We almost never do urban runs because Chiang Mai is surrounded by some of the best nature that Thailand has to offer. However, on Songkran we decided to head in-town so that everyone could throw water at us while we do it.
Previously I had said that this run was not going to happen because of governmental meddling but for reasons that i do not know, the government reversed all of their restrictions at the last minute so we went ahead with our annual in-city run.
Although we are not sure about the legality of it, there wasn't a lot of mask-wearing with local people so we left it up to our members about whether or not they wanted to wear one. Most of us kept one in our pocket just in case any authorities took issue with a bunch of people in matching shirts wandering around and running.
This run saw us go through some of the famous walled city in Chiang Mai and also to one of the main features of the whole city, the Tha Pae Gate. This area in the past would be absolutely packed with tourists. You can tell by this picture exactly how much tourism devastation there has been because this is a holiday week, and there is almost no one there at all. Oh well, suits us just fine.
One of the downsides of an urban run during Songkran is that one of the rituals of the holiday is that people throw water all over the place so we couldn't do circle checks with chalk because they would get washed out. So our run had to be a little different in that we had a live hare who would go to various corners ahead of all of us on motorbike to indicate where to turn.
While we don't do them often, these urban runs have the benefit of easy beer stops and we do this at a number of pre-arranged bars.
The idea is that we pop into these places for one or two beers before carrying on with the rest of our 5-6 km run for the day eventually ending up at the circle where we do our usual berating of one another on the ice blocks.
This run is very different than our other ones because all throughout the run there were people at their storefronts ready to spray any passer by with water. It was a very hot day so we don't mind and this is just part of Songkran. If you want to stay dry you better stay home because that is the only way that you are going to manage that.
In the end we had a much better turnout than we expected when you consider the fact that more than 50% of our members are currently not in-country. A good time was had by all and no one got hurt. That's a good Hash week if you ask me.
Happy Songkran everyone!
