I recently went on a 10 day trip, first to Rochester, NY and then to Santa Clarita (L.A.), CA. I brought my running gear. It never left my bag.
I planned on running, I had even looked up some routes online before I got there, but no one told me that the neighborhood was scary. Between the 40 degree weather (stores here don't even sell clothing for that kind of cold), and the dude that was stalking me before I even left hotel property, I decided a run could wait.
Then I got to my brother's place in L.A., got a cold, and decided sucking in ash from the fires was also enough of a deterrent. What can I say, I'm a wimp. Now I'm back home and almost done with my cold. No excuses, I gotta go do something, this confession is bad enough, I don't want to do another one next week.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Hashing
I tried something new the other day, I went for a run with a local Hash House Harrier group.
I showed up to the advertised location and saw not a single soul that I knew. I asked if they were the harriers and after the affirmative reply, I asked if I could join them. I got the gist of how this was going to go pretty quickly when this request was was acceded to, and then followed by questions of my hashing virginity. I'm not making this up, that's what they called it.
I was given some directions on what symbols to look for and what they meant, and then the hare was off. 15 minutes later, the group suddenly burst into calls of "ON-ON" and ran in the direction the hare went. Along the way, people filled me in on the myriad of rules. I'm not sure how many of these are real, and how much of it was people just trying to pull one over on me. For example, pointing with your finger requires a beer after the run, and if you wear brand new shoes, they'll make you drink out of it. I was starting to detect a theme.
The trail split into two at one point, to the right was the Turkey trail for those who want a shorter/easier run, and to the left was the Eagle trail for the masochists. Given that I haven't been running that much over the last few months, I really wanted to go the Turkey route, but all the people I was matching pace-wise wanted the Eagle. Guess which way I went?
The Eagle trail was actually really fun. We ended up going down to the beach and trotted along the sand for a while. Since I've never been to this particular beach, I walked it along with some others and looked around. It was beautiful. The beach portion ended with a steep uphill climb. I stood at the bottom looking up, knowing this was the route as there were chalk marks pointing to it all over the place, and I thought "Are they serious?" But there's nothing to do but follow the pack, so I did.
From there, we made our way back up Diamond Head and onto some short trails. I never would have guessed that there was the potential for so much variety in an urban setting. I expected it to be on city streets, and yet we ended up on quite a bit of dirt, lots of hills and climbing, some sand and surf, and amazing views. I was amazed.
While I did have moments of regret about taking the Eagle route, it was from being tired, and that was very much compensated for by the overall experience. In the end, they told me we ran about 5.25 miles. Considering the lack of running I've been doing lately, I'm surprised I was able to take it. Running with a group and looking for markings does help a lot.
After the run, the group gathers for food and beverages. It appears that this is really mostly about socializing, with running just being the initial excuse. I wasn't prepared to hang around as I had someplace I had to be, but now that I know, I'll be prepared to stick around.
While I was very tired afterwards (and I'm really sore today), I'm glad I did it. It makes running more fun, I got to see/experience places I wouldn't get to on my own, and I've gotten to meet a new group of people. I'm definitely going to make it a habit.
Now my next fear is, what are they going to name me?
I showed up to the advertised location and saw not a single soul that I knew. I asked if they were the harriers and after the affirmative reply, I asked if I could join them. I got the gist of how this was going to go pretty quickly when this request was was acceded to, and then followed by questions of my hashing virginity. I'm not making this up, that's what they called it.
I was given some directions on what symbols to look for and what they meant, and then the hare was off. 15 minutes later, the group suddenly burst into calls of "ON-ON" and ran in the direction the hare went. Along the way, people filled me in on the myriad of rules. I'm not sure how many of these are real, and how much of it was people just trying to pull one over on me. For example, pointing with your finger requires a beer after the run, and if you wear brand new shoes, they'll make you drink out of it. I was starting to detect a theme.
The trail split into two at one point, to the right was the Turkey trail for those who want a shorter/easier run, and to the left was the Eagle trail for the masochists. Given that I haven't been running that much over the last few months, I really wanted to go the Turkey route, but all the people I was matching pace-wise wanted the Eagle. Guess which way I went?
The Eagle trail was actually really fun. We ended up going down to the beach and trotted along the sand for a while. Since I've never been to this particular beach, I walked it along with some others and looked around. It was beautiful. The beach portion ended with a steep uphill climb. I stood at the bottom looking up, knowing this was the route as there were chalk marks pointing to it all over the place, and I thought "Are they serious?" But there's nothing to do but follow the pack, so I did.
From there, we made our way back up Diamond Head and onto some short trails. I never would have guessed that there was the potential for so much variety in an urban setting. I expected it to be on city streets, and yet we ended up on quite a bit of dirt, lots of hills and climbing, some sand and surf, and amazing views. I was amazed.
While I did have moments of regret about taking the Eagle route, it was from being tired, and that was very much compensated for by the overall experience. In the end, they told me we ran about 5.25 miles. Considering the lack of running I've been doing lately, I'm surprised I was able to take it. Running with a group and looking for markings does help a lot.
After the run, the group gathers for food and beverages. It appears that this is really mostly about socializing, with running just being the initial excuse. I wasn't prepared to hang around as I had someplace I had to be, but now that I know, I'll be prepared to stick around.
While I was very tired afterwards (and I'm really sore today), I'm glad I did it. It makes running more fun, I got to see/experience places I wouldn't get to on my own, and I've gotten to meet a new group of people. I'm definitely going to make it a habit.
Now my next fear is, what are they going to name me?
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