What is Hash?   
A "hash" is a sporting event based on the old English game of "hare and hounds." The hare sets the trail using hash marks and the hounds attempt to follow.
Attempt is the key word, as the hare tries their best to confuse, confound and bamboozle the hounds. Anything goes in a hash, but the one constant is beer: before, during and after the hash, in copious quantities.
The trail is usually indicated by a series of hash "marks" layed down in paper, flour, chalk, kool-aid, lime or whatever is handiest. There are some fairly standard marks but each hash "club" is free to interpret or embellish on these at will.

What is hashing?

The usual description of a Hash "club" is: "A drinking club with a running problem."
Hashing is a sport loosely modeled after the old English schoolboy game of "hares and hounds.'' Some of the terminology persists.

Run Definitions

Here's how it works

One or more hares set up a trail, marked with paper, flour or lime or yarn or chalk or something. The hounds then follow the trail.
There are usually three kinds of mark
1. A trail mark indicating you are on trail
2. A "check'' (usually a cross) indicating that the trail branches here
3. A false (marked with an F or 3 lines) indicating that you've just followed a false branch, and should go back to the check.

The hounds follow the trail because

1. They don't know any better
2. There might be beer along the way
3. There might be beer at the end
4. It might go to interesting places (see items 2 and 3).

The following description of Hashes is from Pink Frits from Medan Hash House Harriers.

Each club has its own character, so it's hard to say any more than this. Some clubs exclusively use "live'' hares, meaning the hares start marking the trail and fifteen minutes later the pack takes off after them. There's some kind of honor associated with catching the hares. Others (including most of the ones I've visited) have elaborate trails set up in advance.
The running is cooperative, as the pack works together to find the trail. Physical fitness varies greatly: some people run ultra-marathons, and the only exercise others get is the slow jog between checks. The length and difficulty of the trails changes from club to club; runs in Phuket have ranged from 5 km (with a beer stop!) to fifteen km, but you can usually count on the run to be from four to six miles, with a couple of walkers at the back of the pack. In Medan, Sumatra we ran every Monday between 5 and 12 km, but up and down in the jungle.
Some hashes just have a cooler of beer and soda at the end of the trail, with maybe a six-pack hidden along the way. In Medan the so-called Bemo, a truck with barrels of beer is always following us..

Interesting Places that have been hashed

- Urban shopping malls
- Dense briar patches
- Cemeteries
- Storm drains
- Posh hotels
- Jungles
- Everglades
- Red Square
- The Hollywood Sign

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