Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Just Another Day in the Underbrush

Sunday I spent a portion of the afternoon knee deep in mud, wading through water, and crashing through the woods. Oh, and I was also liberally dusted with flour. You want to see people give you strange looks, run past someone raking their lawn and be covered in mud, a strange grayish hue because of all the flour on your black clothes, and you're running at about a 7:15/mile pace. "Weird" doesn't begin to describe the way people were looking at me as I bolted through the quiet suburban neighborhood...

What on earth was I doing? Hashing, of course. I volunteered to be a co-hare at only my third hash, and Sunday I found myself in one of the 'burbs northwest of Detroit in my old shoes and stealth bomber outfit (to be less conspicuous in the woods, of course). I had brought with me 24 bottles of Michigan's finest microbrews (Bell's Best Brown Ale, Arcadia Nut Brown Ale, Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA, and Founder's Pale Ale, all of which were intended to be an antidote to the cans of Bud, Coors, Miller High Life and Labatt Blue...seriously, folks, did you think I of all people would do anything less?) and six pounds of flour.

Once everyone seemed to have shown up at the starting point, my two co-hares and I took off, laying trail as we went. I did whatever I was told, tossing flour about liberally, sprinting to catch up, shoving past branches and vines, and eventually landing on my hands and knees in a swamp.

I was having the best time.

Eventually we were able to take a breather at the first beer check, having confused the pack enough that we had almost 10 minutes to chill in the middle of a field before they arrived. After merriment and mass consumption of cheap beer, we three hares left to lay the second half of the trail. Somewhere along the way I ended up wading through a mucky creek which wet me from the crotch down (but my iPhone stayed safe and dry in my jacket pocket). Eventually it was over and I had run/walked/waded/backtracked/staggered about 5.5 miles, but who's keeping track? The only things I cared about were 1) we didn't get caught on trail and 2) I didn't hurt myself, so NYC is still a go!

Then the real fun began as everyone dug into a huge pile of pizza and the rest of the beer. Every last one of the bottles I brought was consumed. I didn't have a single one to bring home with me, which is probably just as well, considering the marathon is in a mere five days.

I still have dirt under my toenails.


My shoes aren't fashionably black...that's just mud.

7 comments:

Maggs said...

I miss hashing. Especially when it's muddy out. And that's a good beer selection. good luck in the marathon.

Shellyrm ~ just a country runner said...

Sounds like great fun! Good luck at your marathon although I think you'll experince less mud but I will look forward to read about it to find out for sure. ;-)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

When I read the post title "Just Another Day in the Underbrush", I expected this to be yet another of your descriptions of your having to poop out in a field due to exigent circumstances.

But it wasn't.

In fact, the words poop, sh*t, ca-ca, etc. ... don't even appear in this post.

What happened to you, Sarah (D-MI)? You used to be all about Teh Dump In Teh Woods.

But I forgive you because this post was about beer.

Partially, at least.

Also, you slam sh*t beers, which is always a plus and an angel earns his wings each time that happens.

Jen Feeny said...

How fun!!! I really want to Hash and I'm all set up with a group down here but just haven't had the time... you just inspired me. Must hash soon! I love "adventure" runs like this... especially when they end with beer & pizza! :)

Unknown said...

What a great way to mix up your running, I wish I had seen you running through my neighborhood. I would have cheered for you!
Cool story!

Mike Fox said...

This close to NY, I was expecting some type of post related to taper anxiety...this seems like a great way to not think about that!

Good luck in New York! If there weren't going to be 40,000 other runners, I'd say that maybe I'd bump into at the expo on Saturday... :-)

Spike said...

that sounds fun, I would want to be a hare as well...I really love flower (so long as it's organic).

way to have a great time before NYC!!!