One of the things that the Hash House Harriers will do in countries that they are allowed to do it is they will have what we call a "beer stop" in the middle of the trail run. Since many of the members simply walk the trail and never get their heart rates up and running, this is just fine. For the people that actually are running, this can be a rather effective was of slowing them down a bit and letting people catch up.
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The above image was taken from the Chicago Hash House Harriers with permission and the fact that they put a beer stop in the middle of a marathon was pretty epic. This was a great way to find out who potential Hashers could be. If you are running competitively I suppose drinking a beer could be a really bad idea but the people in the HHH aren't really competing in any serious capacity. Does it feel good to be the first one back? Of course it does, but there are not prizes for doing so other than being celebrated by the people that didn't run because the community shared cold beers are off-limits to everyone until the first runner returns to the circle.
On trail beers are rare here in Chiang Mai because in order to have one, we have to transport said beers to what is normally quite remote jungle areas. Yet recently a couple of hairs planned this trail and put a lot of work into insuring that there would be 2 beer stops.
This is the sky view of a recent run and if you look closely you can see that we tried to keep as much of it as possible in that protected jungle area in the north west of this picture, but it was necessary to cross over some cultivated land and even put ourselves on a street for a bit. We never duck under fences or irritate the neighbors with our trespassing, but we are always trespassing on our runs.
In the bottom left hand corner of this map you can see where the road actually met the off-road trail in a few locations and this is where our handy hares (the people who plan the trail) went out on a motorbike to wait for us and have a beer per person waiting for them. No one is forced to imbibe but it is encouraged if you want top rewards which once again, is a full on nothing. There are no real awards here other than pride.
Since this wasn't a particularly long run at just 6km, we were not putting anyone in danger of dehydration with our booze being available but just as a precaution, there is also bottles of water available at these stops.
I would say that the one bad thing that can happen would be if you are a jogger, that sitting in the shade and drinking a beer can convince your body that you are done and this can bring on cramps. I encourage the newer members to remain standing and even better, to keep moving around while they are having their break beer, lest they feel compelled to just give up at that point. We don't really have a way of bailing people out should the decide they can't go any further so I guess people need to make their own life choices at these things. This isn't exactly an ironman competition after all so if you can't walk 6k you really shouldn't be out here.
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These beer stops were started somewhere in the world and nobody really knows who the first person or place was to offer it, but the tradition has carried itself all around the world to most HHH locations. It isn't always there but it is always appreciated when it is there. For there to be 2 beer stops on our recent run that was a mere 6km, well, that is pretty special. The last time I was on a run with the Chiang Mai Hash House Harriers that had 2 beer stops, the total trail was over 20km so yeah, they went out of their way to make this special.
Come and join us if you want. You don't have to drink but you can if you want to! Our full schedule for the near future can be found here
