The hash is a social club – billed as a drinking club with a running problem, but essentially a social club that does a bit of running and drinking. “The loneliness of the long distance runner” (a book & a film from the 50s and 60s), does highlight the possibility of an oxymoron there between running and being social. We all run at our own paces, and apart from a brief chat as a faster runner flies by us, there is little camaraderie to liven the grueling slog of going for a run. Many of us don’t really enjoy running. How could it be possible for faster runners to run with slower runners? Perhaps the faster runner could slow down? Or the slower runner speed up? Or might there be another way to solve this conundrum? Along comes the hash! It’s not a running club, and it’s not a hiking club, even though we do much the same thing running clubs or hiking clubs do. So where is the difference? The brilliance of a check – the humble circle check, the sneaky false trail, a V, a cross, even a beer stop. The cunning tools available to the hare to liven up a run – to let runners of all abilities run the same course, but somehow faster runners run further than walkers, and yet arrive around the same time. The checks make the run part of a hash sociable, and the beers make the circle sociable.
And so to today’s hash, or run, from the football field on the Sameong Road. Familiar area, and the constant nagging worry on the drive to the runsite is whether we will be punished with the stairs. After Saturday’s ‘epic’ run, I was still trying to recover. The hare staggered out of a local tavern to slur through a hare brief and point us off in a vague general direction. We were following blue paper – a particular shade of blue, selected for its ability to naturally blend into a leafy environment. At the first check I determined that we weren’t to be punished by the stairs, and took off along the road. I got a bit ahead of the other FRBs, but there were 4 of us together as we jogged down to the wimp rambo split.
CW, Piggy, Poo and I, and when I saw the W/R split I was inconsolable. By the rubber wall, with the rambo’s pointed off the ‘wrong’ side of the wall. We were 2.5km in, and running around the rubber wall is another 8km – a terry-ble idea for a hare. I was ready to take the wimp trail, but Piggy spurred me on by questioning my manhood. Shortly afterwards the trail turned abruptly right and steeply up hill. So if we weren’t going around the wall, it probably meant we were going up to the temple and back down the steps? And even worse idea! The climb set in – no relief – no opportunity to pause and enjoy the view while checking for trail, because the hare completely forgot about checks. When the trail leveled off (briefly) there were trails going left, right and straight. An opportunity to catch up with the other 3 who had taken off ahead of me up the hill? NOPE! No check, just more trail leading towards the next hill – and away from the temple. When finally there was a check, either way would work and Piggy & CW continued to extend their lead.
I caught brief glimpses of Poo as we passed so many spots that would have made excellent checks, and very rarely, faintly heard a call. It was lonely and I was tempted to give up and take a more direct route back. I persevered though, and at the bottom of the hill, we followed the wall the 2.5km back to where the wimp rambo split had been. From here I was sorely tempted to go straight back in, but reluctantly plodded off on the wimp trail – any checks there may have been (one), were long since broken, while again we passed several places where the front runner would have got it badly wrong, as the trail turned again away from the A site. Finally we got to the bamboo bridge, and I attempted to cross it. My legs too shaky, and generally too weak, so I took the long way around to avoid it.
10KM… 6 CHECKS… I should point out the route was great – some good views, almost all trail, very little shiggy. There were even great places to confuse the front of the pack. With only 4 FRBs it was a tremendous amount of work to set, and had there been more checks on that route with only 4 FRBs we could have been struggling by the end.