What is hashing
Hashing is non-competitive cross country running with an extra added ingredient - fun! One or two people, known as hares, lay a trail across the countryside in sawdust, flour, chalk etc. for a group of runners, who are called hounds, to follow. The trail will include loops, check points - where the continuation of the trail has to be searched for, and false trails, which are designed to slow the pace and keep the runners together as a pack.
Hashing is definitely not a race, the aim is to go out for an enjoyable run in the countryside along with other people and to have fun trying to find and follow the trail. The faster runners can have a good hard run if they want it, but everyone else should be able to keep up with them by shortcutting (which is positively encouraged!), and regrouping at check points. It is a tradition of hashing that after the run we all go back to a local pub together.
Hashing is a great way to get fitter (although being able to jog is all the fitness you need), have fun, make new friends and to get to know the countryside really well. However, hashers speak a language all of their own, which often seems like (and is) gibberish.
