Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Yoga & sex

If you wonder why Gaseous looks so slim, trim, and smiling these days, maybe the answer can be found in this article in yesterday's New York Times on the connection between yoga and sex. Yoga of course began as a sex cult, and now science is beginning to prove that the Tantrics had a few things right. An excerpt:

. . . over the decades, many have discovered from personal experience that the practice can fan the sexual flames. Pelvic regions can feel more sensitive and orgasms more intense.

Science has begun to clarify the inner mechanisms. In Russia and India, scientists have measured sharp rises in testosterone — a main hormone of sexual arousal in both men and women. Czech scientists working with electroencephalographs have shown how poses can result in bursts of brainwaves indistinguishable from those of lovers. More recently, scientists at the University of British Columbia have documented how fast breathing — done in many yoga classes — can increase blood flow through the genitals. The effect was found to be strong enough to promote sexual arousal not only in healthy individuals but among those with diminished libidos.

In India, recent clinical studies have shown that men and women who take up yoga report wide improvements in their sex lives, including enhanced feelings of pleasure and satisfaction as well as emotional closeness with partners.

At Rutgers University, scientists are investigating how yoga and related practices can foster autoerotic bliss. It turns out that some individuals can think themselves into states of sexual ecstasy — a phenomenon known clinically as spontaneous orgasm and popularly as “thinking off.”

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

An outstation too far

The long-awaited map arrives! As usual the scale is abysmal, the detail totally lacking; and what about all those kinks in the road?

But, yeah, yeah; it contains all you need to know; and no doubt if you can read English or Thai you will have no problem getting there.

But 3/10 for style guys! I mean have we progressed cartographically from the Mappa Mundi? Apparently not! All I can say is that the same people who drew this map are setting the run on Saturday then ...

Support for a Sunday run in Songkhla is patchy to put it mildly. So far we have Beavershot and Gan Yao expressing interest. Maybe this is the time that YOU should get your finger out of your... nose and onto the keyboard and register some enthusiasm! It could be an SH3 run or an HH3 run - whatever, if there are more than 5 people it will be set. So learn to post/comment on this site and preserve Sunday as a day of irreligious, athletic and mildly alcoholic activity.

But if it all falls through and the usual apathy wins the day then there is always the full moon to look forward to, which ought to fall on Wednesday of next week. All we need is a hare and half a mind....

Monday, February 27, 2012

The run that ate Gaseous Clay

Sunday's HH3 run in glorious black: well, the extra 2k that the long runners did  is in black, the yellow bit is the 5.5k short run including the long run out and in trails. Robocop and Nicheow were first home in about 1h 10m, Gaseous Clay and Bid Bliow took a leisurely 2h 30m and were escorted home by a torch-lit rescue party. Dramatic stuff, even though GC had his GPS with him and insisted they had been on paper all the way round; yeah, right!
Next weekend looks like being runless in Songkhla as a swift finger count of people who are not going on the HH3 outstation run in Phatthalung failed to get to the first thumb. More news later in the week, including hopefully some directions for those who are going to Phatthalung. 

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Beavered and rebeavered

Runs 1602 (blue) and 1603 (yellow). The loop at the top of 1603 was the short run.

A small but dedicated band turned out for Part II of the Beaver Doubleheader. Stats almost exactly the same as last week: around 8km total, 260m total ascent, highest point about 160m. First runners back in 1:05 and all the rest, yes including a non-shortcutting Gan Yao, by 1:12.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The first run of a brand new era

Ugh! Let's get that piece of bad taste off of the top!
That's much nicer!
Anyway, to business. This weekend's brand new revitalized if financially adrift SH3 present an almost brand new, only used once  (or twice) before runsite and a more or less virgin (as far as anyone is these days) hare. Ok, so it's actually Beavershot again, but he is now the official Beavershot wearing his brand new OnSex hat, which is more than can be said for those two... words fail me... down below. So as last week, the details are:

Songkhla Hash House Harriers run  #1603, Saturday  25th February 2012: 4:30 p.m 
Hare: Beavershot
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.7k and turn left for 10k then turn right and follow the road/track for 1.1k to the run site in the middle of the rubber.

Sunday as correctly predicted last week will feature the almost brand new SH3 trailmaster setting almost his first run for HH3 for almost the first time from near the Sai Kao Resort. (From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.7k and turn left for 6k then left for 4.5k to the run site on the left.) The run starts at 4:30, or earlier if the mood takes us.

Now who's going to be Hash Cash, I wonder? Perhaps the nice man with the upside down nose might be interested.



All hail our new benevolent overlords!

New co-GMs Softcock (left, with friend) and Yardo (right, demonstrating his paper-incinerating death ray).

Erections are a rare and wonderful thing at Songkhla Hash, so it was with great excitement that the rabble assembled after last Saturday's run for the last act of lame-duck GM R2D2's two-year tenure: the selection of his replacement. Without any further ado, here are the results of the vote:

GMs: Yardstick and Softcock
On Sec: Beavershot
Hash Cash: (pending)
Trailmaster: Egghead
Religious Advisor: Gan Yao
Keg Master: Temporary Relief
Hash Haberdasher: Meals on Wheels
Hash Nerd: R2D2

A truly glittering lineup of the very best talent this hash can produce. There's a reason they call it mismanagement and this is the team that's going to make it happen! On-on!



Monday, February 20, 2012

How to avoid running injuries


A good piece from the Guardian online: How to avoid running injuries. It's aimed more at people training for marathons than pissheads like us, but there's still lots of useful advice, including:

- Buy good shoes, get them fitted by an expert (good luck on that in Thailand), and replace them every 300-400 miles

- Land midfoot rather than on your heel and don't overpronate (that means landing on the inside of your foot)

- Stretch a bit after every run (notice how Solong does this?)

- Build core strength, especially glutes

- Listen to your body and be aware of small problems before they become more serious

- Wear a sports bra*

*If you're a girl or have big manboobs.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Double Beaver, Part I

Here it is, yesterday's first installment of the Beaver Doubleheader. Total length about 8km, total ascent not quite 300m, and highest point just 156m. First runners (Stick Insect and Palm Job) back in 1:01 and almost all the rest by 1:05.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Back-to-back Beaver



You can see it's him; the                      I-wouldn't-hurt-a fly bonhommie, the is-it-time-for-bed-yet innocence.

So we've taken him at his word and left it to him, and the misdirections below are good for two runs:


SH3 runs #1602 and #1603, Saturday 18th and 25th February 2012: 4:00 p.m and 4:30 p.m (as we normally revert to our later, more civilized start time after our annual erection which - see below - is due to take place this week)
Hare: Beavershot
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.7k and turn left for 10k then turn right and follow the road/track for 1.1k to the run site in the middle of the rubber.

Sunday's HH3 run will be at the dam near Pru Toh: The end of the official directions read: .....old Hatyai road for 10k and turn left then go about 1.5k to the run site on the right. Hares are likely to be Sex prefixed but the GM is not revealing the details. The following week will be a Kai Jeow run and will probably be from in front of Sai Kao Resort and the week after that HH3 are holding an outstation run in Phattalung and if you want to register the ante is 200 Baht for regular runners, 700 Baht for lesser mortals. 
Anything else you need to know?

Two runs and an erection

Saturday....
Sunday...
Two runs that had only one thing in common: both of them seem to have been enjoyed by everyone who was on them, but in their manner of laying, were about as different as two runs can be. 

Saturday's run was set by two male hares who had spent the week arguing about where the runsite was going to be, where the run was going to go and how and it was going to get there. They had recce'd it intensively with the aid of a GPS and on the day had two of the things to try to make sure that Kii Leum, who is reported to have had a massive hangover, didn't wander off and get lost (very necessary as he did manage to wander off and get lost later in the day and had to be guided home by Only a Yolk). But despite Yardo's earlier dudgeon about the location of the runsite forced on him by fiat of the pack, this was by all accounts a highly enjoyable run, enlivened by a live firing exercise courtesy of the Thai Army which saw Softy and Temp. bundling the doggies into the Beemer as the pack departed, never to return.

Sunday's run in contrast was set by one female hare accompanied by 4 dogs. Although she had expected to be guided in her endeavors by a GPS, Yardo had forgotten to give it back to her the previous day and although he made valiant efforts to get it to her, the traffic jams outside TKU and Only a Yolk's irrepressible urge (yes, she does have them sometimes) to get out on the trail, saw her laying the whole run cold: no GPS, no recce, no idea where she was going to go and no one to argue with about it. The result was pretty amazing bearing all that in mind, as the run, despite being well under 6k, saw the pack tackling bits of both Kao Lam and Kao Wong, before mostly wading back home in tight formation through the rice paddies in just over an hour. 

This weekend it will be on on to the erection as R2D2's tenure as SH3 GM expires. Beaver is the hare and details will be posted later. But we are probably at some kind of crossroads as with attendance now down to around 30 most weeks, the future doesn't look too healthy unless we can find some way of generating renewed interest in the hash. We need an inspirational figure to rise up and take control and guide us onwards and upwards into....(bloated language expires) ... you know!  But if you are reading this and you are interested in keeping SH3 alive, do come along on Saturday and also try to encourage any other erstwhile hashers to come along and participate  in the erection. Despite the low turnouts, we still manage almost every week to serve up great runs, great food, cheap beer and good fellowship, and it would be a shame if that were to be lost.