Hash Challenge Run Reports

SCRIBE REPORT

4th Hash Challenge – October 2nd, 2004.
Scribe: Salim Dhalla

When I signed up for the event, I was not sure what I was getting into – but I was being asked by the “KNITTING CIRCLE” if I was interested to do this marathon through hashing terrain. Yoke Chun was coordinating the group, but at a later date got pulled out by the organizing committee to organize the food for the runners (sure, any excuse to avoid it, eh?). The group then ended up being Gary Low, Irene Chin, Chin Win San and myself.

For those not aware of this event, it is a team event with a group of 4 hashers and must include 1 person of the opposite sex (all teams I know are with 3 men and 1 lady). The run is planned to be of 42km length through various hashing terrains (and more at times). Each team must break their own checks (but the teams ahead of us were kind enough to close most of the checks). During the run, there were 6 check points, each team has to leave the check point at the same time to be considered as “qualified”. At the checkpoints, water and re-hydration salts are provided, as are some fruits and biscuits. For those needing medical care, there was always an attentive medic group there to help, and checkpoints were a good time to drop out – transport was provided back to the run-site.

The registration took place on Friday evening and it was a reasonably quiet event with all participants collecting their freebies, and buying supplies of Power Gels, Power Bars, Brooks shoes etc.. Us first timers got advice from the veterans on the quantity of Power Gels to get. Foster Beer provided the beers, and bites were provided by a very good German restaurant within the condo. We were briefed about the run, and advised to be at Cititel hotel before 5am – the time when the buses would leave to take us to the start point.

At this year’s event, the description of each sector was provided to the participants to prepare them ahead of time as to what was to come. (In my case this meant how many change of socks to have)

It was a very early morning, Most of us had to get up before 4am, and I was still not sure why I was doing this. Made it on time to the lobby of Cititel, which was packed with people. I was told 32 teams were registered for this event, and so there were 3 buses provided to get us to the run-site. Don Cheang was coordinating the loading of the buses with various members of the teams and by 5:15 ish we were off to our start point – in Ulu Yam Baru – a 1hour drive. I’m sure a lot of people, including me, thought they were going to get a bit of a snooze on the ride, but that was not to be – a Chinese movie was blaring away on a TV in the bus and we had to put up with trying to doze off between shooting scenes. We were running a bit early, so we had a 20 minute stop-over, just enough time to have a teh-tarikh and a bit of roti-canai ! (I was going to pay for eating this greasy stuff first thing in the morning before a long run, but it was probably the only real meal until that evening though).

Made it to the start point in daylight and by 7:30 after a few more instructions from Wolfgang Druba, the master coordinator of this event – we were off. Within 100meters, we had a river crossing! This was quite a sight. First, this caused a back-log of runners and took me almost 25minutes to cross. Additionally, we had some runners taking their shoes off before crossing the river and then putting them back on after the crossing (little did they know that we were going to cross the same river 5 times within the next hour in the first section – by the 4th crossing, Marlies had given up this ritual). After about an hour, after one of the many river crossings, I bumped into our photographer – Thomas – 1hour gone by and we had only done 2kms – it’s going to be a long long day! Maybe, I will consider going for a real roti-canai meal after the 1st checkpoint after all. Besides the excitement of the river crossing, the hare (Hugh Murray) had picked excellent terrain. It was just right for a start of the run – we went up and down a relatively high hill (relative only because we are about to discover Rambo’s 1500m hill in the next sector) and arrived at the 1st checkpoint – at this point, most of the groups were there within 30minutes of each other – not too bad!

The hare for the next section, with 2 checkpoints, was Rambo – notorious for his skills in finding hills and tricky paths when there are easier routes to follow. This part was going to split the pack and, as told to me ‘separate the men from the boys’. After crossing the river, we ended up going up and up and up a hill that never seemed to end – every time I thought I was on a flat, just ready for the descent, Rambo had found some more yardage to add which was still going up – not sure how long this lasted but we were falling behind at this point. From what I understand the hill reached a peak at over 1200m, and then we descended – quite fast – only to discover we had to do another 45minutes trek through a previously undiscovered river! Finally, came out into the open, and we knew we were close to a check point – it’s noon by now – cut-off time at the 1st check point!

Unfortunately for our team, Gary at this point was having cramps and unable to continue. Irene wasn’t sure if she wanted to carry on, but with a bit of persuasion from the hubby, Chin Wing San, she decided to continue. Chin Wing San wanted to better his record from the previous hash challenge and wanted to continue on (by this time I think he already had taken 6 power gels and had to run the following Wednesday on the KL Harriettes to clear all that Power Gel out of the system). The husband/wife group carried on to the 3rd checkpoint at which point they gave up. I decided to continue on and during the rest of the challenge, got adopted by FREE N EZY (team from Singapore with Jackie Wong & Barry Rigby & Amy and Francis Teoh), and at the last stage by ILLUSIONS R US (with Soh Kam Eng, Michael Chow, Bek Wong & Alex Toong).

The next section of the run was excellent, gentle slopes and runnable terrain. I really enjoyed this part and met up with Rambo at the river with the photographer from New Strait Times. When I mentioned to Rambo how excellent this last part had been – he came back with – “The 3rd checkpoint is only 500m away, but the first 200m is straight up that cliff” – OUCH! Really needed to use the arms to pull myself up for the next 200m. The final 300m was easy compared to that. What a relief to see 3rd checkpoint! My teammate, Gary, was already sitting around reading a newspaper, and relaxing. It was tempting to give up here, with cramps in my thighs. However the medic team was there to put some heat rub and to give a nice massage. Top up the water, some bananas and biscuits and off again! Knowing Rambo’s section was over was a relief.

Next was Yoong Nim Chee’s section – 9km – and as per our briefing. This was to be a nice running area (i.e. flat compared to the previous section) – and there would only be one checkpoint. The section was excellent, but again Nim Chee managed to find some rivers to cross and hills to climb. By this time, the pack was well spread and the first few teams were at least an hour ahead of me (not that I was trying to catch up). One of the pieces of advice provided by previous hash challenge runners was to change socks whenever we entered a running area. The problem was we were never sure when we would be trudging through rivers again. But managed to get through to the 4th checkpoint and I had time to sit down and change socks (ah, did the feet appreciate that nice dry feeling).

Abraham, the tall Dutch man famous for his long runs, was assigned to hare the last section. It was to be 11km long. However, due to time constraints, a tough 3km section was removed which also eliminated the 6th checkpoint. This section was a gentle but long uphill terrain, never finishing, but at least it was gentle and not a straight climb up. There was a lot of lalang area to go through just prior to the 5th checkpoint. I was crossing a few tired runners by this time, legs cramping, trying to take it easy to survive the last bit of this endurance test.

When I got to the 5th checkpoint, I was informed by the water crew (Vicky, Mark and May, Ima) that there was only 4km to go. But that FOUR PLAY (Cindy and Tony Kampen, PH3, Spike, Tamar Valley H3 UK and Kin Chin Chiwen, FCH Hong Kong) and MASOCHISTS (with Dave Settergren, Opera, Itsuko “Tiger Lily” Tanaka and Ellen Day) had passed by about 1 ½ hours earlier. It was hard to believe the time spread, but I was just glad to be still standing.

The last part of the challenge was downhill, 500m down a jungle trail and then the rest of the run on a logging road – easy going to finish it up. However, if Abraham had been allowed to keep that other 3km, I’m not sure what level of energy I would have had. Even to the 5th checkpoint, it was already past 6pm. I managed a slow walk with Sam “Space Cadet”, Michael Chow and Alex Toong right to the finishing tent. After some 11.5 hours of this, I was glad to have finished it.

Other teams/members kept rolling in for the next hour or so, and I know my other helpers Barry and Jackie did manage to complete – congratulations Barry, at 50, and completed a Hash Challenge!

The evening ended with the regular Petaling H3 circle and a Hash Challenge Circle, conducted by David Hearst with very entertaining jokes. But by that time I was just trying to put down another 100-plus and looked forward to getting home. Congratulations to FOUR PLAY for their first place finish.

It was a great event, again, organized by Wolfgang Druba. Wolfgang is giving up this post, but you never know, he might be convinced to have yet another Challenge, otherwise another hasher will have to step up and plan the 5th Hash Challenge. I know he was helped by a lot of people including wife, Ima, Ilona, Carlo, the hares (Hugh Murray, Rambo, Nim Chee, Abraham), the cohares (sorry, too many to mention and don’t know them all anyways), the water supply teams at checkpoints, the checkout people at checkpoints, the medical teams, Yoke Chun for organizing the food, Don Cheang with the buses, and I’m sure there were a lot of other helpers which I’m missing BUT THANK YOU ALL FOR A GREAT EVENT.

On On
Salim

STATISTICS FROM THIS YEAR’S CHALLENGE
No. of teams registered: 32
Full teams completed: 24
Partial teams completed: 7
Teams not completed: 1
First Place: FOUR PLAY
Time: 10hrs 02 mins