Running in parks, woods, and streets may sound like orienteering over the last few months, but Hashing is a whole other world, with its own vocabulary and social life, as Tim Hall explains.

About 4 years ago, I felt I had reached the stage of orienteering that I had long anticipated: if I was going to go much faster, I actually had to be able to run faster, which, on balance, probably involved doing something that passed for training. As my ability to motivate myself to get out for a run on my own can be fitted in a matchbox without taking the matches out first, I found myself thinking of joining a running club ... though this sounded a bit too serious (and, like as not, too fast as well).

In the middle of this dilemma came a chance conversation over lunch at work with a colleague who told me about the Hash House Harriers, which sounded much more like something I could cope with. I went once, was hooked, and life hasn't quite been the same since.
 

So, what is this Hash House Harriers, then?

Good question. The hash is an international network of social running clubs, whose essential aim is to work up a decent thirst by going for a run, and then work it down again in a pub. Not for nothing do hashers proclaim themselves to be "drinkers with a running problem".
 

OK, so tell me about the running.

A hash trail is designed to keep a pack of runners, of significantly varying speeds, together for an hour or so. Most trails start and end at the same pub, whose landlord is persuaded to offer secure storage for bags in exchange for the hash staying there and spending money after the run. The runs, which may be road, park, cross-country or a mix, are marked either with blobs of flour or sawdust, or (on road) arrows drawn in chalk. In order to keep the pack together, the trail will typically include a variety of devices to ensure that the faster runners run much further than the rest :

• false trails, where the front runners will have to come back to find the true trail, allowing the slower runners to catch up;
• check points, where the trail disappears off in an unknown direction for some distance, which the front runners need to find, while the rest of the pack arrive at the check;
• loops, again allowing the pack to reduce the distance they cover.

All the way, those who are on trail call out "on on!" to indicate that the trail is found - very useful when you've gone the wrong way at a check in the forest and can't see where anyone else is. The exact markings for each of these vary from one hash club to another, so its best to ask when out with an unfamiliar hash.

Overall, on a well-laid trail, the front runners will be back in the pub only a few minutes ahead of the rest of the pack, despite having been out for an hour - and the front runners will have overtaken the pack several times during that period. The slowest people will have covered only three to four miles, the front runners significantly further. Obviously, this allows you to go as hard as you feel like on any given day, without feeling any pressure, which is handy when recovering from illness or injury.
 

What about the social side?

The whole point of the hash is to be a social event. After the run, the pack gathers in the pub and each stays until (s)he has had enough, or the pub is closing, or (just occasionally, but it has happened) the pub runs out of beer. To ensure that no-one gets too serious, misdemeanours on the trail are rewarded with a forfeit, normally involving a pint to be downed, and particularly memorable events result in the hasher being awarded a nickname.

Once in a while, a hash will organise a more significant event, often to commemorate a particular anniversary (100 runs, for example). These may just be a 'bigger' event with a few more things laid on (like the transition from a colour coded to a badge event), but equally may involve a weekend away somewhere, or inviting hashers from other hashes to make a much larger event. There are UK national events ('Nash Hash') every two years, which get upwards 1000 people attending, with the worldwide Interhash in intervening years, which reached some 7000+ attendees in 1998.
 

You said something about it being international?

Yes, the hash exists worldwide, having been founded in Kuala Lumpur in 1938 by a group of British ex-pats, and has now been spread everywhere. The web is a great resource for travelling hashers - you can find a hash anywhere in the world with just a few clicks. When I travel on business its great to know that between the grind of airports, meetings, and anonymous hotels, I can find a bit of instant social life waiting for me pretty much wherever I go.
 

Where can I find out more?

There are two easy ways to find out a bit more about the hash.

• Talk to an existing hasher - there are (at least) three in HH: Duncan 'Quickie' Archer, Steve Taxidermist' Templeton, and me.
• Start at the London hash website www.londonhash.org, from which you can find links to hashes elsewhere in the UK and worldwide.

On on!

Tim 'Lunchbox' Hall

[Sorry, you will have to ask Tim how he came to be known as 'lunchbox']