The Original Run Club - An introduction to Hash House Harriers - est. 1938

Welcome back to yet another weekly musing. This week I would like to introduce and share our experience and a bit of history around Bali ( and the world’s ) longest running run club; Hash House Harriers. Read along to get a grasp on what 3500+ runs looks like, why it works and how it has helped us discover Bali in a whole new way.

We were first introduced to the hash runs from our friend Charlie. He spoke highly of the routes and overall vibe. For those familiar with our more recent Long Slow Distance runs, the format is inspired by these “ hash runs”  ( nothing to do with the compressed smokable.)The beginning of this run club dates back to 1938! In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From my understanding it started at a place called Harry’s Hash House. Expats would meet here and play a game called Hare & Hounds paper chase. One or two “hares” would lay a trail of paper for the hounds to follow.

Upon further review the term “hash”  comes from British slang for bad food. As the original venue Selangor Club Annex was known for poor quality food. Original runs were on Friday evenings. One club founder was killed during WW2 and surviving members moved the runs to Friday night and began to define the clubs objectives : promote physical fitness, shaking off hangovers and socializing over beer. Which from our experience is exactly what it is today. Currently there are over 2000 chapters worldwide including Antarctica. 

What we love about these events is the polarization compared to modern day run clubs that can be a bit of a fashion show and maybe a bit too serious sometimes. The event posters are every graphic designers worst nightmare and seem to need some type of decoding to understand what is actually going on. Everyone has often politically incorrect nicknames ( Pre-Jerk, Camel Toe) and the locations are spread across remote parts of Bali which allow participants to discover new places and see the island in a unique way. It’s almost guaranteed you will get dirty, cross a river and traverse across something slippery. The diversity of people who join is incredible. You have 80 year old couples, kids, and everything in between. Some are running for the beer and others for the joy of discovering new places with a welcoming community.

I joined a run when I was in Australia this past Christmas. I drove an hour and ended up at someone’s house. Everybody was well over 60 and super welcoming. Their route was 3km and most people were walking it. They had been getting together for over 40 years. Lots of stories and funny nicknames. One guy was nicknamed “that guy” when I asked why they said he would rock up with knee high socks and everyone asked “who’s that guy?”

When the bar opens after the run the hash leader will always baptize the virgin’s. It’s a bit of a ceremony with songs, some baptizing with “holy water” and chugging a beer ( or whatever you have in your cup ) . We hosted our first run as the “hares”  last week ( which means we got to lay the trail.) This results in the club giving you a nickname. They ask where you are from, your job and something about you. We left with “Jerk Off Jerry” and “Kos Kosong” . 

Laying the trail gave me immense gratitude for all the runs I just showed up and somehow followed the paper through jungle tracks and rice field crossings to go in a scenic loop and back to where we started. The amount of work required to make a route exciting, runnable, and not so predictable is really hard. Arno and I took 3 days of going down random streets, getting lost in the jungle,following random heat maps through burning garbage, losing a phone, up and down steep staircases and getting swept downstream to figure out our loop.

In the end we got to discover hidden temples, life of the locals, some angry dogs ,  amazing tracks (mostly for prayer purposes, fishing or river bathing, plenty of dead ends and got to sit with the local neighbourhood bosses as they tried to figure out exactly what was going on when I asked them to use the local soccer field for an event. Lots of smiles, dirty shoes, an appreciation for our community and most of all to take things a little less seriously. Thanks to Iman for coming out to shoot. I told him to focus more on the characters than the run itself. He was so happy to be there, hopefully that comes through in his photos.

Thanks for reading, If you would like to join a run they host every Monday and Thursday afternoons. There is a WA group that puts out locations a couple days previous. Send us a message to be added to that. If you are outside Bali just type in Hash House Harriers in whatever city you are in and there is likely a run hosted near by.

Thanks for your time, hope to share a run and some coffee soon.