And in some situations attempting to run on some of the terrain we face could be very dangerous for you. There was an instance not that long ago where someone tried to do a downhill run, tripped on a tree root, when ass over tits and busted his head open. Thankfully, he is a tough dude and although he did need stitches it wasn't a life-threatening thing. He even stuck around with a blood-soaked shirt on his head to do the circle and have a few beers afterwards. He is a trooper, that is for sure.
Many people have the impression that the Hash House Harriers are all about going on runs, sometimes long runs. This likely is true in other parts of the world and especially in urban environments. However, here in Chiang Mai we have such wonderful access to nature that our treks are a bit more multi-faceted.
A couple of our locations are borderline mountainous and you need to watch your footing, especially if you are going down them. This is exactly the sort of situation that ended up in "HRA" busting his head open.
You can see in the picture above that some people take safety a lot more seriously than others do as th person in the back seems to be considerably more concerned about falling than her pal.
One of the benefits of trails like this one is that the group tends to stay together a lot better since running ahead (being a Front Running Bastard or FRB) isn't really possible unless you are in some sort of crazy good shape. This gives us all an opportunity to collectively bitch about how hilly this is and how much of a roasting we are going to give the Hares when we return to the circle.
Last Saturday's trek included almost no running because it simply wasn't possible and every now and then, that is just fine with me and most everyone else in the group as well. I suppose from a working out point of view it is a different type of exercise and that could be good for you as well. I know that I was more winded doing this than I am from flatter runs where I jog. I jogged almost none of this run.
In the end everyone made it back and there were no mishaps even on the part of our members that are older and can be considered a little less mobility capable than the others. If you look at the above pic you can see that we aren't exactly the most youthful group and I reckon the average age is around 137.
We number between 20-30 people every run and we are currently still doing 3 runs a week. If you are in the Chiang Mai area I encourage you to join us and you can find full details here or if you are somewhere else in the world I encourage you to have a look online and see if there is a Hash in your own community. I promise it will change your life for the better.
