Being a Hare

There are several things you have to do when you volunteer to be a hare. You can share these tasks with another person and you both are credited with having hared a run (but only 2 hares are credited for each run). Hares run for FREE, so take advantage soon and often!

Setting Trail:

If it’s your first time, get an old hand to give you some help.

Here are some hints to setting a good trail:

Keep the pack together: The goal is to keep the pack together. Give the front-running b**tards (FRBs) plenty of checks and on- backs so that they get scattered about looking for trail while the dead-f**king lasts (DFLs; slower hashers) catch up. The best trails have the FRBs and DFLs arriving at the half-way buckets and/or end of trail at approximately the same time. Use every legal device to trick the FRBs – they are the ones who think they are cleverer than you! Do not rely on regroups to keep the hash together; use the intricacy of the trail. After a major intersection/traffic lights or a long stretch with no breaks, the pack can get separated. Make sure you put a check or on-back there to bring everyone back together. Sydney Thirsty has a very diverse hash with lots of fit runners who really enjoy a good fast run. We also have quite a few slower joggers who want to go for a short easy run. We’d like to cater for all and make everyone’s night an enjoyable run.

REMINDER: The way to do this is to incorporate several long on-backs and/or technically difficult checks in every run.

Scout the trail: Walk/run the trail a few times before the big event (i.e., your hash). If your trail will be covered by the hash in the dark, you should walk/run the trail at least once in the dark prior to the big event so you can notice any tricky parts that may not show up in the daylight, and the best place to put arrows so they can be seen.

Setting technical bush rush trails to be run in the dark is not suggested, keep them for daylight saving.

6.9km long: If the trail is through bush or particularly hilly you may want to set less than 7km, or if it’s a Saturday run you can set more than 9km.

Arrows: Get some sidewalk chalk (blue and purple are bad colours) or Gyprock off-cuts to draw arrows (Bunnings can provide this). Use flour when the trail is not on concrete. There needs to be an arrow at least every block. When runs are in the dark, try to put an arrow under every street light. Make them big and visible.

Laying Marks: If you know it’s not going to rain, setting trail the night before is a good choice, especially if it’s dark because you can see where to put arrows for best visibility. Allow at least 2-3 hours to set a trail that will take one hour to run. Be generous with your arrows, unless it’s after a check, hashers don’t want to think they’re off trail when they’re not.

Provide a map: You must have at least one map for the Trail Master. Please provide a plastic sleeve with your maps if it might rain, as a wet map is not easily followed! You can provide one or more maps for walkers, or set a separate walker's trail. You can get an idea of how long your trail is using Google maps https://www.google.com.au/maps. Right click at the location at your starting point, choose directions from here. Then Right click somewhere along the trail, choose directions from here. Click on the walking man at the top left of the screen. You should have a running path between the two points. Keep right clicking along your route and Add a destination, and you’ll end up with a route map you can print and give to the trailmaster with the distance. You can also use My Maps on Google to create a map.

Here’s an example of a map http://goo.gl/maps/jdksD

Where at all possible, please provide a map where street names are shown and please mark where any checks, on-backs, half-way bucket are along the trail.

Sitting with the bags: The responsibility for guarding the bags during the trail is with the hare. The hare, of course, can solve this issue in a number of ways:

The hare could stay with the bags while the hash does the trail.
The hare could have a co-hare stay with the bags while the hash does the trail.
The hare could find a hasher who isn’t a co-hare but is willing to stay withbags. If the hare has difficulty finding someone, s/he could ask for assistance. Often there are hashers who like to attend circle but are unable to r*n that week.
The hare or co-hare could keep bags in automobile while we hash.