Unlike a lot of our brethren around the world we are not restricted from meeting out of fear of a virus. While we would never pressure anyone to NOT do so, no one wears a mask and we do not social distance yet none of us are dead and we aren't breaking any rules by doing so either. There are no mandates for that sort of thing here so I just want ya to know that in case someone was thinking about being judgmental about our lack of precautions.
Anyway, the Saturday runs are probably the most frequented by our group here and this has everything to do with the fact that some of our members have traditional jobs and can't make it to the midweek ones. This last run of 2020 took place near Doi Suthep and is one of the dryer runs we have had in quite some time.
The trail took us our usual 6km or so and very few of our members were out of town for the holidays because of multiple reasons
- No one is allowed in or out of the country
- Thais don't generally celebrate Christmas
This area is one that we come to frequently and it is always a bit funny how sandy it is because we are hundreds of kilometers from the nearest beach and are in the mountains. Maybe I am wrong about where sand lives but I don't feel like it would be all the way up here, I could be wrong but this place for runs is fairly unique in this regard.
One thing that happens this time of year that we don't experience just about any other time of year is that as the sun sets it actually starts to get a little bit cold. You can see the guy in the back there with the silly hat already bitching with his body language about how cold it is. The bus ride back into town can be very chilly because the seats are open air and if you are sweaty from the run this can be pretty uncomfortable. Therefore we always recommend that people bring a long-sleeve shirt backup or a jacket for after the run (if they are on the bus.)
People complain that 2020 has been an awful year and that has been true for us in Thailand as well. However, we should probably try to look at the bigger picture and at least be thankful that we are here and not other places in the world where there has been significantly more restrictions on what people can and can't do. In USA for example, Hashes are basically banned outright in most places. Maybe we aren't experiencing that here because we didn't have an election in Thailand this year. :P
