My First Run (pt. 1)

At the end of October I planned and hared my first run for the China Hash House Harriers in Taipei. This is the group I run with on Sundays. Each week we meet at a different scenic place just outside Taipei. Two people (the hares) plan a trail ahead of time, and we give them a 15 minute running head start. The hares lay a trail of flour as they run and everyone follows trying to catch them. I took my first turn as a hare just three weeks ago. The club’s most senior member was quoted beforehand saying, “I’m not going to a run done by that bunch of rookies, you’ll all be lost in the damn jungle!” Just because he was right doesn’t mean it wasn’t a foul thing to say. But that’s still ok because everyone had a great time – even me.

This story is actually going to start one day before the Sunday run. Saturday morning, Dave (my co-hare) and I went out to survey the run one last time before we had to perform for a crowd. We rode my scooter up the hill to Mao-Kong which overlooks all of Taipei from the South. The trail started up some stairs until it went over the ridge, down through a farmer’s plot to a service road. Then a steep drop on some cutbacks all the way to the edge of a little town before taking a hiking trail next to a stream back up into the forest. It’s not considered great form to have huge vertical drops and gains, better to even them out. But in this case it was worth it – the trail went straight past the 200 ft. Silver River waterfall. There’s a temple in the cliff side behind the fall. And it had rained hard for three straight days before our run, I’ve never seen the cascade so full.

At the end of our run there was a short section where you had to trace a stream with a small six foot waterfall. We were so hot from hiking and running that I couldn’t resist jumping in – it’s such a rush. We headed back, but when I got to the scooter I discovered my pockets were empty…no keys. No scooter keys. No house keys. They had come out in the fall. We went back and looked for them, but there was no hope. The water was too fast, too turbulent. The keys were gone.

I’m proud that I was able to remain calm. Living in Taiwan has helped me develop my patience and my problem-solving skills. We coasted the scooter back down the hill to town and found a repair shop that could put new locks on the scooter. I finally got my cell phone out of the trunk and called my roommate to see if she could help me get back into the apartment. I got her key copied and everything was resolved. I bought Dave dinner to make up for the delay and thank him for his help. I finished the night by driving my scooter back up to Mao Kong and running home. I went to bed early and nervous.

I got up on Sunday and immediately started checking over everything. I had the flour ready. I had added the food dye to keep it visible even if it gets wet. I reviewed the timetable and the job flow-charts for me and my two co-hares. There were a lot of separate things to take care of, even with three of us, we still had to split up to get it all done. I had to pick-up Dave and Ben from the subway. Then we drove up the hill, stopping at all the turns to leave flour marks so everyone else could find it later. Once we got to Mao Kong, Dave took a bag of flour to mark the trail for a foot race that started at the Subway came up to the start of our run in Mao Kong. Ben took my car and drove down the hill to pick up Dave. I got on my scooter and drove on the farm roads to get over the mountain and set up a beer-stop next to the giant waterfall. All of that went off without a hitch, but I didn’t get back until 20 minutes before the run was supposed to start. But I got worried when people told me that the marks on the road driving up had faded, people were having trouble. I grabbed Dave and jumped on my scooter so we could re-mark the road before starting. We got to the bottom of the hill and go into an accident with a car. [Great!] The plastic on the front end of my scooter was smashed up. There was a small scratch on the bumper of the car. But the man was upset and frightened. It took me five minutes to get him to move his car to the side of the road before I could start and try to talk him down. He was a lawyer. [Fantastic!] With the Justice Department. [Awesome!]

After about 15 minutes he calmed down, we exchanged information and went on our way. We jumped in a cab and encouraged him to drive up the hill as fast as possible. We were late and everyone was waiting.