For the uninitiated, the run site will be: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k and turn left then go 5.2k (don't go straight ahead at 4k but follow the road as it bends round to the right) and turn left (opposite the temple arch for Wat Borogam) then follow the road for 400m to the runsite. Not sure if the Nantalung will still be there but it might be an idea to bring some earplugs just in case!

Finally, a couple of things in town this weekend: There is a quiz night on Friday evening at the Office bar (8:00 p.m.) when the much reduced SH3 team will take on a strengthened (i.e. Chris, who is quiz-master, will not be in it so Eightball will be able to get all the answers right!) teachers' team as well as the resurgent Auld Alliance who these days seem to be mainly composed of the French and the Germans! Come along and support, participate or just to generally poke fun at us if we lose

Then on Saturday the final of the Rugby World Cup kicks off at 11:00 p.m. and there will likely be a couple of venues available to watch it in town, notably the Corner Bier and the Office Bar where Carsten is going to be putting on some free grub. Probably best to select the one where Stick Insect will NOT be as he is likely to be completely insufferably smug by about 12:30!

October full moon: as..

This month's full moon falls on 27th October which by a happy coincidence is precisely when the next full moon run will be. The hares will be Sex Printer and Toy Boy, the run number will be 122, and the run site will be:
From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k and turn left then go 5.2k (don't go straight ahead at 4k but follow the road as it bends round to the right) and turn left (opposite the temple arch for Wat Borogam) then follow the road for 400m to the runsite either in the open area on the right if it is dry or in the big sala on the left if it is not!

The usual imprecations: bring a hand/headlight if you intend to run and some food if you can manage it. There should be some beer on sale at 40 Baht per can but if you if you want to bring your own that's ok as well.

If anyone needs a lift from Hatyai, Egghead will be picking up Summer (whose hash name at HH3 escapes me!) outside of Satit Mor Or in Poonakan Road at 5:30 p.m. so give him a call (081 9691227) if transport is a problem - transport back to Hatyai later should be easy enough to arrange. There should also be transport available from Songkhla if needed.

Happy birthday SH3!

Yesterday was pretty much 34 years to the day since Crawlback set the first SH3 run and give or take a hare or two and the odd runner, the format hasn't changed much in the intervening years. Yesterday's run (above) was a generous 7.7k with most of the long runners rejecting the option of giving up after 6.3k at the beer stop, but even so the pack made it all the way round in about 1 hr and 15 mins. The high spot was 140m and the total ascent was 220m The short runners who missed out all that macho climbing stuff, completed 3.4k in something under an hour with at least one runner deciding that a single visit to the beer stop was not enough and walking back for another beer!

With the promise of dinner looming, the GM attempted a quick circle but was thwarted by the number of new and returning runners, sinners and even a couple of namees, to be dealt with before the hares were rewarded for their efforts.

Dinner and a party ensued. The food seemed never to run out since as fast as it was eaten the pots were replenished. The effective end of the eating came when Mongolian Fuck Rat took the microphone for the beginning of the karaoke, causing those with normal aural sensitivities to head for the outside tables, leaving the field for the HH3 contingent to sing, dance and drink the night away. They were still at it when the main body of farangs left to go to watch the rugby at about 9:30. Some never made it, waylaid by flat batteries and in Gan Yao's case the front room carpet where he is alleged to have fallen asleep.

No doubt there will be more tales told this afternoon at the HH3 run which, in case you hadn't heard is now at Kuanjong as per the (repeated) map below.

So for now it's on on to HH3 today, a full moon run on Tuesday, the 1800th run on 19th December and SH3's 35th birthday one year from now. Are we up for that?

Online run info

Finally I've found a really comprehensive website showing running events in Thailand: forrunnersmag. The articles and forums are in Thai, but the run listings are available in English. There are also star-rated evaluations of past runs, so you can see how runners liked them.

Note that the main page shows only races during the current week (and in a typical week there are about a dozen nationwide). Click on the Race Events link to see all upcoming events.

But a bit of a rant now. One promising-looking listing is the Central 10 Miles International on Dec. 31. It's convenient (starts at Central Festival in Hatyai), on a good non-hash day (Thursday), and an interesting distance. But look carefully and you'll see that "international" runners -- that's us -- pay more than Thai nationals. Oh, and they do that pathetic old trick of listing local prices in Thai numerals, so those dumb farang can't read them.

Even the national parks here give the lame reason that they charge non-Thais more because they don't pay national taxes. What's Central's excuse? It seems to me that if you put "International" in the name of your event, you might not want to discriminate against people on the basis of where they come from. I don't know how common this practice is in Thailand, but as far as I'm concerned, Central and anyone else who does this can take their race and shove it up their butts.

We're smokin!