We try to vary the locations of our runs as much as possible. One of the most difficult aspects of keeping up the level of variety is finding brand new areas or as we call them "virgin trails." Every now and then someone is able to find something like this though and it is always a treat because even the veterans have no idea what to expect.
Because it is rainy season, the trails can always have a chance of being a lot more treacherous than they normally would be and we advise people ahead of time to take it easy on certain portions of it. This new territory that we went to was quite hilly and since it had rained the day before and was still raining a bit during certain times of our run, even though it was light, we had to be extra careful. We have had instances of people busting their butts in the past on these sorts of areas and one time a guy even busted his head open and needed to get stitches. We would obviously like to avoid having these things happen.
Like many of our other runs in Chiang Mai, this one had a bunch of rice paddies on it as well. When we encounter these we always instruct the runners to not mess with the paddies at all and to even keep their distance. In some of the paddies the water level is controlled simply by a wall of dirt and if someone was to accidentally mess that up, they could potentially kill the crop of the farmer. Since we are trespassing almost every run that we go on, it is absolutely essential that we not damage the land that we are running on.
The same goes for these little makeshift bridges that are all over the place. A Hasher is normally quite a bit larger and heavier than the average Thai farmer, so we have to be super careful to not break their bridges. If we ever do break one, and we have in the past, we send one of our Thai runners to find out who the owner is, and then give them much more money than the bridge is actually worth as an apology. If the farmers start to get pissed off that we are on their property, we lose the ability to run in these areas because if anyone ever asks us to leave we do not protest, we simply go. It is their land after all.
This particular trail was a good one because it was a nice mix of hills and also flatlands. Plus we got kind of lucky with the rain because this time of year the rain can come out of nowhere and totally soak a run. It doesn't really matter that much because we all end up really sweaty from the runs anyway and the rain can be kind of refreshing. It is just a bit more dangerous when the ground is wet, particularly on hills.
We have a lot of events coming up and we are still doing at least 3 runs per week. As always anyone is welcome to come and join us at everything and anything that we do, membership is not required. You can see our full schedule HERE.
Varying the runs must help keep the interest levels high as you just do not know what to expect next. With GPS tracking I am sure you can get maps of the area and plan the routes before marking them out and has given you access to areas you may not have experienced before.
that's precisely what it is all about. The main issue we run into is that we often wander into private property and every now and then the owners have a real problem with that. We apologize and move on, no need for conflict.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ