Once again, I want to remind everyone that this is not a post about drugs. The Hash House Harriers is an international club that are "drinkers with a running problem" and we get together and do runs in an unusual fashion and then sit around and drink beer and make fun of one another afterwards. What you do on your own time is up to you but at our meetups around the world there is no hashish involved. There are no drugs involved except for electrolytes and probably a bit of Ibuprofen.
Today we will feature a Hash kennel that we had a member visit from last year and they have the highest elevation in all of Africa and probably one of the highest in the world. They are known as the AAHHH or Addis Ababa Hash House Harriers or A2H3 and it is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Just like most HHH clubs around the world, the AAHHH is a mixture of locals and expats who get together on a regular basis in order to go on run that are not clearly marked and it is an adventure of finding the trail as well as running kind of as a team. It isn't a race, but you can treat it like one if you want to. From the front runners to the stragglers at the caboose, we all get the same reward at the end.
Unlike our Hash events, I have been told that the hares (the people who decide the trail) set the trail the morning of the events, so time management must be pretty important. I don't know if the Chiang Mai HHH is unusual in this regard, but we tend to spend many days in preparing our trails and sometimes the trail actually gets wiped out by weather - so perhaps their method is better than ours!
The AAHHH meets every Saturday at a Hilton parking lot (that should be easy to find!) and it starts at 2pm. I would imagine even the most hungover Hasher can manage to crawl out of bed by 2pm, right?
They have an absolutely massive participant base at nearly 400 people and their events normally have 40-60 participants at each event. While we think that our gatherings are big, we rarely pull these kinds of numbers.
I remember when their member joined us in Chiang Mai and I apologize for not remembering your name but he was quite a lot faster than most of our members despite being in his 60's. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that at least part of this is due to the fact that he normally does his runs at 2400 meters above sea level and therefore his lungs are in better shape than the rest of ours. I don't know if you have ever tried to run at elevation, or even walk for that matter, if you live somewhere that is not so elevated, it can be an experience that is much more difficult than you might be expecting!
It is nice to see from the images I have gotten to look at that AAHHH is just as silly as we are and they have a great time every weekend. That is the entire idea behind the Hash House Harriers after all.
So if by chance you happen to find yourself in the capital of Ethiopia any time in the near future, or if you live there, be sure to look up the A2H3 while you are there. Just like here in Chiang Mai, they are always welcoming visitors to all events. You can speak to them directly for more details HERE
