Henfield Hash House Harriers

In Henfield just north of Brighton there is a small social running club, called Henfield Hash House Harriers or Henfield H3 as it is known. The 'running club with a drinking problem' The club was started over 10 years ago and organises its runs just once a month. Normally the third Sunday of every month.

The Hash House Harriers which is a global social organisation, started in Malaysia just after the war and the Hash located in KL is the oldest Hash in the world, with Singapore being the second oldest. Hash is nothing to do with the drug I hasten to add. The original chapters run every Monday night, but a lot of chapters around the world also run on other days of the week and can be easily found on the internet.

I used to live in Singapore and for many years ran every Monday evening with the second oldest Hash in the world and the runs could be quite long in quite humid conditions and darkness. The runs would go through the jungle, local villages across rivers and often muddy parts known as 'shiggy'. The Singapore Hash was very well attended in the late 90's with an ex-pat attendance of well over 50 in those days.

The social fun and networking was just great for new ex-pats, the most memorable run for myself being when a run ended up at a beer stop which was set up in the middle of the jungle and sponsored by Tiger Beer, a fully lit and functional bar in the middle of nowhere serving cold beer - Very impressive.

I have many fond memories of the Singapore Hash and when I move to Rhode Island in the USA, I quickly got in touch with the local chapter known as RIH3, and although nowhere near as well attended as Singapore it contained many colourful characters who I can say to this day that I still remain in contact with and try and run with any time I get into New Hampshire.

Probably one of the most memorable runs was on a cold winters Monday night ending up in the middle of a lake with a fire burning serving beer and cocoa and not one person got wet! One of the traditions of RIH3 is the fact that they always have a beer stop half way through the run, and real ale not the budweiser or miller rubbish. A couple of the runners were quite good at brewing ale - Bondo Jovi and Basket Boom Boom - Real heart warming suff on a cold winters night.

When I returned to Henfield in the UK only local serious running clubs were in the area, because Hash House Harriers was meant to be more social than running. As the idea is to keep the group together by letting the faster runners to check out false trails designated by circles on trail while the slower runners eventually caught up.

I eventually began my own chapter in Henfield and we ran once a month, eventually settling on the third Sunday of the month, we started with a group of 6 of us and it has now grown to an average attendance of 15-25 all of which are fun people. We even have children attending following walking trail but only allowed to drink water at the beer stop!

We are linked to the Brighton Hash House Harriers who run every Monday and some of their members regularly attend our monthly runs - some say for the beer! We welcome new runners/walkers who can find us on http://www.henfieldh3.co.uk

Go on our web site and meet the crew on our photos section.

Stan
http://www.henfieldh3.co.uk