Venue : Off New Bukit Beruntung-Rasa Road
Hare : John Dodgson
Co-Hare : Sarah Tan and Steve Robinson
Scribe : Hugh Murray
A new runsite where nobody – even the oldtimers appear to have been before, and even reasonably close to KL (the new road helps).
Heavy rain on the way to the runsite and with the knowledge that the hares had borrowed my rope the day before, was a bit worried what they might have in store for us. Arrived at the runsite in reasonable time, with the knowledge that unless the JM Dave Wilson made an appearance that I would also be the Senior Committee member present, and would need to organize the circles etc. as well as my duty as ComMIC for the day. The designated parking area on the Right hand side is very muddy so the majority of cars decide to opt for the large verge on the left hand side of the road.
Anyway no sign of Dave Wilson, not unusual he is normally late, so get run away on time.
Run takes off into the palm on the Ulu Yam side of the road and gradually loops around onto an old logging track. 7-8 minutes later we hit a check at the side of the road and only 400m from where we have parked the cars. This allows all the late comers to take a gentle stroll up the tarmac to catch up. Initial call is across the road – know this cannot be right unless hare has been bullshitting me during recent hash challenge reccees, as he has stated that he has gone over 4km in on the other Ulu Yam side and found PH3 Hash Paper (believed to be left over from a Rambo influenced run from the site near the Supermarket at Ulu Yam Bharu). Sure enough a falsie is called. Next call is up the steep hill behind in the secondary – this sounds more like it. However another call is heard on the road to Rasa and the majority of the pack head in that direction. Me I going up the hill – PH3 does not do roads! This proves a good move as the hill is seep and slippery and with only about 10 people in front of me at this time, including Emilia the path is not all scraped away.
Eventually reach top of hill where paper goes left on ridge to a check – Back Check trail quickly found along right of ridge. Follow ridge in single filing with long strung out pack due to the steep hill and narrow path at top. Eventually drop off back of ridge (not sure if there was a check at the bottom here – there seemed to be some confusion but paper was continuous). Eventually make it back out into the old palm oil. After a big anticlockwise loop we exit the palm to our left into an area that has recently been logged and has good passable trails. A few fairly steep up and downs but nothing massive. Scramble in to and out of a small ravine again splits the pack as there is only really one feasible single file path.
After crossing what at first appears a fairly innocuous small muddy stream (goes above my waist and soaks all my dry paper for closing checks as plastic bag not sealed against immersion (will keep rain off). We have another steep uphill and then dive off into the secondary jungle only to emerge 15 minutes later by the stream. I suspect the hares were hoping that this would be connected through and the back of the pack would miss this area, but this did not happen.
We were now definitely on the way home, but a look at my watch, and even though I was at the back of the pack I realised that the hares could be in difficulty in getting the front runners in under 1.5 hours.
Emerging from old rubber we entered a stream and on exiting this we ended up in a flooded area that was in places over waist deep with potholes and ridges (The hares later assured me that this had always been dry on all their previous reccees and the stream was usually 3-6” deep). However every problem can have a bonus and after 10 years of hashing Chai Ling asked to hold my hand. Her threats that I must keep this a secret, otherwise Win would kill me, were of course totally ignored (and I am still alive).
One last hill to climb with a check halfway up, which the FROPS had broken the difficult way – straight up vertical terraces, easy way to follow the other track to the summit – obvious when you are at the top,
We then proceeded along the ridge before descending to the road at the final kilometre home.
The first runner was home in 1 hour 50 minutes with the last person out at 8:15pm and quite a few only making it out in the last remnants of daylight.
Noted on my return that Dave Wilson and his co-hare from the previous week were still not present – so were not just late. Wondered who they had appointed as scribe, thought I would ask one of their partners in crime Peter Miller to provisionally do the job in case the scribe had failed to do an appointment– but failed to speak to him before he left. It was not until another 10 days that I spoke to Dave and found that he also was going to ask Peter to do it and also failed. Therefore here I am doing another scribe report from memory and probably missing out important events – sorry lah!
An excellently conducted circle was held on site (I say modestly!). Firstly thanks to those who collected the beer softdrinks and ice as Ramli’s truck broke down before Rawang. He managed to get to the runsite later to serve the beer etc. Accusations amongst others for Dave Settergren for joining the Silver Hair Programme (Now called Malaysia my second home). Peter Brooke for complaining that there were too many women at Win’s Birthday Party the night before. Jimmy Leggett our esteemed GM for sneaking in very late from distant lands and hiding at the back of the circle, while letting me do the works. Chai Ling for holding my hand. Robin Cox again for probably being about to leave us (How many is this Robin?) Also all the visitors etc. who would not attend the ON ON.
We then adjourned to a new restaurant in Bukit Beruntung where I was able to get the football turned on to watch Norwich City, unfortunately lose, but they are really Malaysia’s Premier League team being sponsored by Proton. A good meal for only RM10 with beer at pre budget prices
Circle followed where Doctor Lee suitably robed presented with rubber gloves and face masked presented the toilet seat for a run over 1.5 hours, and as the run was over 1 hour 45 minutes the ten week rule was also invoked. Guests and visitors were then suitably on downed.
So what went wrong with the run that it required the ten week rule to be invoked, other than the fact that it was over 1 hour and 45 minute. In my opinion there were a number of possible factors.
1 It rained heavily before the run making all the steep bits very slippery, especially the first hill. However it should be noted that this is late October and heavy rains can be expected to occur at this time of year.
2 Between the first and third/fourth checks there was a lot of single filing this spreads the pack and could delay clearing checks as too few people present initially to work on the check.
3 The hares used a GPS for setting the run. Not a bad thing in itself, but reliance on the GPS to state the distance, without downloading the results into a computer can actually be anything from 15-40% short depending on the terrain. Although I personally use a GPS, I still prefere the old method that if I can walk round the trail in about 2 hours 15 minutes (the time taken normally for the back of the pack to complete) then it will normally run in just under 1 hour 30 minutes.
Anyway the hares found a new area with the proper running terrain for an otherwise excellent run.
ON ON
Mother Sheep
Posted by onsec at November 4, 2004 05:40 AM