Hound And The Hare Hash House Harriers Have Running History Of Fun And Frolic

The hare wore a sweatshirt and running shoes.

The hounds were tracking him doggedly over the Centennial Trail, along railroad tracks, around a gravel pit and through the trees of a wooded lot.

They found their prey at the smoky Back Door Tavern, negotiating with the bartender as sweat dripped down his temples.

The hare was in trouble.

Not only did he forget the beer money but he broke several glasses as he delivered them to the hounds.

“They’ll kill me now,” said the hare, Dean Bennett. “I’ll probably have to do down-downs.”

Bennett is a member of the Hash House Harriers, an international club with the slogan “A drinking club with a running problem.”

The loosely organized club formed a chapter in the Inland Northwest about 10 years ago. On Saturday, it held its 200th “Hash,” or run, in Coeur d’Alene.

As the designated “hare,” Bennett was responsible for setting the trail. He and a helper hare got a 15 minute head start from the Sundown Saloon, carrying bags of flour to mark their trail.

Arrows pointed the way, but occasionally Bennett, known as “Squirt” to other hashers, would stop and sprinkle an X with a circle around it.

That’s a check, and it signals that the trail could go in any direction. It’s meant to throw the pack off his scent.

Bennett put his first check where the Centennial Trail crosses the railroad tracks by Seltice Way. He and fellow hare Mike “Waterdog” Wassmuth marked two false trails before following the railroad tracks toward the Ramsey ballfields.

When the pack hit the check, most continued along the Centennial Trail, while Scott Daratha followed the tracks. As he reached the bend, he could see the hares ahead.

“On-on,” he yelled back to the pack, but the traffic drowned out his signal to follow. He soon caught up with Bennett and Wassmuth.

“I don’t know what to do when you catch the hare,” Daratha admitted later. So he simply scampered away with them toward the Back Door.

Daratha and many of the other hashers are serious runners who view the hashes as an opportunity for a social, relaxed run.

“It’s a different type of running community,” said Mits Bryant of Spokane. “It’s not competitive.”

At his first hash, Bryant broke one of the few hash rules by wearing new running shoes. He was forced to “down down” his beer by drinking it from a shoe.

“It tasted like dirty water,” he said.

Most accounts date the Hash House Harriers back to 1938, when British soldiers stationed in Malaysia played fox and hound to stay in shape. They called their dining quarters the Hash House after the fare that was often served.

Hash House Harrier clubs now are found all over the globe and are popular in Asia.

Although each club differs in character, much of the terminology is consistent from club to club - such as “on-on” to indicate the correct trail and “shiggy,” meaning terrain such as mud that mucks up running shoes.

“I’ve hashed all over the place,” said Ted Vollmer, a Spokane engineer who looks up hash clubs in distant cities via the Internet. “At the 300th Rhode Island hash there was very little running. They stopped at the beer stop for two hours and sang songs. … The run was only about two miles long.”

He said the Inland Northwest harriers seem more interested in running.

In fact, the stop at the Back Door didn’t last long, and not everyone imbibed. The pack soon hashed on-on out the door for the shiggy trail.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo