Celebrating One Thousand Hash Runs

I started hashing twenty years ago.  No, that’s not something you smoke or eat!  I’m referring to the Hash House Harriers – a ‘drinking club with a running problem’.  The Port of Spain chapter (POSHHH or POSH3) of this international social club celebrated its 1,000^th run last weekend.  That’s quite an achievement!  The group has grown significantly over the years, becoming immensely popular with the young and fit of all backgrounds.  A hash run is based on the game ‘hares and hounds’: a group of ‘hares’ reccee (reconnoiter) an area over several weekends and on the day, lay a paper or flour track, complete with false trails, that the hash pack has to follow until they get back to the hash site.  When hashers (hounds) find the right trail, they shout “on on” so that the rest of the pack can follow.

Hashing is very addictive; it used to rule my life.  I would arrange everything to accommodate the hash run on alternate Saturdays.  An event had to be something big to justify giving up a hash, and we would grumble if someone chose to get married on a hash Saturday!  You not only get to see parts of the country most Trinidadians have no clue exist, but you are so focused on surviving the experience that all your day-to-day problems seem so trivial in comparison.  You get to breathe healthy, clean air and exercise muscles that you didn’t know you had.  You also get to face physical and mental challenges that can help you grow as a person.  You have to deal with mud, water, weather, steep hills and creatures.  On occasions, you might get injured from a fall and you then have to sit out the next few runs until you mend.  But the whole point is to work up an appetite for beer!  I’ve known hashers refuse to start a hash run until the beer truck was seen to arrive.  It’s very social and you can make life-long friends.  Thank you, Carib, for supporting hashers with cold draft beer in the bush over all these years, and also Blue Waters for providing free water for thirsty hashers in recent times.

Actually you don’t have to run.  Some of the ladies of the hash who found it hard to keep up with the runners in the old days demanded that we be allowed short-cuts.  It was controversial at the time but now it’s accepted that there will always be a walkers’ trail.  Mind you, some of the best runners on the hash are women, quite a few of them also being marathon runners!

So how did the POSH3 celebrate their momentous achievement of hashing for 34 years?  First of all, we had a red dress run on Thursday evening through the Woodbrook area.  This started and ended at a favourite watering hole, The Brooklyn Bar.  It’s a traditional charity event for hashers worldwide and can be shocking to residents to see a bunch of burly men (and women) running down the street in pretty red dresses or negligees.  I chatted afterwards with a foreigner who was here on business for a few days; he told me that he went to a boutique in a nearby mall to buy a gorgeous red cocktail dress, size XL, for TT$800.  I would have loved to see how the shop assistants reacted to this man trying on all these dresses.  He did look good!

On Friday, they had a night run complete with feather helmets with a headlight for the men, and fancy pink locks with embedded flashing lights for the women. This was also in Port of Spain from The French Connection bar on Ariapita Avenue.  Again this must’ve made an impression on after-work limers in the area.  Both runs included two beer stops so the hashers took a while to get back.  I’m afraid I don’t do that kind of running anymore so I just enjoyed a couple of drinks and ole talk while we waited for them to return.

Saturday was the big day and well-advertised for maximum turn-out.  The venue was the Hutt Shutts Sports & Entertainment Centre in Tacarigua, over an hour’s drive from the city, and close to the Northern Range of mountains.  The car park was huge, which was a good thing as well over 200 people turned up.  I know this because the 200^th free T-shirt was given out just before I arrived to register.   It was a lovely sunny day until the ‘hash hush’ was called, and then the heavens opened.  Some of us attempted to shelter and a young man, squashed next to me under a piece of overhanging galvanise roofing, asked if they were waiting for the rain to stop.  I instantly knew that he must be a ‘hash virgin’.  The hash never stops for anything!

Soon they were off and the rain stopped.  Obviously a brief blessing from above!  I’ve had one too many injuries on these runs, so again I opted for the bar.  This was large and dark and blaring with music.  What happened to the old-fashioned rum shops that we used to frequent?  Still, the food was very tasty and it easily accommodated the crowd when they straggled in.  The dress code in effect meant that all those dirty, sweaty hashers had to go under the outside shower and change clothes before being let in.  I gather there was a beer stop on this run too – hashers are getting spoilt!

After buying a few rounds of expensive drinks we learnt that there were coolers of free drinks in a far corner.  The staff covered up the dance floor with fancy long tables and chairs for the hashers to eat at.  I felt they would’ve appreciated the dance floor more.  Soon the hash master, Devon, announced the ‘hash hush’ from the wide stage.  He introduced the ‘Mismanagement Committee’ as they were the hares and organisers of the run.  They were given beers to ‘down down’ with gusty singing from the crowd as encouragement.  Then the ‘poofter’ was chosen for committing a misdemeanour, and he had to down his beer from a wide tube so that he couldn’t help spill the drink all over his face.  There were further ceremonies involving ‘virgins’, the still-running hashers from the first POSH3 run (Loren, Mike and Dave), a presentation of all the past hash masters (HMs) present (I realised that many were couples, with the woman preceding the man as HM in every case), and a plug for the 2020 International Hash which will be held here in Trinidad – thanks to Christine and Randal and the others who bid for this so successfully in Fiji this year.  Then the party started!

What an amazing celebration for a highly successful hash group.  I’m so happy to see the fun and nonsense that still prevails, and that the future of the hash is secured with so many young faces.  On On POSH3!!

(Thanks to Niki Borde for the use of her photos and video)