The long run that we have annually is expected to be tougher than the other ones and that is why we call it the "ballbreaker." It wasn't expected to be so hilly AND long though, and to some, this made the run a lot tougher than it would normally be.
I'm not one to scoff at 20 or so km run in the jungle but the horizontal distance is trouble enough for most of us, and the hills had a lot of people complaining and most of the pack quit before completing the entire thing. This is generally expected though.
We should have been able to determine by the preview pictures that we were given that the hares were going to torture us, and I think they got some level of enjoyment seeing all 40 of us taking off at around noon realizing that we were in for the most difficult ballbreaker run that I have ever been involved in. One of the few people that completed the entire course recorded the elevation change and determined exactly what the elevation change was throughout.
you might be able to tell by looking at that but most of the elevation change was in a downward direction which might seem like a good thing. You need to keep in mind though that of all the injuries, a couple of which were quite serious, that have ever happened since I have been involved with the Hash have all happened during descents, not ascents. This is because some sort of vegetation would be damp or some other areas had loose stones on it and someone would be moving too fast and generally faceplant into the ground. I have been the victim of losing my feet a couple of times and it is quite scary when it happens.
Thankfully, our pack managed to get out of this one with just some minor scrapes and bruises. While some were upset about it at the time, everyone laughed about it later and seriously grilled the Hares for making this BallBreaker truly ball-breaking.
The course for this particular runner topped out at just under 20 km and you can see that it took over 4 hours for him to complete it. Of course we had the really wild "false trail" right at km 2-3 and that was probably a good place to put that because everyone still had energy at that point. IT was a bit wild for them to make a false trail that was this long as they are normally only a few hundred meters.
It was a bit annoying while it was going on but at the end of it all this is kind of what makes the Hash House Harriers so unique and wild. You never know what you are going to get and depending on who makes the trail, it could end up being something completely unexpected.
We likely complain about this a lot more than real athletes would because for the most part we are older guys who are barely in good enough shape to even attempt something like this. I do tend to look at this club and think that it is solely responsible for me being in any sort of shape at all though and this is one of the main reasons why I encourage people to get involved in it. It's not just about the social aspects of it, you end up getting some blood pumping though your veins and even though we encourage people to not overdo it, I think that most of our members this is the only actual exercise they ever get.
We likely negate any health benefits by drinking all the beer that we do after every run but I think most of us would be drinking the beer anyway, even without the runs.
If you have a Hash House Harriers near you, I really think you ought to try to get involved. It isn't free, but it is very close to free. You'll make a ton of friends and also get some cardio in. It's a win win. We are doing at least 3 runs per week in Chiang Mai, Thailand and all are welcome to come along and have a look. I think most people will want to join after they go on just a couple meetups with us though!
