Hares: Sloephuck and DoggieStyle

Commentary on last Sunday’s run must indeed start some seventeen hours earlier when 20 odd, very odd in fact, runners assembled at Maya for Doggie Styles Midnight Run to aid the Library Project. The sponsors need space here, SSS, Maya Bar and chrisrenney.com, because the end result was that all the funds collected went direct to the charity. Showing up for a run at a bar at 12.00pm is not cool, especially when the temperature was 30+. Now this was not a normal 10.0km training run, this was a race, and the pack quickly saw Luo, Bear and Stefan disappear in front up Shuguang Rd. One of the high points of the run was a come from behind effort by Hentai to tidy up the leaders and return home with the gold, with Luo and Stefan in 2 and 3, while Tim from Maya did a great job handing out the water at the start of the SuDi without however advising that was a turn here, resulting in Xuda continuing on Nanshan Rd until he saw a taxi as the only viable alternative to running into oblivion. Also mention to marshals Lucy, Franz and Dan. The female medals were keenly fought over, 3 medals into 4 girls didn’t seem quite fair, but 1st went to Showphuk, silver to Acro and the bronze to Yoga. The rest of the morning was spent as if it was a Tuesday night, which meant a 4.00pm bedtime and a suspect Sunday, which is now finally where we start at the flower nursery. Oh yes, the pack will believe anything; including rumours of a short run after the previously described event.

Turnout included new runner Xuda, David for his second run, Torvill, Shagger, Phone Box, Pawn Star and her non-running friend Rainy, Hentai and scribe. Pretty miserable turnout for such a great spot, the flower nursery!

So to the trail; off through the endless vistas of this park usually empty of humanity but filled with the works of man. After squeezing every little bit out of the labyrinth of paths and trails the hares directed the pack out the back and further on to another more spacious and even more impressive scenic area where the usual continued to occur, good long FTs and CBs keeping the pack well together. And Slowphuk managed this well, the checks were not obvious and the pack was often reversed much to Pawnstar’s relief.

By the way, Pawnstar is back in HK for a while, so keep up the kms down there, until we see you back sometime soon. Wow, it was warm, and when the trail finally emptied the pack into Yanggong Di one was excused of thinking, “not far now”. OK, so the trail crossed the road, might be a safety issue, do the right thing, cross with the rest, yes then take a path rather than the road side, it’ll be OK, a scenic finish back to the nursery, but would you have guessed it, straight to the SuDi. Phone Box was sure that such a deviation could only mean that the trail,was finishing at 30+, but it was not to be. Rather it was a slog back to the nursery for a 90 minute outing.

The circle was a bit quiet to be sure, the 40 degree beer certainly was an unusual touch by the hares, but at least it sanitised the new shoe that Xuda unfortunately wore on his first run. The pack retired to 30+ where Menage joined and the hares arranged hamburgers and chips from around the corner.

On the subject of the Menage, she is off to Guangzhou sometime soon; what the hell is happening here? The hash is always a mobile crowd, so maintaining membership growth means that when one goes, two must come, if you know what I mean. So to summarise the run; HZ is a run setting paradise, well demonstrated by the hares.

The usual difficulty in following direction to run starts was compounded this week by the co-incidence of the hare and the newsletter editor being one and the same. As a result one was forced to catch a bus with no clear idea where to get off except for some Chinese script purporting to be the name of a bus stop.

Some later told me that they had carefully copied down the Chinese characters and tried to match them against bus information in order to identify the correct location, but to no avail. Later it appeared that the characters in question stood for “take care of your belongings”, well done Pushupbra. Anyway, it wasn’t so bad because I noted a couple of lost individuals hanging around a busy intersection and it turned out to be the hash.

Great spot for the start of a run, but at least 7up was there to assure us that all was well and her joint hare was out putting some finishing touches to what she described as the run of the year. That’s always something of a concern when one hare fails to make it back.

Anyway the pack of Bestiality, who said that he’s seen the other hare only just heading out, and Phone Box, who also reported seeing the hare just starting the run, Hentai, Cunning Linguist, Torvill and Dean, Oscar, Doggie Style and .
The appointed time came and went as usual, how about some on-time starts before it gets too dark, and soon the pack found itself on trail through a resort  and then along a lakeside path and the longest stepping stone crossing so far on a run. Shortly the trail went around some houses with more than the usual quota of dogs, and a well situated circle check which didn’t fool too many.

The next section involved making a path through the virgin bush, and Doggie definitely took a back position at this point, hoping that any boar traps would be sprung by the leader Hentai. This absent path soon turned into a proper path, which then became some kind of competition venue with Decathlon tape marking the turns. Hentai was suckered into a CB or FT shortly after, and the real trail was found to start to climb. And climb it did, soon reaching a stone path and then along and up, then down a bit then up, then along a bit then up, then up, then up, then up until Cunning Linguist was incapable of any word not starting with f. Along the way the pack re-gathered to check out some perfect views, problem was where the hell were we? Doggie had some ideas, Phone Box was perplexed and Torvill had absolutely no idea.

Finally the path halted at a spectacular cliff top view point which enabled Doggie to be absolutely sure that we were not on Southern Peak, because it was in front of us. The trail down was uneventful, and the pack started to break up, the few FTs and CBs not being that effective. We descended through the bush on a rough track from which we broke free into a tea village for a bit, then tea fields, then another village where we came out unexpectedly at the 50th Run restaurant, closed for repairs ever since, and so to the start, but not actually the start because the hares had transferred the packs possessions to a lakeside park.

This scenic spot was perfect for the cold Cheerday on offer, and it was drunk so fast there was none left for down downs. Then it was quickly into the restaurant next door where the pack was joined by Skidmarks, cleverly avoiding this little mountain climb on a 37 degree day.  Phonebox’s ordering again hit the spot and it was a tired but relaxed crew who finally made it to Maya for a couple of re-hydrators.

Turnout – Hentai, Ménage à trios, Sheep Shagger, Torvill & Tean and Pushup

Doggie last set a run here in October 2007 when he came to a grinding halt with foot in boar trap, which incidentally was also Hentai’s first run, giving him an unusual perspective on the pleasures of hashing. You may study the boar trap in the Maya, so scribe was hoping for a repeat episode so that a second trap might join the collection. The afternoon storms left the roads less than perfect for chalk but the pack found the flour on the roads very easily so Doggie’s concerns of the pack becoming lost in the Lingyin backstreets was unfounded. Last time Doggie found a great gully up a creek bed and then switched to a game trail where the fondly remembered event occurred. His hesitation in repeating this trail was evident as the trail went back to Linyin Rd before ripping off into some minor back lanes at the back of the botanical gardens.

The pack survived any number of CBs and FTs all of which caught the pack. They were of a good length. Future hares, keep the CBs and FTs longer, and consistently longer to make the front runners search further and longer to allow the back markers to catch up.  MAT was saved from rabid dogs on a number of occasions as the trail finally found its way to the trail up to the saddle south of Linfeng Hill, where the pack was completely confounded, joining the “we’re the fakawe tribe”. Strange how you can be so completely disoriented in down town HZ, but the pack finally worked it out and pushed on up and up to the ridge that runs to North Peak. Visibility was not so good, but the post storm atmosphere left the city looking fantastic from every lookout. Quote Hentai “I’ve been in HZ for 10 years and I’ve never been here”, and that is really something from the map maker.

A brief stop at Northern Peak brought some technical info from Shagger about the imminent removal of the TV aerial which so perfectly frames the XYZ dynasty temple on the peak. What fool put it there anyway? From the top it was possible to see Doggie sitting under the arch patiently waiting for the return of the pack, so how Torvill, Shagger and MAT got lost on the way back was unfathomable, it is hoped that their unscheduled tour of the newly ancient Lingyin area was enjoyable. So the pack was out for 90 minutes, and enjoyed every bit of it. After the normal small circle with more social chat than down downs, the cyclists MAT and Torvill headed off while the balance grabbed a cab to the outdoor restaurant near the Maya. Love these summer nights. Good run from Doggie.