Madison Hash House Harriers

May 19, 2007

HASH HISTORY - RUN #1552 - The Annual Syttende Mai Hash Run and Tree Burn

Three Mile Aid Station - There were around 20 aid station workers, including seldom seen HEAVY BREATHER, for the Syttende Mai 3 mile aid station. We had more than enough water glasses filled for the racers and the whole thing was over in plenty of time to make it to the…

Twelve Mile Beer Check - The beer check was a great success again this year. Probably due to the hot outfits of some of the beer servers including WILL HO, FROGGY and Just Trudy. However, no one could out-ho RD, who wore a verrrry hot, mostly red, see through negligee. Although no one ran the water-to-beer route, OUTER LIPS, AH SHIT, STIFFY and HALF CRACKED biked it. The weather was perfect so the beer flowed well. The keg was killed and the back up beer lasted just long enough for the last runners to refuel.

About 25 showed up for COL MUSTARD's Syttende Mai hash that started at Anthony Branch Wildlife area located between Oregon and Stoughton. The COL warned that the trail was mostly shiggy and marked with TP and if you found a mark, you were ON. He described some scheme for checks and backchecks but no one understood that. Also, no mark would be further than 50 yards from the last mark. Oh, and by the way, the hare will be waiting in his truck rather than on trail. These rules held until about 50 yards into the run when there was just a little trouble finding the second mark. Things went well for a while, just before it got wet and swampy. Soon, everyone was complaining about wet and very stinky shoes. There were a few stream crossings that were navigated by using fallen trees as bridges. There were also some pretty severe nettles that required some skill to avoid. Then things went downhill. There was a major ditch filled with muck and no tree to bridge. Several attempted their best Olympic long jumps and a few got across. Others gave up and waded in. Later at a stream, the TP marks disappeared altogether. Nearly everyone was wading up and down the stream and roaming far and yon to find the trail. Finally TP was spotted about 3/8ths of a mile from the stream and the pack continued on. Finally, the COL's truck, and the COL were spotted in the distance and the pace picked up. The pack headed for the COL and the cooler of beer he had at his side only to be foiled again by the deepest drainage ditch yet. The COL casually drank a beer to taunt the pack as they tried to find a good route across the ditch. One of the FRBs got everyone's attention when he made it to the truck and announced, "Hey! We don't need to cross the ditch. There's beer in the back of the truck." After a much needed beer check rest, it was a short run on the road back to the cars. The On-On was at the COL's and ICUF's farm where they had beer coming out of the wall and a great dinner of pig, beans and pies. Ceremonies included down-downs for nearly everyone including the civilian guests. Highlights were ICUF for the great food, new boot Just Trudy, MEAN BEAVER and CORNHOLIO for taking second in their age groups in the big run, and finally, a rousing version of the Sweetheart song for ICUF and the COL for their wedding anniversary. SLOW HAND showed up and conducted a modified tree burn that seemed almost reasonable. Once again, a great, full day of Syttende Mai entertainment provided by ICUF and COL!!!