Whoa 25 kilometres of hills, hills and more hills!
9.30 am saw nearly 200 eager ballbreakers take off. Only 30 percent of this number are fated to succeed in the quest to complete this grueling test of the human body. This ballbreaker was originally touted to be 25 km or so but a week before the event, an email from the organisers proclaiming a shortened run of 21 or so km made the rounds. However on the event date, this was not to be. Perhaps due to pressure from die hard ballbrakers, the original run length was restored albeit in a shroud of uncertainty.
The first water stop appeared only after 12 km. This would lead me to speculate that the extra 4 km was “bolted on” to the front part of the trail. Tarzan who did not carry and water or 100 plus had to exit at this 12 km first water stop along with a dozen other hashers. The organisers were caught unawares here as they did not expect anyone to drop out the the first water stop. Perhaps if this water stop was adjusted to 8-9 kms, there would have been plenty more “survivors”.
Jack and Alka made it through the second water stop (about 16 kms) in the nick of time and completed the full trail. Congrats Jack and Alka, you have made Veggiehash proud!
We were in the company of RSC Hashers and one of them, Dr. Jens took these GPS snapshots:
If you have Google Earth intsalled you can just open the kml-file by double clicking on it after downloading it.
Penang Ballbreaker .kml Google Earth File
