ON ON!

For the past 3 weeks, Michael and I have been participating in the Shanghai Hash House Harriers...



The WHAT?!?, you ask?

It's complicated...

The simplest explanation is that Hash House Harriers in an international group of noncompetitive running and social drinking clubs.

Let's start at the beginning...

The concept of Hash House Harriers, or hashing, was started in 1938 in Kuala Lumpur by a small group of British colonial expatriate officers who wanted a way to "rid themselves of excesses of the previous weekend". These officers modeled their Monday evening runs after traditions of British "Hare and Hounds". In addition to the excitement of chasing the "hare" and finding the trail, hashers who finished the Monday evening runs were then rewarded with beer and cigarettes.

In 1950 while the organization was still quite small, the constitution for the Hash House Harriers was officially recorded as follows:

1. To promote physical fitness among our members.
2. To get rid of weekend hangovers.
3. To acquire a good thirst and satisfy it with beer.
4. To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel.

(I know, #2 and #3 seem contradictory to me as well. Just go with it...)

Today, hashing has spread to all 7 continents, with almost all major cities having at least one hashing group. Not surprisingly, HHH has become known as "the drinking club with a running problem". However, Hash House Harriers is proud to have no uniting organizational hierarchy. Each hash group is responsible for its own management, allowing individual hashes to take on distinct personalities, with the balance between running and drinking changing from one club to another.

The Shanghai Hash House Harriers was founded in 1986. Shanghai HHH is laid back and fun. We have really enjoyed the excitement of the runs (10-12K), as well as the good-hearted beer/food fellowship afterwards. The hash is a mixed group of locals and expats who run (or walk) every Sunday without fail. Volunteer "hares" lay the running and walking trails prior to the afternoon festivities. Everyone else (the "hounds") starts at the beginning of the trail together, looking for marks left by the hare. When hounds are on the trail, they scream: "ON ON!" to let the other hounds know they have found the trail. Trails are set up to include check points ("Checks") and dead-ends (Oh Shits!"), all of which are designed to keep the pack together regardless of fitness level or speed. Front runners typically must slow down at check points to find the true trail, allowing stragglers to catch up. The comraderie and excitement generated by these runs is a huge part of the appeal.

However, another part about hashing in Shanghai that we are beginning to enjoy is the opportunity to see more local areas of the city. This past Sunday, the running hare (a local Shanghainese woman) laid the trail in a northern neighborhood of Shanghai which we never would have seen of our own volition.

Then, of course, there is the drinking...

Shanghai Hashes begin and end at the same location (typically a restaurant), and post-run festivities (Down-Downs) are led by the Hash "religious advisor". Down-downs are handed out to any participants who have earned recognition (good or bad) as means of punishment or reward. (Down-down= drinking beer). After a certain number of runs, repeat hashers are given a hash name. Typically, hash names are based upon personality traits, physical characteritics, or behaviors/actions on past runs. Unfortunately, hash names are notoriously offensive or politically incorrect (all in good fun, of course), so once we earn these names, it is unlikely that we will be sharing them on the blog!

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about our new activity. Nate and Trish attended this week's run as visitors and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Any fun-loving, adventure-seeking future visitors to Shanghai are welcome to come along to take part in this unique experience with us!