SUNDAY 27^TH FEB 2005

VENUE: PORTO GERMANO (no one knows what this means and it has another name too….but basically a small seaside resort an hour from Athens surrounded by yummy mountains…..all the better to run up and down)

HARE: THE BOOKMAKER the celebratee

A VINTAGE CELEBRATION OF 80 TRAILS AND 600 RUNS WITH AHHH

The excitement was intense as the celebration of one of our most renowned, infamous Hashers dawned bright and fair…….we had a house to trash! The Australian Embassy Beach House had been offered as the venue for our celebration, and we intended to make the most of it….so thanks very much Suck All Week and spouse Karen. Did they really know what they had let themselves in for?

We had an excellent turnout of the AHHH and Bookie told us that he had distilled all his years of hashing and trail laying into a very potent brew for us to overdose on. Looking at the surrounding scenery with rocky foreshore with pounding waves (good for the complexion) and green tree covered peaks reaching to the blue sky (good for the calf muscles), and the especial blessing that Oxymoron turned up B4 we started the trail….what more could we wish for?? ( oxygen and painkillers topped the wish list later).

We gathered on the lawn of the beach house and Bookmaker explained the details of the trail. We had 2 options for shortcutting, with a check with an S in it, and a Re-Group check RG, where we needed to gather together and proceed in close order (he would not tell us why but Pink Jenny remembered that in 1999, last time AHHH came to Porto Gerasimo, a hasher got shot by an irate farmer, so we thought it was possible he was ensuring we would be an easy target!)

On On he shouted and waved his arm in the direction of the crashing waves. We set off a bit tentatively as Bookmaker often offers a swimming option for those who do not want the 4 mile detour…..but the bay is about 2km wide and with rollers head height and a wind at 7beaufort……luckily we found blue on the rocky shore and hop, skipped and jumped along the seafront, in the main avoiding the waves. This was a nice easy start, but our eyes kept being drawn to the peaks surrounding us and sure enough we were soon heading uphill and puffing and stripping off layers as we went.

This was a fabulous vintage trail, with views of 180 degrees across the bay, mostly on forest paths, with mind boggling checks, that allowed the TOBs (tailed off bastards) to catch up while the FRBs (Front Running Bastards) kept running up and down and round and round, wagging their tails and trying to get a clue from Bookie where the trail was……he never divulged but we always found it and bounded off.

We all bravely ignored the Ss and managed to capture BushMan and hold him still for long enough to regroup at the RG on a cliff face 2km straight up from the beach house. Were we going over the edge together…..like lemmings in lycra shorts??!

What did it matter that our lungs were bursting, sweat dripping in our eyes, legs scratched to bits on the local flora? This was hashing at its best…..we bonded up there on that mountain, brought together by the pain and anguish of yet another FALSIE, in adversity seeing the best of human nature and survival technique……it reminded me of that movie when they crash in the jungle and have to eat each other……except for the cannibalism that is.

This is why we deserve to drink to severe excess and sing a bawdy song and throw abuse at all and sundry……’cos

WE’RE ARE HASHER WE’RE SO BLUE

WE ARE HASHERS THROUGH AND THROUGH

No its okay you can open your eyes now…..it wasn’t a Bookmaker suicide pact, and we did not need paragliding equipment. Bookie had found the way down on a narrow goat track that led to an open olive grove, that dropped us to the road and a fabulous ON INN along the sea and tarmac to stretch our running muscles and dive straight into the iced beer.

Back at the circle, with the smell of Hamish’s food wafting from the kitchen we awarded our BOOKMAKER in different ways with a special jar of blue for his 80 trails, a huge DIO and 600 badge for his…..600 runs and another ceramic pot to match his 500^th from Aegina…. Wee Mac had also specially printed him a Tshirt to celebrate Bookmaker’s favourite phrase of ‘….let’s have another one for the road’ written in Malay…so we have to take his word for it……. We all wore our fabulous new caps…..WE SERVIVED BOOKMAKERS 600^TH RUN……a curious Freudian slip on the spelling there we think…..

We then ate and drank to excess, took various unprintable photographs and generally behaved in the manner to which we are accustomed……..

On On to more fabulous running care of LOVE BUG in RODOPOLI