Circle checks. WTF is this?

One of the things that makes a trek/run/jog with the Hash House Harriers unique is that something like 100 years ago someone devised a method of making it possible for really fit and not-so-fit people to be able to do something somewhat athletic outdoors without the fit people ended up being miles and miles ahead of the not-so-fit people. This was named or at least it is named now, a "circle check" and it is absolutely instrumental to the operation of a Hash run event anywhere in the world that Hash House Harriers exist.

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There are a lot of ways that the circle can be presented but normally in non rainy places with no snow it will be represented by a simple circle made of flour or chalk of some sort. Then, in the middle there will be some sort of stones covering up some pieces of paper.

When the fit people arrive at a circle check, they are to shout out "circle check!" to let everyone in the proximity know there is a check here. Then, all of them must work together in order to figure out where the trail continues because the next turn is actually intentionally concealed. Why? Well so that the people who are in the front will get slowed down a few minutes in order to find the true trail and the slower people, some of which are just walking the trail, can catch back up.

This is important for many reasons but one of the main ones is that this simple and kind of fun thing is what keeps the group more close together. One of the last things we would like to see happen is that there are no incidents of people getting lost in the jungle. A good way to ensure this doesn't happen is by keeping all of our people as close together as possible. In the years that we have been doing this in Chiang mai and the hundreds of times that I have been on Hash Runs with this group there has only been a single incident where people got properly lost and well, they were from out of town and weren't listening during the safety briefing where we discuss what the markings on the ground are for.

The rest of the time the circle check keeps everyone together. There was one particular Hash event that I was involved in and I was jogging the entire thing but my friend was taking it easy that day and decided to walk the entire trail and was committed to only walking because the only footwear he brought was flip flops. I was all decked out in jungle running gear including leg guards to keep nettles off of me.

I was huffing and puffing and trying to stay near the front but my walking friend managed to get ahead of me 3 different times during this 6k because of one very important reasons: When the FRBs (the fit people running in the front or "front running bastards") get to a circle check they must spread out to find the true trail. The only guarantee that they have is that the true trail will be marked, and is somewhere within 100 meters of the circle. The true trail will be indicated by flour markings on the ground and this could be vary from very subtle to obvious over-pouring of flour. When the true trial is discovered, they shout out ON ON!

and then the rest of the people that are looking for the true trail run in the direction the shouting was coming from. The people around the circle kick out a portion of the circle to indicate to the walkers which direction they are supposed to head in, and spread the paper on the ground to let the walkers know they are going in the correct direction. There have only been a few situations that I am aware of where this has gone wrong and when that does happen, whoever is responsible for it going wrong must wait at the circle to let everyone know which way to go until the caboose (normally a man named "Tiptoe" with us) comes by before he or she can carry on.

As an FRB it is your duty to reveal the trail to the others and this can be quite time consuming by design. It is meant to take 5-10 minutes for the front runners to find the true trail thus allowing the walkers ample time to catch up with the pack.

This silly method of enforcing pack running is actually wildly successful and it is a huge part of why Hashing is so popular around the world. If we just got together and ran without this, there would be a ton of people that are very far behind and that isn't fun.

The last thing we need is for people to end up lost in the jungle though, and this is why it is important that people understand what a circle check is and how to handle one when they get to it. Remember! If you are new and running with us for the first time the best thing you can do for yourself is to find someone that is a local and regular participant and just stick close to them. You get to make a new friend and ensure that you don't get lost at the same time.

On On!