Hare: Elaine Leong
Cohares: Dogshit & Jane Trane
Runsite: Kundang Lake
Scribe: Opera
This has got to be a run to be remembered and talked about for a while yet. Not quite for the quality of the run itself - or the lack of it, to some - but for a very disturbing incident: a hasher was waylaid and robbed!
While in the past there have been occasions when hares were relieved of their valuables at run sites either during recces or on the day of the run, this was probably the first instance when someone gob robbed on trail. Okay, I lied, it wasn’t on trail, truth be told, the victim was actually off paper doing a shortcut. So, Rob Stott lived up to his name. There has got to be a moral to the story – so, pardon the cliché - it doesn’t pay to shortcut!
For as long as I can remember, Kundang Lake and its surrounds have always been choice run sites, what with the immense expanse of estates that spans a full 180 degrees on its eastern, western and northern flanks. In my 20+ years of hashing, we have witnessed the numerous transformations of the area, as old growths were chopped down, new seedlings were planted, nurtured, and then grow into mature plants - now almost exclusively palms - and become such a boon to us hashers. With each stage of the cycle, we moved run sites to secure the maximum canopy for the run of the day. Unfortunately, this sad episode might mean the end of our hashing sojourn in the area, unless the authorities take effective measures to nab the culprits and prevent similar incidents from recurring. The irony of it is really laughable, because on the far side of this vast expanse posits the biggest incarceration center in the country, the Sungei Buluh Prison!
The run. Well, there were not much noteworthy things about this particular run to share. If one is content running in circles around a playground or in the lake garden, this serves the purpose well enough. There was ample running indeed, 8 or 9 km of it. But, looking at it from a hashing perspective, the run and checks were as straightforward as it gets. There were 7 checks, but up till the 6th, we were never really more than 300 meters from the Guthrie Corridor Highway.
From the outset, the hares took us into the oil palms, basically running on the edge adjacent to the highway. An easy 1st and papers then led uphill, still on the same heading. By the 2nd, it became obvious to those who have a fair idea of the general area that the hares will likely take us across the highway through the tunnel. This inkling very quickly proved correct. That about set the tone for the rest of the run and how it will traverse.
The trail towards the 3rd passed through the tunnel that doubled as a culvert, or perhaps the other way around, and looped to the left up a hill lock where the check was broken in about 20 seconds flat by FROP Lawrence. A long stretch of great running ensued, about 2km of it, which went past the second tunnel for an obvious 4th check. This was the high point of the whole run, because the paper trail, having passed the tunnel, then snaked back towards it on a 3m deep culvert with about 6 runners caught in it, and JM Kamikaze couldn’t help himself but kept shouting “where the fuck are we” in mock mimicry of the popular song ‘Wild West Show’.
The subsequent checks were of no consequence, for they were all easily breached, therefore not serving the purpose of keeping the fast runners in check. Not that it mattered, because by then hashers were spread out all over since the direction the run was taking became self-evident and the slower runners and walkers were taking full advantage to shortcut through without following papers thoroughly, although this was to become a bane to one particular SCB.
The FROPs got back to the wagon in a little over an hour, and the rest trooped in over the next 45min or so.