Running madness

It's been a while since I tried something new. Like joining a club or a new sport or some hobby type thing. So I guess it was time.

Last week, I was running with Daniel in CP and when we stopped to get water at one point, I thought someone I knew passed on the road. I was pretty sure it was him except that he lived in Detroit. Hmm, well, I guess we'll see if we see him on our way around the park again - we were running in opposite directions. And I did. It was this guy I knew just a bit through fencing, really through refereeing. He is a few years younger than me and when I went back to Northwestern to referee at various tournaments during the past few years, he was always there. Good foil fencer too. Also not bad to look at :) so it was easy to remember him.

So, a quick conversation, facebook invites, messages, and a week later I am going to this thing called Hashing, which is just really crazy and one of the most fun things I have even seen or done in the city. The basic idea of the Hash House Harriers is that it is a social club organized around running and drinking. Yup, running and beer. Every week, people meet at a designated spot (Irish pub), the team leaders (Hares) mark the trail with chalk (yup, chalk on NYC sidewalks) while the other team members don't actually know the path. So then the whole team (~120 people last night) takes off, the people at the front have to pay attention to the chalk marks. On some corners, there are unclear markings (on purpose) so that the team has to send out fast runners in all directions to see which way the trail really goes. This all happens with incredible noise. The people who are "lost" yell "R U?" all the time and if someone sees the signs for the correct path, they yell "On-on" back to the rest of the team so everyone knows which way to go. About midway through the run, there might also be a pit stop with various alcoholic beverages.

That's basically it. But to make things even more fun, last night was the annual "Catholic School Girl" run. That means that people (men and women) were dressed in rather minimalistic school girl or priest/nun outfits. Something along these lines: (Will post a picture of what Rachel and I looked like soon, I promise!)



And, as it is only fitting for a special occasion, the trail took us through Times Square. Now, imagine ~120 people dressed like that, running in a herd in the middle of the busiest tourist destination in the world. And now imagine the look on those tourists' faces! PRICELESS!!! People everywhere stopped what they were doing, stared and took many many pictures. From a running point of view, it was like interval training combined with and obstacle course. Short intense bursts of running, more like slaloming around people and trashcans and light poles and cars and pigeons. Then stopping to look for the trail markings. Then intense running again. Then drinking. Then eating gummy's called "Walking with Jesus" (shaped as sandals). Meanwhile, yelling, screaming, singing dirty songs, oh and whenever anybody asked "What are you doing" we had to simply say "Running." and then if they asked "What for?", say "For beer!!".

The course was maybe 3 or 4 miles, hard to tell. It took us back to the same Irish pub we started at. Then everybody put in a $20 and you could drink as much beer as you could and eat chicken wings (or pizza) and of course, socialize. This wasn't not all. Regular Hashers have strange names: like TwoFuckChuck, Doggie Erectus, Pimpy Longstocking and many others. As you can tell, not the most politically correct. Also, there are customs like if someone wears brand new running shoes to an event, they make them drink beer out of the shoe. There are team songs, which everybody knows (I didn't, clearly) and people who have special Hash names wear them as necklaces around their necks.

But here is the coolest thing I learned yesterday. We started talking to an older gentleman at one point, who has been doing this for 30+ years. He said that he had first started in Saudi Arabia when he was working there. I though, well, they cannot be ok with people running through the streets and drinking there! He said, no, they were not ok with that, in fact, a team member spent 2 years in prison for it at one point. Hashing is serious business, people risk more for it than you would think!