A tale of two runs

Here is a picture of what those who came along to SH3's run #2001 on Saturday enjoyed, a pleasant 7k or so with a couple of modest hills including our first ascent of Kao Long for a few years and trails neatly manicured by the hare to ensure a pleasant, non-life-threatening experience. The long run got up to about 175m with a total ascent of about 230m. The short runners meanwhile were split with some doing the first half of the long run ending at the beer stop and the remainder being ferried out to join the second half via the blue stub above, both doing about 3k and all being back home well before dark.

In contrast, above is the trail from Sunday's HH3 run as recorded by Kai Ping (slightly retouched to accommodate the fact that his watch didn't kick in for about the first kilometer - spot the joins if you can!) or if you prefer a less cluttered picture, here is the contour map of the run:

Ah, but I hear you say, they are not the same! And you would be correct since the top picture is of the long run (about 8k, total ascent 422m, highest point recorded 453m) while the bottom picture is of the "short" run, courtesy of Kii Loeii (about 7k, total ascent 403m, highest point recorded 459m - actually the same point as on the long run!). With the start being slightly delayed by someone's car getting stuck on the rutty road to the runsite, the run did not actually start until after 4:15 and it took even the fittest long runners almost an hour to reach the top, with others from both runs arriving any time up to about an hour later. That meant that only the leading half of the long run were allowed to complete the run as set since the somewhat otiose section which departed from the track to take in a river gorge was deemed to be too dangerous to attempt after dark - probably the most sensible decision taken all day by the hares! The upshot was that most of the short run and many of the long runners were still making their way down the hill when darkness fell and the final group did not arrive back at the runsite until well after 7 p.m. Full marks for their perseverance but should it have been necessary?

Long tough long runs are fine - if you deem yourself to be a long runner then that is the challenge you accept from time to time. But short runners really don't expect to have to be struggling home down a 450-meter hill after dark, nor for some of them to have spent the thick end of 2 hours to climb it in the first place. There were some fairly obvious rumblings after the run had finished among the short runners about no warning having been given of what was in store and it's probably fair to say that had they been given such a warning they would probably have not embarked on the run in the first place!

But on the positive side, the view from the top was spectacular, the trail down pretty nice and happily we were blessed with great weather again which at least meant that none of the more difficult sections of the hill were attempted in the rain. But maybe, just maybe, there is a need for a reaffirmation of the purpose of short runs - to offer a kinder gentler experience to those who don't want a full-on combat-scale hash and come along for a pleasant outing where they can safely take selfies and not get stuck up mountains after dark!

Over to you madame GM!