Hashing makes Runners World
Having written this post I realized I need to introduce it by admitting two of my dirty little secrets. The first is that I read Runner's World magazine. The second is that during marathon training I regularly enjoy the slightly camp delights of the gym ski-trainer machine.This is relevant because I was ski-training this lunchtime, and as I ski-trained I was reading Runner's World, and whilst reading Runner's World and ski-training, I made a discovery. Snuggling in between an article on bootstrapping flagging motivation and people who have won a particular race for oompteen years on the trot there was an article called "Wacky races". The entries in the article advertised some of the more esoteric races in the UK such as the Llanwrtyd Wells World Bog Snorkelling Triathlon and the Cooper's Hill Cheese Roll. In a side pane was a little piece on hashing, which is a good explanation for the casual visitor to this blog: -
No matter how many obstacles, customes or pints are added to anevent, there'll always be someone who takes it just a little bit too seriously; there is always a winner. Unless that event is a hash.
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You've probably met hashers at "normal" races, but a true hash is very different, the aim being for everyone to arrive at the finish point (a pub) at roughly the same time. Hash House Harriers take their fun so seriously that rules are in place to ensure no-one can "win" a race - in fact it is frowned upon to try to beat the rest of the pack, with faster runners known affectionately as FRBs (Front Running Bastards). Anyone who enjoys drinking as much as (or more than) running would be well advised to visit www.hhh.org.uk.
I'm glad to see the distinction made between hashers and "normal", and also that hashing is generally regarded as even more trivial than cheese rolling. There's a picture of a load of people foolishly falling over all over the place which could be chucking out time on a Monday night or a load of cheese chasers - it's hard to tell.
posted by Jim @ 11:28 AM
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