1770: The hare's indulgance

Not long go, HH3 treated us to a run which, crudely speaking, went in the same general area as today's SH3 run albeit in the opposite direction, from a different run site and at a lower elevation. The result was not universally lauded, and today's hare was so underwhelmed by the prospect of not getting up to the top of the hill and running along the ridge, that he went up anyway and did what amounted to a recce for today's run.
Ok, so this is not exactly unknown territory although some arboreal cleansing has turned what was, when it was first used, in the lost boy run (run 1290) more than 9  years back, a pleasant shady climb up the hill, into a rocky trail best got out of the way quickly. But the ridge trail that follows is still worth the climb as it snakes its way eastwards affording some simply glorious views of Songkhla.
Today's run was in fact a fairly close copy of the lost boy run although rejecting the valley trail on the South side of the runsite by which the short run returned in favor of a brief flirtation with the hill on  the northward side of the valley. But having got that out of the way, the trail was almost identical, and at 8k all up (7.1k without the F's and X's) with a maximum height reached of 225m and a total ascent in excess of 350m, was a demanding ask, which took the first runners home about 1 hr 15 mins. The short run, in contrast was a mere 2.4k and was described as pleasant but undemanding although it did take in the flirtation on the right hand hill before following the familiar trail back along the river.
There was a brief moment of deja vu when it was discovered that new runner Jannine had opted to follow the long run paper rather than follow the short run, but she was happily discovered having done the sensible thing that Tapeworm's son managed not to do on run 1290, and was picked up by the hare coming down the road from the top of the hill. Otherwise, the long and short runs seem to have managed to arrive more or less together give or take the odd short cut.
We do a lot of runs in the same country - that's inevitable. But there are some runs that stay in the memory, often for the wrong reasons. But today's run, or bits of it represent the best of Songkhla hashing. We are lucky that we live in a part of the country, or maybe even the world, where the geography and the economy conspire to render the area almost perfect for hashing. The hills behind Sai Kao vilage might have been designed by a creator with hashing in mind and of all the 200 runs which this hare has laid for SH3, this is the run that sticks in my mind. So I hope the older hands will excuse this piece of nostalgia - an indulgence in resetting a run so perfect in its mixture of flat trails and manageable hills, exhilarating down-hills and wonderful views,  and the ability to use the country to keep the pack together (ok, let's leave Gan Yao out of this!) right up until the end.
On! On! to 300!