About The Prague Hash House Harriers

A friendly group of people meet up and go on a walk / run.  Typically the walk / run will follow a trail set with flour and involve a couple of stops to sample excellent Czech beer.  We will end at a pub and have more beers and a meal.  It is by no means a competition and we have everyone from fit runners to gentle walkers taking part.  We welcome people from all over the world, naturally including Czech, and the main language is English.

The walk / run is usually in or around Prague and will start and finish at somewhere accessible by public transport.

You can just turn up. Details about where the next hash will take place are here.  Also you can join our mailing list by sending an email to hash@hugh.cz.  This will tell you about forthcoming events.

Suitable running / walking clothes and enough money for drinks and optionally a meal.  The run / walk  costs 70Kč, which covers the cost of beers during the hash.

The Hash House Harriers began in 1938 in Malaysia from an idea by someone in the British army who thought it would be fun to combine jogging with drinking beer. It is based on an old British tradition called Hounds and Harriers, and since the idea was first thought of in a Malaysian restaurant called the Hash House, the concept adopted the name Hash House Harriers. The format has proven to be very popular indeed and has grown to become a world wide organisation, to such an extend that at least one hash group can be found in every city in the world (for an example, you may refer to the global hash website at http://www.gthhh.com).

The Prague branch of the Hash House Harriers (http://www.praguehhh.com) began in 1984 and, as all other hash groups around the world, is made up of a cheery group always eager to meet new people.

The concept is that one person volunteers to set a run (trail), and hence is the harrier for that particular hash. He or she uses flour to set the trail before the run, occasionally drawing a circle, known as a check. This is where the faster runners, who get to this check first, have to look for where the trail continues. Sometime there are false trails. Once one of the faster runners finds out where the trail continues, the other runners have usually managed to catch up to the check, the other faster runners run back to the circle and the whole group continues along the trail. This is designed to keep the group together. A typical run lasts approximately one and a half hours and includes one or more beer breaks in a pub. Those who do not want to run are informed where the beer breaks and the final beer stop is located, so that they can walk along their own trail.

This is a great way to discover the parks in and around a city, as well as lots of hidden pubs.

For details of the early years of the Prague Hash click here.