Higgie's Leaving Do

Stone Nullah Lane A to A

Hares: Higgy (C U Next Time!) and Olya (Ivana Nucock)

Living in Hong Kong, and running as we do, we are afforded a plethora of wonderful outdoor trail that allows us to steer clear of our polluted, noisy, dangerous and fume filled roads as much as possible.

It was with some disappointment then, that we were subject to an extraordinary amount of road running on this, Higgy's much heralded (by himself mainly) leaving run. The hares did however, redeem themselves with a fantastic section of shiggy towards the end, but more on that later.

An A to A run, starting and ending at the Pak Tai temple park at the top of Stone Nullah Lane, there was really only one direction it was going to go. Reservoir, Blacks Link, Bowen, and Stubbs Rd were all being thrown around with reckless abandon, but the Hares weren't giving much away.

A solid pack of close to 30 runners set off towards Happy Valley, most expecting a swift climb up to Bowen Road via Wan Chai Gap or the stairs up from Kennedy, but the trail instead wound it's way up the road towards Shu Fai Terrace, where random markings from the Royal Southside caused some severe disorientation in the pack before Gobi Lo picked the trail up again heading back up the main road towards Stubbs road roundabout.

It wasn't too long after winding our way around the backstreets of Shui Fai Terrace that we did eventually find Bowen Road, a sneaky check not fooling many of the front pack who, correctly, chose to turn right and head towards Lover's Rock. Trail marking were... sparse at best... decidedly 'scottish' in general. Small 'mounds' of flour, as if carefully moulded to display as small, white peaks by the Hare, were order of the day rather than an easier-to-spot 'splatter' of it as one might get if you were dropping it by hand as you ran.

A false trail further on led the front runners down some stairs in the direction of Kennedy Rd, with an eventual 'T' sending us back up the stairs to Lover's Rock, where we picked up an interesting bit of steep shiggy that took us (vertically) up to the main tourist overlook on Stubbs Rd. The look on the faces of mainlanders watching us climb up and over the railings in all our sweaty gear was priceless.

A quick and borderline perilous dash up Stubbs Road to Wan Chai Gap Park ensued, where we were pointed in the direction of Black's Link. Gagging for some real trail at this point, I was sure it would peel off onto the contour trail around Mt Cameron, but we were denied. Calls from Gobi Lo led us up the service stairs, which joined some incredibly shiggy trail that eventually dropped us out at the trig marker for Mt Cameron. In all my years here I can honestly say I have never been up there, and the trail was epic! Great views too - really nice to have something new like that on a run and eager to get back on a nice clear day to see what it looks like in the daylight.

Trail down the other end dropped us back at Wan Chai Gap Park and it was a straight shot (and quad-busting!) downhill back down the Gap to where we all began.

My moaning about the road running aside, it was a highly enjoyable run that made good use of a RSS run that Hopeless had set some time previously.

Hash bash was down the road at a tiny Thai restaurant on Amoy Street where unfortunately, due to lack of space, the pack had to split. Good food, good banter and a great evening ensued - a fitting send off for Higgy, who was christened with a new has name for the evening - C U Next Time - in honour of his imminent departure.

Unfortunately, this week's hare (Tinny) was enjoying himself too much to record any of the down downs, and Indy left her notes at the restaurant, so you'll just have to imagine them.

Notable mentions that I *do* recall include multiple DD's for the Hare, naturally, and one of specific mention is my friend Kemal Arsan, a virgin hasher who just moved back to HK, on his first hash run ever that night, who was christened 'Camel's Arse' and made to drink out of his new shoes! Took it all in his stride and thoroughly enjoyed himself - a true hasher!