Just make it stop

Just 5.5km and under 400m of ascent. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Don't believe it!

Whenever Robocop describes one of his runs as "wing sabaai" we know we're in trouble, but nobody could have guessed just how tortuous yesterday's effort would be. It was on Hatyai's nastiest hill, for a start, and apart from a couple stretches of actual running (visible at the bottom and middle right above), it consisted entirely of ridiculously steep ascents immediately followed by even steeper descents. And repeat, then repeat again. The man is clearly a freak of nature and feels neither pain nor fatigue so he has no idea what he's doing to us. At least it was in keeping with the current ban on entertainment: there wasn't as much as a moment of pleasure.

About half the long runners found excuses not to do the whole thing, including Sex Sprinter and Tsunami, who totally lost the plot while attempting to shortcut, and Khai Jiao, who was chasing down his new dog, who was clearly no more keen to do this run than the rest of us. In the end barely a half dozen of us came in on paper, the first (Sex Black Man) in 1:26.

In retrospect there was a kind of perverse majesty to it, and as so often, a hellish run made for an excellent circle. For the children there was broad physical humor, like Robocop's epic fart on the ice. For the adults, salacious references to Sex Sprinter's "favorite resort" and Robocop's "business trip" to Bangkok next weekend. Somehow you don't expect these kinds of things to be aired in front of the whole hash, including wives, some of whom were not looking totally amused. But then I'll never understand Thais.