We had plans to meet up with our Nu friends Bill and Debbie in Phoenix after we left our troubles in Tucson. Maria was able to convince Debbie that it would be a good idea for all of us to go golfing in Phoenix since we had both been lugging our clubs around for the last 6 months and in turn Debbie convinced us to do a Hash later that evening (twist our arm!)

Meet Bill and Debbie from South Lake Tahoe

Only lost one ball!

Maria and Debbie

Maria and I probably had our best round of golf ever! Didn’t hurt that most of the holes we could tee off with our 9 iron.

Left: Bill and Maria Right: Maria about to crush it!

After golfing we headed back to the RV resort for some hot tubbin and noodle floating. It was a quick relax in the sun before we headed off to hash.

What is a hash you ask? Well, let me tell you:

Is an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs. An event organized by a club is known as a Hash or Hash Run, with participants calling themselves Hashers. (wiki)

Drinking and running? Sounded good to us and to top it off it was a PBR hash. Which meant we were drinking nothing but Pabst Blue Ribbon all night.

Basically we met the group in a parking lot and had some pre-game drinking as the rules were explained to us newbie’s. It goes a little something like this:

• A few runner’s called “hare’s” are set off about 15 minutes before everyone else to go and mark the path.
• They will mark the ground with chalk symbols and dollops of flour to mark the path.
• Three true path marks in a row means you are on the right trail.
• There are false trails that will lead you off in the wrong direction. “YFB”.
• Lots of whistling and yelling back and forth will help keep you on the “true path”. “On On!”
• There are usually a series of checks points including beer checks where everyone drinks. “Beer Near!”

At one point we were drinking in a random ally and another we were drinking on top of a parking garage in downtown Phoenix.

When the run is over, the whole group forms a circle and shares “stories from the trail”. These are incidents of un-Hasher like behavior that result in public shaming in the form of beer consumption called a “down-down”. Drinkable offenses include competitive behavior, wearing new shoes, coordinating your outfit to well, or pretty much anything that someone thinks is funny.

Hashes usually have themes. A well known hash is the "Red Dress Run" in which men and women take to the street in search of beer in red dresses.

There are more than 1,700 chapters spanning all seven continents. Most major cities are home to at least one chapter. Chapters typically contain between 20-100 members, usually mixed-sex, with some metropolitan area Hashes drawing more than 1,000 hashes to an event. (wiki)

We had a great time as this community is extremely fun and energetic. Now everytime we go to a new city we are looking for Hashes. You can usually find one by typing in Hash House Harriers and the name of the city into a search engine. We think some of our friends back in KC might really like this too, so hopefully the hash groups in Kansas are as crazy as the Phoenix and South Lake Tahoe hashers we have met.

Share on Facebook