Run For Your Life: Hash House Harriers

The Hash – or Hash House Harriers, as their mother might call them – is a “drinking club with a running problem.”

Why are you called the Hash?

The Hash House Harriers (aka HHH or H3) were formed in the late 1930s in Kuala Lumpur by a bunch of colonial officers and expats who wanted an excuse to go out for a run and have a few beers. Now there are about 2,000 Hash kennels/clubs/chapters around the world.

What type of people hash?

There are three Hashes in Beijing – the Beijing Hash, the Boxer Hash and the Full Moon Hash – and although we do get a crossover of people attending each one, they appeal to different types. The Beijing Hash started them all; it has been going every single week since the late 1970s. It’s a city hash with relatively short runs and a walking group.

How many people turn up to a typical event?

In the winter it can be a little low, but in the summer we can swell to well over 50 people a week.

We’ve heard rumors about nicknames and forfeits.

People get names for something they’ve said or done that a fellow hasher has been witness to. We’ve got guys and girls with names like Dirt Box, Rear Entry, Spastic Mountie, and Pays for Sex. [These are the ones we could print. –Ed.] If someone doesn’t like their name or makes a big thing over it, then the name gets worse and worse. In the circle after the run, we use many different toys and drinking implements to accuse each other with. The toys include [completely unprintable –Ed.]. Many years ago we had the “Bu Hao” award which was a necklace of goat horns that made running rather difficult. That evolved into handcuffs, which was equally as dangerous!

Why should people join the hash?

The Constitution of the Hash House Harriers is recorded on a club registration card dated 1950, and remains the same to this day:

To promote physical fitness among our members
To get rid of hangovers
To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer
To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel

It’s also a great way to meet people, as it is a “super social group.”

Do you need to be able to run?

On the Beijing hash, there is a walking trail for the “hard of running” and brutally hungover.

Do you need to be able to drink?

Yes. And hold it. We’ve seen many a time when a hasher has had far too much to drink but braves onwards into almost certainly regrettable circumstances!

Photo: Planet Foods