I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Sunday, is a hashing day. Provided that I don’t have my kids with me that particular weekend and the hash is in south Austin.
Having said that, I went out to the Austin Hash trail run that started at Mary Moore Searight Park in deep south Austin. The scheduled start was at 3pm, but hash time meant that we didn’t actually get going until almost 4.
Before chalk talk
We started off going through the shiggy in the park, getting lost and not seeing any marks for a good while. Meantime, other people appeared to be calling out that they were on trail, I just couldn’t find trail in the shiggy.
Wrong trail
Long story short, I eventually found trail, and it was a glorious thing. Lots of good shiggy, clearly marked etc. which made me think that I was just following the wrong people at the beginning when I got lost.
Beautiful trail
The first of 3 stops came at about the 2 mile mark and I’m happy to report that I was not the last person in.
Stop 1
After a few minutes, we left down the clearing for the Longhorn Pipeline and eventually made our way to San Leanna, which is just north of Buda.
At this point, we’d gone about 3.5 miles total. I should back up and mention that as I was making my way to stop #2, Just before I passed the cemetery, I got a cramp in my right calf muscle that would not go away for the rest of the run.
Cemetary
In fact, had I been even remotely smart, I would’ve stopped running at the second stop and gotten a ride to the end with one of the hares, aka trail organizers.
Alas, I’m not terribly smart, as evidenced in this picture of me sitting next to a dead skunk and not even realizing it until it was too late.
Next to a dead skunk
After leaving stop #2, we went down these railroad tracks.
Tracks
I hate rail road tracks. Seriously, I do. I can’t ever get into a rhythm when I’m on them. Since my calf was cramping, and I couldn’t step right on the tracks, the rest of the pack just got further and further ahead of me.
After finally getting off the tracks and going under a railroad bridge the train went over head.
Train overhead
I had to hop my way around some nasty stale water. Around this part of the trail run, I paid homage to the trail gods in blood, again. After wandering around for a bit, I tracked the rest of the pack to a really cool dry river bed.
Trail blood
Riverbed
I eventually made it to the 3rd stop, after everyone had already left. One of the organizers stayed behind to wait for me and offered me a ride to the end. I found out that I only had about another mile to go, so, like an idiot I decided to just tough it out.
I refilled my camel back, and headed back out on my trail run of death.
Since I wasn’t thinking properly at this point in the day, I managed to ignore/not see the trail markings and ended up going down several false trails. I even managed to follow voices that I thought were from the pack, but it turned out it was just people in a swimming pool having a good time.
Eventually, managed to make it in to the end.
On in
No one said anything about my Cairo Bikini, but I was greeted with cheers of “Go speed racer, go speed racer, go speed racer gooooo” and an ice cold beer.
All in all, it was a great outing.
Memorable things:
- Met some new folks from San Antonio that came out to this trail.
- My apache/tracking skills are still working. When I lost trail a couple of times, I was able to find trail again by “reading the dirt” to figure out which way the pack went.
- I should listen to the little voice in my head that says “Get a ride to the end”
So, here are the trail stats:
- Total distance: 7.86 miles
- Total calories burned: 1896
- Beers consumed: 2
- Water consumed: Approximately 3 liters during trail, and another 1 after trail
Sunday's 8 mile trail
I’m super sore today. I’m glad I didn’t listen to the little voice in my head telling me to stop and get a ride to the end.
