Chiang Mai is a damn near perfect place for trail runs because even though this is one of the most populated cities in all of Thailand there is a ton of nature that is nearby in every direction. We have hundreds of potential staring points for our runs and no matter which direction you turn in from the center of the city, you are not too far from some forest or national park.
Recently a couple of Hash House Harriers veterans put together an absolutely wonderful regular event for us and it was just awesome.
One thing that I hear often when I am talking to people about the Hash House Harriers is that they are worried that the trails are going to be too touch for them and they are concerned they are not in good enough shape. I will often mention "TipToe" who you might remember. This guy is near 70, has one leg that barely works, he is overweight too, and he does the trails every week. There isn't much chance that Tiptoe is in better shape than you are unless you are in a wheelchair.
Well over the weekend I managed to get a Strava readout from one of the guys that records all of them and this guy is one of the more fit people in our group. By "more fit" I want you to stop and think about what we are dealing with here: Most of us are in our 50's and 60's and almost everyone is dealing with some extra weight that they could probably do with shedding a bit of.
7km is only that high because the person who recorded this is normally one of the people near the front of the pack. This means that he probably walked at least 1km in the wrong direction a number of times and therefore, the real distance for someone that isn't trying to be up front, would be more like 5-6km.
here is the overhead of the entire trail walk/run/crawl without taking any wrong turns. This sort of terrain is ideal because while there are streets at the start and finish, most of the trail is an actual trail in the jungle... this is a lot more fun and scenic than pavement is.
Most of the roads you see on the overhead map aren't really roads so much as they are dirt paths that the farmers who live in this area are the only ones that use them. You are more likely to encounter a friendly dog or a tied up cow back here than you are a person or a car. In that regard this area is ideal.
But let's stick with the point. I'm trying to show that you don't really need to work that hard.
These are "Prison Bitch's" times for the 7km and like i said before he made some wrong turns and this is totally normal for someone that is a Front Running Bastard (FRB). While I didn't have eyes on him during the run, I can assure you that he was probably never running other than the 6th which was the downhill portion of the run near the end of the entire thing.
10-11 minute km's are more like a fast walk than they are a run and PB is one of the guys that is faster than most out here.
According to him his average heart rate was 118 and that's pretty low unless I totally don't understand heart rates.
So the point of all of this is to put people's minds at ease and to reassure them that you do not need to be in good shape to go to one of our events. This is more like a brisk walk with some sightseeing than it is like a run. If we were forced to run these trails I think half of our trooped would die on the trail and we don't want to see that happen because it would be too difficult to move the bodies.
We continue to do at least 3 runs per week and we always welcome new members. If you happen to be in the Chiang Mai area look up our schedule on our official website
