Since Sunday evening I’ve been feeling depressed. I guess it was just one of those days. The scooter gang met and we went all over town. This time to Rundle Park. The last time I was there it was on a run, so I know it is 13km away from the Kinsmen center. My only problem was that I wasn’t dressed for the weather. So I was a little chilly.
I must say I’m learning more about Edmonton since I joined. Before, I never drove anywhere just for the heck of it. Now I’m seeing all over. However, I’m always with a group. I can’t imagine myself doing it alone. I’m not cut out for aimless wandering.
Yesterday I joined the Edmonton Hash House Harriers. They are like a running club. The point of a hash is like a fox hunt. One runner goes ahead and makes a path using flour. He makes a trail with several tricks, and goes through bad terrain. Then everyone else tries to follow the trail. Since there are points where you can’t tell where the trail has gone, you might run the wrong way for awhile before you have to turn around. So the faster runners have to run further. They find the dead ends and only figure out the correct route by the time the slower runners have caught up. When you find the trail you yell “On On!”
That all sounds good on paper, but the official slogan of the group is: “The drinking club with a running problem.” So part way through the run, we stop and have a beer. Then we run to the end and have another beer. Then everyone meets up at a bar to have another beer. Since I don’t drink, it’s not quite the same for me.
It was fun, but I think it could have been better. My legs were still a bit sore from the Sunday morning run. And the trail wasn’t laid out very well. The group I was with lost the trail so badly that we found the drinking spot instead. So we waited around for twenty minutes for the guy to come and unlock his truck and pass out beer. The others passed the time by abusing the truck.
Then it was a run back to the start. There they had some ceremonies that mostly involved forcing people to drink beer, either for bad things they had done, or for celebrating accomplishments. Is drinking a reward or deterrent? The ceremony took too long, in my opinion. We were standing out in mosquito infested park. Since I was a virgin runner, I had to entertain them all, somehow, at one point. They gave examples of bad jokes or an embarrassing story. I took the safe route and juggled some beers. They were slippery (when wet) so I couldn’t keep it up for long. But it seemed to satisfy the natives.
After all that, we went to a nearby bar. They had a pizza special on that night. But it took forever for them to come. Over an hour. I didn’t get to eat until after 10:00. I did get to watch everyone get steadily drunker and drunker. I left at about 10:30.
My opinion of the whole thing is similar to watching the monthly variety show/play “Oh Susanna.” That tries to get its laugh by plying the audience, and themselves with alcohol. Being the only sober person in a room full of drunks isn’t as hilarious as the drunk people think it is.