Hashing in Dhaka - Dhaka, Bangladesh
It’s refreshing that even after 20 years of running, I can still be surprised when I find new running groups or places to run. While in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for work, I consulted the heat maps in Strava to find a place to run, and the best I could come up with was a course around a lake. My colleagues said this course would be very crowded in the afternoon, but I didn’t have time in the morning before my meetings to get there, run, and come back to the hotel. Short distances in Dhaka can take a long time to cover because of the incredibly dense traffic. I then googled for other running options in Dhaka and came across the Dhaka Hash House Harriers. They are a chapter of the Hash House Harriers (HHH or H3), an international group of non-competitive running social clubs. Lucky for me, they had an event scheduled for Friday afternoon after my work meetings were complete! The term they use for running is “hashing”.
What I thought was just a trail run is also a game, where the “hares” lay out a course using markings such as flour or cut up newspaper. In the end, it is part a game and a trail run mixed together. The hares put down symbols that show what to do at each spot. On this run there were a few shapes that we encountered, but the Wikipedia article lists a bunch more:
Circle
A break in the trail, from here you need to scout out a blob that marks where the trail is going
Blobs
You are on the right trail! When you see these, you are supposed to yell out, “On On”, so that everyone knows you’ve found the trail and where to follow.
X - False Check
This means you are not going the right way, turn around and find the trail
Fishhook
This means to turn around and run back as far as the slowest runner. This is to even out the group so that everyone finishes together.
On this run, we went through fields, village streets, and even crossed rivers on bamboo bridges. While it wasn’t an ultrarun, it was an amazing experience to escape the urban jungle of central Dhaka city and see a part of the world I’ve never been to. This was my first run in Asia, and it was nice to have a run that differed so significantly from any of my experiences in Europe or North America.
The most memorable part of Dhaka will be the friendly people I met who were amazing hosts. I’m grateful to the people who helped me navigate the busy city and have one of the most unique runs I’ve ever been on. On-on!
