Hash House Harriers

The Hash House Harriers (HHH or H3) is an international group of non-competitive running social clubs.

The Hash is humorously known as A Drinking Club With A Running Problem, with the preferred beverage of consumption being beer.

With hash names in parentheses, the original members included Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert ("G"), Cecil Lee, Frederick Thomson ("Horse"), Ronald Bennett ("Torch"), Eric Galvin, H.M. Doig, and John Woodrow.

While attempting to reorganise in the city of Kuala Lumpur after World War II, hashers were informed by the Registrar of Societies that, since they were a "group", they would require a constitution.

[5] The objectives of the Hash House Harriers as recorded on the club registration card dated 1950 are: In 1962, Ian Cumming founded the second chapter in Singapore.

These features are designed to keep the pack together despite differences in fitness level or running speed, as front-runners are forced to slow down to find the "true" trail, allowing stragglers to catch up.

Members sometimes describe their group as "a drinking club with a running problem", indicating that the social element of an event is as important, if not more so than any athleticism involved.

In addition to regularly scheduled hashes, a club or chapter may also organize other events or themed runs.

The following year, the San Diego Hash House Harriers sent Rhinehart an airline ticket to attend the inaugural "Red Dress Run".

In addressing the crowd, Rhinehart, or "The Lady in Red" as she became known, suggested that such hashes might be held to raise funds for local charities.

The event quickly spread around the globe to places such as Beijing,[8] Montreal,[9] Helsinki, Osan/Yangsan Hashers, Moscow, Tokyo, New Orleans,[10] Washington DC and Hobart in Australia.

The New Orleans Hash House Harriers attracted 7,000 participants to their Red Dress Run in 2010, raising more than $200,000 for 50 local charities.

Rhinehart died in 2013 as the Hash House Harriers were celebrating the 25th anniversary of their Red Dress Run.

The hares mark their trail with paper, chalk, sawdust, strings or coloured flour, depending on the environment and weather.

Trails may pass through any sort of terrain and hashers may run through back alleyways, residential areas, city streets, forests, swamps, deep mud ("shiggy") or shopping malls and may climb fences, ford streams, explore storm drains or scale cliffs in their pursuit of the hare.

Some trails are referred to as "A to A′ (prime)," denoting an ending point that is close to (usually short walking distance), but not the same as the start.

In densely populated areas, the hash will often start and finish in a public park, and the trails will run on city streets.

Led by chapter leadership, the circle provides a time to socialize, sing drinking songs, recognize individuals, formally name members, or inform the group of pertinent news or upcoming events.

A "down-down" is a means of punishing, rewarding, or merely recognizing an individual for any action or behavior according to the customs or whims of the group.

Such transgressions may include: failing to stop at the beer check, pointing with a finger, pronouncing the letter "r," or using real names.

Members are typically given a "hash name," usually in deference to a particularly notorious escapade, a personality trait, or their physical appearance.

In other chapters, the process is more mechanical, and Hashers are named after completing a certain number of events (5–10 being the most common) or setting their first run (sometimes referred to as a Virgin Hare).

For the more offensive names, it might be censored in comical ways to comply with the family-friendly tone of other Kennels, but typically it is kept as-is.

However, as a general rule, Hashers are not permitted to give themselves a Hash Name due to the obvious conflict of interest.

A large sample is available in the Digital Hash T-shirt Museum[16] Hashers occasionally wear specialized clothing on trail or to the closing circles.

Shiggy socks are worn to protect the shins and knees of the wearer from thorns, mud, branches, or whatever else they run through.

The 2006 Interhash—Chiang Mai offered supporting runs in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and southwest China.

In addition to Interhash, there are also many regional and continental hash events, such as the Inter-Americas, InterAfrica, InterGulf, InterScandi, EuroHash, and PanAsia.