Run to Paradise Episode 9 : “A drinking club with a running problem” - Hash House Harriers

Welcome back to Run To Paradise! It’s me, Nick, continuing my cock-eyed-convoluted exploration of running and the people who do it, with all the japes and tears, ups and downs and painfully stupid intros you’ve come to expect. I guess this is season 2? Lets say it is.

Have you ever heard of the Hash House Harriers? They are a “drinking club with a running problem”.

I hadn’t until my mate Joe Alexander (Bedroom Suck Records, Music in Exile etc.) started regaling me with bizarre stories about chasing paper trails through Malaysian rainforests and being forced to sit bare-arsed on a block of ice while singing lewd songs with a bunch of “drunked up” runners.

This sent me on a path of advanced silliness and discovery, finding out what this old, beloved and somewhat misunderstood club is all about. I spoke to Joey, his Dad - long time Hash enthusiast Borneo Bob - and finally participated in my own Hash run with the weird and wonderful Fremantle Heave Ho Hash House Harriers and Harriets aka. H6.

This episode is a real time documentation of one man (me) being introduced to one of the most storied running / drinking clubs in the world, and all the joy, confusion and hilarity that went with it.

Enormous thanks to Joe and Rob Alexander aka. Borneo Bob, and the wonderful H6 club. You’re all mad.

This podcast is supported - and conceived - by the good people at Tarkine, Western Australia's very own, environmentally focused running shoe company.