We haven't been allowed to get together for our Hash runs for quite some time now and a lot of us are missing it dearly. I recently stumbled upon some pics from our outings over the past year and some in particular reminded me of days when people returned to the circle with some very wet shoes because of the intentional water hazards that the hares put in place, and this is always a lot of fun.
Incorporating water hazards into a run isn't as easy as you might think because although Chiang Mai does have a lot of rivers and streams, they are normally either a trickle that you barely notice, a roaring whitewater that would kill you if you fell in, or some man made canal that wasn't meant to be crossed.
Mostly what we do end up with are ditches where the locals have put together some sort of makeshift bridge. This is dangerous enough for most of our members since we tend to specialize in drinking beer and non necessarily physical activity.
Getting your feet wet is one of the worst things that can happen on a run as "squishy boots" are not a great deal of fun. We do get a great laugh out of when someone ends up in the water though, preferably their entire body and not just a foot or two though, especially if the water is stagnant and really smelly.
I have been on Hash runs where they intentionally made it impossible for you to NOT walk through a body of water and this is always a lot of fun. Normally they will try to do this towards the end of the run so that the wet boots don't last for a full 5k but rather just half a km or so.
Anything is possible though and there are many Hares out there that take great joy in creating as much discomfort as possible for the runners.
One good rule of thumb to remember is don't go jumping over water hazards until it has been established by the pack that that is definitely where the trail is going.... you might find yourself stuck over there and need to swim back.
All events are still shutdown from the lockdown in Chiang Mai, we will resume operations as soon as possible and up to date information can be found at our official website