The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

No, not the hare, well not only the hare anyway, but Saturday’s run. The Good, the pleasant winding running trails at the top of the hill; the Bad, the overgrown trails and rubber plantations that we previously knew like the back of our hand; and the Ugly, the scared hillsides and valleys brutally decimated by the bulldozers and diggers, which were once either boulder strewn almost virgin jungle, or otherwise were scenic hand worked terraces with lovely winding trails.

After 3 days of scouting a slightly longer than planned run was able to be salvaged from what was left of this previously fantastic piece of country. Well, it still is quite wonderful country but due to the increasing use of machinery in the transport and terraforming of the rubber plantations, there are very few walking trails up and down the hills as there once were. If you are planning on setting a run in this area it may well be best served in consulting with Egghead and a couple of others who have extensively scouted the area (it would have saved me countless hours).

The long run overall length was 9.3kms, but that included the 8 checks, 8 false trails, and 3 check-backs. The total ascent on the long run was about 350m, reaching a maximum height of approximately 200m. The first long runners were back in about 1 hour 40 mins. The medium run was 4.2kms with an approx total ascent of about 200m. The short run was just 3.1kms, with a total ascent of about 70m.