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Below are guidelines for setting an evening run in the city, as a hare you can take them into account, or not. First time hares are advised to take at least note of them.
§ Most important is to realize that you set the trail in daylight, but the trail will be ran mostly in the dark, and many hashers won’t bother to bring a flashlight. So you need plenty of well visible markings (about double the number of markings as during daylight, say every 25 meters).
§ Use white chalk (not colored) and / or shredded paper (which you can stick for example into the holes of the concrete lamp posts). Don’t put too tiny arrows with chalk and be consistant in marking. In the dark you have to look hard for markings and consistancy will help hashers look at the right places.
§ Arrows marked with chalk will fade out if put on pavement / streets where there is traffic, pedestrians etc. Also rain will easily wash it away if it is on flat surface. Try to put arrows on lamp posts, walls, etc. Paper is rain proof. Check the weather forecast upfront but don't trust it.
§ Try making use of street lights when marking the trail, for example where the trail continues after a check. Recci at least once your run in the evening to get a feeling about how dark it will be on the trail, and also to see if possible gates the trail might pass are not closed in the evening.
§ Realize that things change on the road. An empty road by day might be full with parked cars or food stalls in the evening covering your markings or blocking visibility. Night life areas can get very busy in the evening which might also make it difficult to see the markings.
§ Aim for a run duration of about an hour for the front runners, though anything between 45 mins and 75 mins is fine. In the city a trail of about 7 to 8 km will usually take about an hour for the first runners as time is lost at checks, getting lost etc. Another guideline can be that if you can walk the trail little over one hour then given a few checks the run will last a little less than an hour for the majority of the pack.
§ Checks should be no longer than 100 meters. You can use back checks to keep the pack together. The hare is expected to ‘screw’ the front runners with back checks, false trails etc.
§ Do not put checks at busy roads or intersections. Due to traffic noise, no one will here the on call.
§ The Full Moon Hash is typically set in the city area as the other hashes in Bangkok already cover the country side (during day light). Try to stay away from the main roads as much as possible and see if you can find interesting areas for the trail, e.g. places where farangs normally would never end up. You can also consider a boat ride being part of the trail.
§ Think of a good place to meet and hold the circle. It should be easily reachable by public transport (BTS or MTR) plus perhaps a short taxi ride as most hashers prefer not to come by car on a Friday night. And not less important, think also about night live possibilities around. As there is no 'ononon' after the Full Moon Hash, the hashers usually will end up in one of the bars nearby after the circle.
§ Last but not least, choosing the Friday closest to the full moon will provide more light during the run, given a clear sky. To find out when the full moon is see http://www.moonphases.info/full_moon_calendar_dates.html#Full_Moon_dates_2009.
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