FAQs -
about us

City Harriers follow a course, but not like a Park Run, beer mile, or orienteering course.  Hash House Harriers follow the centuries old hare & hound model.  In practice a hare will set a trail with false trails, checkpoints, loops, and short cut opportunities.

Thus the fittest of athletes run all of the false trails (sorry wrong way, turn around & go back), wonder around looking for trail at a check, go the long way around loops, and of course never recognising a shortcut.  While middle runners will have opportunities, and slower runners even more opportunities to shorten their distance and ideally finish around the same time - one & all.

The common pursuit of running for the pleasure of it and post run socialising - usually a couple of beers (or other drinks of choice) and the company of others who have also exercised to their capability for the same amount of time, over approximately the same course.

There are many examples of how false trails, loops, checks, etc and a good hash trail keep fast and slow runners more or less on the same course for the same time at our facebook page (in the photo album section). 

1st & 3rd Thu of every month.

#socialrun #funrun #cityhash #cityharriers #melctyhhh #hashhouseharriers #hhh

The social club that runs.

A great way to meet people, with a fun run followed by casual socialising with your new friends.  Seeing parts of Melbourne that many long time residents will never see.

A really welcoming activity & environment. 

1st & 3rd Thu of every month, always public transport friendly.

#meetpeople #melbourne #melctyhhh #cityharriers #cityhash #hashhouseharriers

Always less than 10km from the city & always public transport friendly.

Great things about our Hash runs:  y are invited & welcome, you will see nooks and crannies that most locals never get to see, as the hare spells magic of a new trail.

Then after the run, socialise with your friends,

We are always within 10 km of central Melbourne, accessible by public transport, and 6:00 pm start - allowing a means for all to get to the start.

Visitors will love hashing and you are most welcome.  Locals will love hashing with us and meet new friends.

1st & 3rd Thu of every month.

#melbourne #visitmelbourne #exploremelbourne #melctyhhh #cityhash #cityharriers

Check out the "How is it not a race?" section above.  You will get to run with others of your own speed and also get to see some faster & slower runners as the trail twists & turns.  The variable distance means you will get something different out of every Hash run.

Park Runners will love hashing with #CityHash and you are most welcome.

1st & 3rd Thu of every month.

#parkrun #parkrunners #melctyhhh #cityharriers #cityhash #runmelbourne

For beer milers, the concept of mixing running and socialising is standard stuff.  Our trails are variable, and of unknown distance, leaving trust in the hare to navigate you around and back to the beers.  Not like your out & back trails, not like a beer mile - but we could be tempted to learn a thing or two.

Beer Milers will love hashing and you are most welcome.

1st & 3rd Thu of every month.

#beermile #beermilers #melctyhhh #cityharriers #cityhash #runmelbourne

Hash House Harriers are global and Melbourne has many Hash groups.  We especially run on nights that do not clash with other Hash House Harriers, inviting all Meblourne hash house harriers to run with us.

Why us?

Melbourne City Hash House Harriers is for all locals & visitors, breaking down those old east-west / north-south barriers that exist in Melbourne.  We always have our runs within 10km of the city centre and try to be public transport friendly.  Our 6:45pm start time allowing time from work to Hash.

Our values - are the trail and a great running and socialising experience.  Walking, parking, menus, dining options are not our priorities.  We try to keep it really simple. 

Other hashes might walk or run from the city centre to Frankston or Dandenong, and place great attention on car parking and dining arrangements - so there's a hash for everyone.

Other hashes include: Melbourne Hash House Harriers; Prohibition Hash House Harriers; Lakeside Hash House Harriers; L3 Hash House Harriers; Western Suburbs Hash House Harriers; Doncaster & Eltham Hash House Harriers; and Melbourne Ladies Hash House Harriers.  Often though these hashes can be more than 10km from Melbourne CBD.

1st & 3rd Thu of every month.

#melbourne #hashhouseharriers #melctyhhh #cityhash #cityharriers #runmelbourne

Hashing originated in December 1938 in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, then in the Federated Malay States (now Malaysia). A group of British immigrants began meeting on Friday evenings prior to the war (1938-1941), but switched to Monday evenings (starting in 1946) to run, in a fashion patterned after the traditional British paper chase or "Hare & Hounds".  Apart from the excitement of chasing the Hare and finding the trail, Harriers reaching the end of the trail would partake of beer, ginger beer, and frivolity. With hash names in parentheses, the original members included Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert ("G"), Cecil Lee, Frederick Thomson ("Horse"), Ronald Bennett ("Torch"), Eric Galvin, H.M. Doig, and John Woodrow.

A. S. Gispert suggested the name "Hash House Harriers" after the Selangor Club Annex, where several of the original hashers lived and dined, known as the "Hash House".  The "Hash House" got its name for "its hodgepodge of edible servings being passed off for food".

Hashing died out during World War II, shortly after the Invasion of Malaya, but was restarted in 1946 after the war by several of the original group. A. S. Gispert was killed on 11 February 1942 in the Japanese invasion of Singapore, an event commemorated by many chapters by an annual Gispert Memorial Run.

After World War II, in an attempt to reorganise in the city of Kuala Lumpur, hashers were informed by the Registrar of Societies that since they were a "group", they would require a constitution. The objectives of the Hash House Harriers as recorded on the club registration card dated 1950 are:

• To promote physical fitness among our members

• To get rid of weekend hangovers

• To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer

• To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel

Paper Chase (also known as Hare and Hounds or Chalk Chase) is a running game played outdoors (best played within a wood or even a shrubbery maze) with any number of players. At the start of the game, one person is designated the 'hare' and everyone else in the group are the 'hounds'. The 'hare' starts off ahead of everyone else leaving behind a trail of paper shreds (or chalk marks in an urban environment) which represents the scent of the hare. Just as scent is carried on the wind, so too are the bits of paper, sometimes making for a difficult game. After some designated time, the hounds must chase after the hare and attempt to catch them before they reach the ending point of the race. It is generally done over a long distance, but shorter courses can be set. If the hare makes it to the finish line, they get to choose the next hare, or to be the hare themselves. Similarly, the person who catches the hare gets to choose the next hare. 

A game called "Hunt the Fox" or "Hunt the Hare" was played in English schools since at least the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.[1] Shakespeare appears to make reference to it in Hamlet, when he eludes the guards at Elsinore he cries "Hide, fox, and all after".[2] Around 1800 the game was organised at Shrewsbury School into an outdoor game called "the Hunt" or "the Hounds", to prepare the young gentlemen for their future pastime of fox hunting.[1] The two runners making the trail with paper were called "foxes", those chasing them were called "hounds". Hare coursing rather than fox hunting was used as an analogy when the game spread to Bath School, so the trail-makers were called "hares". This term was made popular by the paper chase scene in Tom Brown's School Days and is still used in modern hashing and in club names like Thames Hare and Hounds, but Shrewsbury continues to use fox hunting terms as evidenced in The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler (see below) - "in this case the hare was a couple of boys who were called foxes". The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt is the oldest cross-country club in the world, with written records going back to 1831 and evidence that it was established by 1819.[1] The club officers are the Huntsman, Senior and Junior Whips whilst the runners are Hounds, who start most races paired into "couples"; the winner of a race is said to "kill".[3] The main inter-house cross-country races are still called the Junior and Senior Paperchase, although no paper is dropped and urban development means the historical course can no longer be followed.