Tiếng Việt
The night before this run, it was stormy and flooded all around Ho Chi Minh City. The hares certainly did a very difficult job of going out in the rain and setting the trail. In fact, they did such a good job that after the storm, most of the marks are still visible on Sunday. The trail is not exactly far from the city, it took about 30 minutes by bus to arrive at the A Point in Hiep Hoa island, Dong Nai. The run happened just 1 day before Vietnamese independence day and was unexpectedly crowded. There were many virgins, returnees, and some kids.
After the welcoming circle, we fucked off for the run under Sex On The Beach and I Choked Linda Lovelace's instructions. There was common anxiety about the weather because it's rainy season, but the run started off very dry and sunny; it was actually so sunny that some of the hashers were out of breath early in the trail.
The trail started on the road toward a little neighborhood, all the kids in town got super excited seeing us running, some of them followed us for a few kilometers. Just to talk with the foreigners, guess they don't see those every day. We made it to the edge of the island, where you can actually dangle your digits in the Dong Nai River like Linda Lovelace promised, with kids running with us, lots of locals hanging out fishing and picnicking. It was very friendly and nice atmosphere. The breeze from the river doesn't make the heat any less, but the smiling faces of the kids and locals did create some joy.
The trail now entered a dirt road with view of a pagoda and rice field, I choked Linda Lovelace warned us about the shiggy-ness of this part, but it was not even close to wet at all. Sun was still up and bright when we made it to the beer stop, which is a pagoda kitchen, and weirdly, and thankfully, they agreed to provide us with cold beers.
After the beer stop, there was a part that Hasher needed to hug a wall to cross part of the river (it's not as dangerous as it sounds). Most of the hasher chose to go other way only me, Rocky, Alowetty, and a virgin walk this true trail because we're no chickens.
At 4:30 pm, it suddenly got darker and darker, with angry grey clouds invaded the sky. Felt like Thor was banging his hammer somewhere, thunder rumbling. It started to rain in the best part of the trail, which is the rubber forest. The good thing about the rain was that it made the air so much cooler and easier to breathe. Before anyone can do anything, we are all wet. At the last 500m, where Linda Lovelace's warning came true, the whole path was knee-high flooded.
Lucky us, there was a nice hotpot restaurant nearby that allowed us to use their space for circle. The trail ended up with good snacks, cold beers, lots of charges and the hash shit nomination once again came to Chemically Castrated for a simple reason: "He doesn't want it.".
See you next week. The next run will be in the city. And don't forget to volunteer for haring if you can 😉
On on
Cherry Ho