Our First Hash

Last weekend we did the hash. The Hash House Harriers is a running club that has chapters all over the world, even in some of the most remote places. I remember the group in Almaty , Kazakhstan was quite popular. They meet once a week (Sunday mornings here) at a different place each week. A different person hosts it each time and they are responsible for setting the trail. I’ll throw out a description from the group’s official web site so you can get an idea of how the runs are structured:

The template for a hash run is loosely based on hare hunting. One or more hashers (the "hares") lay out a running trail, that the rest of the club (pack or 'hounds') follows. The trail may include false trails (check-backs or CB), short cuts (or splits), breaks, and checks (a marking on the trail that requires the pack to search the area to discover the correct direction of the trail. These features are designed to keep the pack together regardless of fitness levels or running speed.

The unofficial motto of hashing groups is “a drinking club with a running problem.” With some groups, there are copious amounts of drinking involved before, during, and after the run. Other hash groups are more focused on the running aspect and less on the social. There are also lots of silly rituals involved--singing, chanting--that always kind of dissuaded me from participating. (I’m not really a “silly ritual” kind of guy.) So I stayed clear from the hashing, until last week.

New country, new continent, clean slate. Eager to meet new people. Haven’t exercised in, well, a very long time. All of these reasons compelled us to try it out and I’m glad we did. In the first place, the group here is mostly comprised of mommies and daddies and little kids, so it is the extreme opposite of hard core. Second, the run we went on was through the bush of the Mocholodi game reserve—very cool. Third, we did get to meet some new people and they struck me as far less dorky than many of the other hashers I have met. (Any hashers reading this are probably reserving a special place for me in hasher hell right about now.) We met at the house of a colleague who lives in Mocholodi and headed out from there. Some people walked, some people ran. Findley seemed to enjoy it. There was one beer stop during the run, and the post-run rituals were thankfully kept to a minimum. We topped it off with a brai (barbeque) and some play time with the kiddies. I’m not sure if we’ll make hashing a regular part of our weekly routine, but I can see us maybe doing it again at some point. I know I could use the exercise.