GFH3 Run #1,797; 28 February 2015

"Nipple Knocker had 7 1/2 miles.  [Bionic Babe and Nipples] laid a great trail and the pack stayed together pretty much the entire trail unto the turkey/eagle split near the end. Just Jeffy Lube, Chip Off the Old Dick, Air Horn, Blow for Dough & Nipple Knocker did the Eagle split.

"Oral Advocate  had a special announcement to acknowledge the awesome trail [COtOD] set last week.  [Maybe] five wankers showed up for the trail. Not only did he set trail but he also ran it again. OA went on to say that it was in his 23 yrs of hashing the best trail he had run. Further Mufti has given [COtOD] a new name by way of presenting him with a new head gear (first responder)  - forgot to take a pic of him sporting the new first responder safety helmet :)"

Thanks for the photos, Nipple Knocker!

GFH3 Run #1,795; 14 February 2015

Friday's below-freezing temps having ceded to a moderate 40-something on the Fahrenheit scale, about 20 hashers decided to brave overcast skies and a pay-as-you-go sports bar that Chip Off the Old Dick had chosen as the venue for his latest hash heroics.  It was a fine choice given the expansive pipeline that ran right by the south Herndon/Reston shopping plaza where the team gathered tentatively, knowing young COtOD's reputation for stamina-testing.  No need!  The trail was a delight, totaling about four miles with Jeffy Lube out in front to do all the checking, so the eight or nine remaining runners didn't need to bother with those nasty false trails.  This trail, ladies and gentlemen, was so good no one bothered with the proffered shortcut.

Shortcutting actually entailed a small amount more goose poop, too.

The walkers went their own various ways, and everyone wound up back at Glory Days Grill, taking up six tables or thereabouts.  The Oral Advocate kindly put several pitchers of beer on his own tab, and recommended the bison burger.  There were also tasty warm pretzels and various salads and sandwiches.  A bit of musical chairs allowed for socializing while the O.A. took a silent roll call.

Richard referred to the trail as "maybe too well marked."  Views
and opinions expressed by one do not necessarily reflect those of others.

That bit of pipeline is worth a return visit.  It is not too late to reclaim it from the geese!

Not too many pictures, as the grill was a bit dim for flash-less pictures, and the flash gets obnoxious early, but there are a few available here.  Including several of geese...


TWO NOTES: 

Ménage à Trois, after 20 years' service as GFH3 Webmaster, is very gradually moving out of state and looking for someone to take over for him.  He can teach you anything you need to know in about an hour, even if you have no web experience, and estimates that upkeep requires less than 30 minutes per week.  Please contact him if you can do it.

ALSO, one of the Every Day is Wednesday hashers left a mug behind several weeks ago.  It says "EWH3" and "For Sale or Rent" on it.  She is anxious to get it back.  If you know where it is, Nipples can facilitate its restoration.


REPORT FROM GFH3 WEST

It's warm and sunny, although possible to find a centimeter of snow if you take the gondola up to 5,000 feet.

GFH3 Run #1,790; 10 January 2015

A favorite Hash hostess, Blow in the Hole hero'ed it up once again, with help from a cast of... several.  Consultation with Blazing Straddle and Jeffy Lube resulted in a useful trail map.  A quartet (BitH, JL, Zipperhead and Dances with Bulls; three on foot, one on wheels), well-bundled, colored the flour blue for better visibility on the leftover snow, and then scattered it about Herndon for 12 runners to follow.  Seven walkers made their own path, determined to visit the historic downtown, for bread or trains or maybe both.  That's four hares and 19 hounds; so how were there 30 people at the hash?

Pre layer-donning, the hares make sure they know where they're going -- more or less.

One speculates that perhaps not everyone felt like getting a bit of exercise in the great outdoors today.  How could that be?  Why would that be?  After all, the wind chill wasn't all that bad, and the sun was shining like billy-o, so temps in the high 20s actually felt more or less like high 20s, not something frighteningly lower.  Some people were outside in just three layers!

Blazing Straddle was inside, heating up the vegan and paleo chilis BitH had cooked up the day before; perfect lunch for a somewhat chilly day, after a five-mile run over occasionally icy ground.  The hash showed its appreciation by sucking up every gram of beef and most of the black-bean-and-sweet-potato.  Bubbles contributed cookies (and cleaned the downstairs bathroom, while BitH was cleaning every other inch of her home -- before the hash arrived!  Now that's some heroism.).

Note shining sun

Valiant handled the roll call as last week, and did it with a distinctive flair and a decent amount of group participation as he squinted at the tiny roll call print.  Trisha hit #2, and Jen Rough Cut got dug up from the C list, one hopes.  As one hopes they both come back soon.  You can see them in the photos, and introduce yourself next time.

GFH3 Run #1,788; 1 January 2015: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A momentous day, run number 1,788; according to the official hash archive, Bite Me and Eat It Raw first hosted the GFH3 Hangover Hash (or GFH5, presumably), run number 675, on the first of January in 1995.  That makes 21 in a row, right?  One more reason to celebrate.

BANG!

GFH3 Run #1,787; 27 December 2014

Rumor has it... there were about 35 people at Nipples and Greg's place in spite of the early start and missing website.  The course was short at about 4¼ true trail for Eagles and 3½ for Turkeys.  Nipples scouted and set, and her trail included some nice woods, several main roads, some shiggy and a history lesson for the Eagles, who cut through the Dranesville Tavern.  Everyone made it in safely with no evidence of falls, mudslides etc.  There were four dogs – Cam, Abby, Kiley and Olaf.  The weather was beautiful, sunny and almost 60 degrees, and everyone was out on the deck with the fire pit lit.  There were breakfast foods including cheese eggs, ham biscuits, sausage balls, fruit salad, and a nice crumb cake (courtesy of Beef Strokemoff).  The Oral Advocate did well as Mufti Pro Tem and we had one 99 to the cup, Tim.

And Packing Pink Heat got renamed Mimosa Mary on the occasion of her 400th run.

Anyone who has photos is welcome to send them.  These are from the archives:

GFH3 Run #1,786; 20 December 2014

Blazing Straddle heroically offered up her home (yes, we were here just a month ago) for a hash, and Spurt and Blow in the Hole offered to help out with flour.  So they all got together at eight ack emma, when it was still fairly chilly, and slathered historic downtown Herndon with floury marks, and then BStrad started her pots boiling, and by noon twenty more of us had joined the heroes as the sun struggled with cloud cover and the day warmed up to downright cool.  "Enjoy downtown Herndon," was most of the brief (plus something about a possible backcheck), and the group split almost down the middle, with eleven runners heading south and then east while nine walkers followed Ole Fud toward the TRAIN!  And the bread bakery.  Let's not forget the bread bakery.

The Jazz Swinger remembered the bakery.

The run was mostly paved, describing a fair-sized southerly clockwise loop that crossed the W&OD twice.  Despite the presence of young whippersnapper Mike, the pack stuck pretty well together.  Or perhaps because of said presence; as Rough Cut notes, the reason we have whippersnappers is so someone else can check the falses.  Not that R.C. didn't check a few falses his own self...

The first shall be last, and then catch up to the front again.

Some of the walkers spent some time in the woods, fortified by Great Harvest carbs; most stuck to the asphalt.  And the TRAIN!  Everyone eventually wound up back at the house, where Mango, Oscar, Abby and Kylie gazed hopefully at the plates of noodles and meatballs.  Okay, Oscar not so much -- he doesn't do people food.  In fact, offered one of BStrad's sister's homemade Christmas cookies, he barely seemed to notice.  Silly Oscar.  Those cookies were good.

Even more fun than trains.

The Mufti hollered his roll, celebrating Rough Cut's 900th run with raucous cheers.  Then he bid the group a fond, "See you," as he mentally finished packing for the long drive to California.  He urged everyone to extend the same respect, courtesy and attention to Acting Mufti The Oral Advocate as we do to himself... then thought that over and suggested maybe just a hint more would be appropriate.  Phoenix Rising urged O.A. to remember the 'benevolent' part of 'benevolent dictator.'  The inter-regnum begins two days post-Christmas, either in Herndon or Ashburn.  Watch the official site, and if you like, take a gander at this week's photos, too.

GFH3 Run #1,781; 22 November 2014

With a warming trend on its way and the sun shining high from a blue, blue sky, 41 hashers convened on Blazing Straddle's house, where she was putting the final touches on chili for 35.  Whoops.  Anyway, she and Money Bitch had put all kinds of touches on a long, woodsy trail; some controversy arising over the possible existence of 'false checks,' and a rumor making the rounds that true trail was 7.9 miles.  That rumor was countered by physical evidence, but you know how it goes with rumors.

Most of the GFH3 knows the neighborhood pretty well, BStrad being a generous and frequent hostess to the group, so people who wanted to shortcut could.  One small contingent of walkers, new to the area, claimed to have gotten pretty seriously lost and walked a skosh further than desired, but they were still smiling at the 60-minute mark, so good weather and great company were apparently offsetting the impact of bruising tootsies.  The true-trail runners spent more than 90 minutes in the fresh air, and looked mighty fine as they pounded down the final hill, bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked, and Air Horn hardly wincing at all.

Ironman triathletes scoff at even the longest hash trail.

The final days of autumn make chili and fixins a natural choice, and the hash filled up, to the point that BStrad had to break out some noodles and tomato sauce for the handful who didn't make it to the stew pot in time.  There was also a delicious coleslaw, with raisins and almonds, and warm brownies making the rounds.  The beer was confusingly housed inside -- but trust this group to find the beer when it gets relocated.

Mufti shouted the roll, welcoming a full family of first-timers:  Abigail, Brian, Christa and Nate got talked into hashing by Bad Dog.  Per Oral Advocate, they're natural hashers, which he apparently intended as a compliment.  Erotic Equation made a special-guest-star appearance, and John, at maybe his third hash, started making noises like he'd consider hosting.  Be nice to newcomer John, everyone.  He seemed a little freaked by the idea that there's no way of predicting how many people you have to feed...

Guess who ran and who attended a flute recital.

The Oral Advocate warned the Exec Comm that Mufti and BC3 plan to abandon us for the questionable joys of southern California (warm weather, sunshine -- who needs that?) for three months beginning just after Christmas.  They promise to return, if everyone behaves.  After all, who wouldn't want to come back to all this?

GFH3 Run #1,778; 1 November 2014

The day after Hallowe'en; the first day of National Novel Writing Month.  There must be stories...

The story behind my 2014 punkin:  Lubbock.

Creative hash pumpkin of 2013; backstory unknown.

Lubbock + kitty = Happy Hallowe'en!

GFH3 Run #1,767; 20 August 2014

First time host Katy did the hash proud tonight, getting the downpour out of the way early, and the runners on the road promptly at 7:00 in the hot-and-humid aftermath.  Co-hare Thanks for the Mammaries drove out to re-lay marks damaged by the rain; the hares had almost finished setting before the skies sundered.  A big ol' walkers' contingent of about a dozen (clean to start; a dirty dozen by the finish), plus newcomer Bruce, enjoyed a paved trail largely of their own making.

The roughly 19 runners got some winding roadways and a good bit of pipeline.  A plethora of shortcuttery and a mismarked check or two brought them On In in widely-spaced clots of one and two and three and five.  Nipples can tell a story of minor adventure better than it can be told here.  Ask her!  The trail was brief enough that most everyone was in before dark, which arrives so sadly early nowadays.

Twilit clot of three

And at the garage, the 37 hashers were met with a bevy of sandwich fixings and some gigantic turkey legs, which they enjoyed with enthusiastic gesticulating.  There's just something about a drumstick, isn't there?  Beverages and seating were both plentiful, and the evening made for lingering.

Mufti ran down the roll, with Zipperhead making 1177 (the double ones and double sevens, not that anyone seemed to care much) and Katy, who first joined this group for run #1151, back in 2003, making it back onto the A List from the ignominy of C.  First-timers Bruce, who does not replace Duke but makes a fine addition to the PPPP household, Mike and whoever that was dancing with the hostess, did not seem to sign on for the roll.  Curious.  They are all in the pictures, though, the most revealing of which are courtesy of Puss in Boot.  Thanks!

She says she's not dancing, but she is.  She is.

Next week:  The Return of Bill!

GFH3 Run #1,765; 6 August 2014

Fancy stuff tonight, as Blow in the Hole rented the party room at her Herndon swim club, and called in the caterers so she could devote more time to setting:  "It's a little longer than I meant it to be," she explained of her trail.  But with sunshine and mild temps, as well as reasonable humidity, and a hostess with a reputation for most-est-ing, 43 hashers turned out for the run tonight.  Alex and John popped up again, bringing mother and wife Ellen for her first GFH3, Radar tore himself away from the Cape or whatever more exotic travel has taken him from us, Heater Beater made it his third hash in a row -- because of that mild weather, you see -- Melisande limped along, Flowerkraut brought a swelling hand (yellow-jacket sting), etc. etc.

"She did one thing, and she did another thing, and I didn't do much of anything..."

And Zipperhead and Bionic Babe were there, having helped set, and thereby creating a not-that-confusing array of different false-trail styles, plus one hare's arrow that pointed in two different directions.  The 24 runners got it all figured out pretty quickly, and were through the little bit of shiggy and almost at the water stop before the water stop was.  (The official water stop, that is; not the impromptu water stops of Zipperhead wanting to see who would fall for the pipeline decoy and other fun tricks.)  They had a back-porch audience near Dranesville, and the neighbors were kind enough to cheer on the pack as they pounded up the hill toward the cooler and a five-spoked check.  The Beer Near sign, a few miles farther along, did not get washed away by lawn sprinklers before most of the hash had made it back to the On In.  Rrocks Starr mentioned that he had noticed that "little longer than I meant" part BitH had described.  Runners finished between about 8:20 and 8:40; walkers were done somewhat earlier, heh heh.

Whippersnapper!  Putting on a show for...

a back-porch cheering section.

The party room was seriously festive, with centerpieces and highly effective a/c, and the pasta and salad and rolls laid out on long tables.  The volume from 3.5 dozen chatterers was considerable, and when Mufti got ready for the roll, it required shrill whistles from three or four tables to calm the crowd.  There were four first-timers with us:  Paul, Ellen, Devon (fast) and Rudy, who vanished before the roll so we must hope he takes enough time out from the San Diego, San Antonio, Hong Kong and Mount Vernon hashes to join us again someday.  Nobody had unusually exciting numbers, but we did get an update on Dr. Pecker, PhD.  As Mufti notes, he is a low-pressure guy, but the 30/60 he recorded after his recent cardiac procedure was a bit worrying at first.  The good folks at Norfolk Hospital soon had him up to better numbers, and he is now doing well - and probably back home tonight.

Beer very near indeed, now.

Dr. P, PhD didn't make the photos tonight, but everyone else did.  You may notice that orange is indeed the new black.

GFH3 Run #1,748; 19 April 2014

It was an Easter egg hunt... for one little egg.

Greg and Lori sent the runners out into the Herndon woods at the back of the house, at the unconsciensably early hour of 3:06 or thereabouts.  They got a good size pack -- about 22? -- and offered them a healthy trail of roughly four miles, with a bit of mud and brambles and a fence enclosing ten or more dogs at someone's house.  Easy Strider thinks one dog, maybe two, is fine.  But a dozen?  The one egg, however, was near that house, and Air Horn found it right where E.S. left it, in the middle of a check that no one ever marked, and carried it back to the On In as his trophy.

Scrabbling, in the True Hasher fashion.

Meanwhile, a gaggle of runners decided to stay on the road after muffing a check, instead of scrabbling back into the woods and running along the fence guarding the super-secure Fairfax County water treatment facility.  Boo!  Shameless shortcutters!  They missed some extra mud.  Not as much, however, as an entire contingent of runners who seem to have veered off long before Wiehle -- no report from those people, but there they were, on the deck, enjoying the warmth and the cloud cover and the fajitas and a wide selection of wines and beers.  Maybe twelve walkers managed to divide themselves into at least three groups taking distinctly different routes; half of them arriving after the runners were all in.  A very straggly hash.  Whatever happened to that Fist of Discipline the Mufti promised to bring down upon us all?

Two kinds of tortillas, chicken and beans and veg and cheese and....

Anyway, the run was great, the weather was decent, and the potential sighting of a blue heron added a pleasant anticipatory tingle to enhance the beauty of springtime in northern Virginia.  The food was excellent and plentiful, although it would be interesting to know where the Fist of D. was when early finishers were snarfing up guacamole by the quart.

Now we get serious.

Food largely dispatched, and a very happy looking cake on the table, the Mufti broke tradition by presenting new names before calling the roll.  Lori, actually at 103 runs, was up first, and was thrilled to learn that the Executive Committee's original pick of 'Nippletism' had been shortened to 'Nipples.'  Acid-green t-shirt presented, she bravely raised the cup of beer-wine-water to her lips, and had the Mufti snatch it away and dump the contents over the edge of the deck to wither the mulch below.

Rick (105 runs) got to hear several of the nicknames proposed by his nearest and dearest, including 'Howls for Hooters' and 'Sugar Daddy.'  He promised there are stories behind those, but didn't tell them.  With a flourish, the Mufti presented the bright red t-shirt emblazoned, 'Climax Investigator.'  Nipples offered C.I. the 100-run cup, and he actually swallowed a mouthful of beer-wine-Gatorade punch.  It made his mouth look funny.

Welcome to the Executive Committee!

Lots of cheering, hooray hooray, and short speeches, and joy abundant about the land.  Mufti's roll call was pretty exciting, too, with Rachel earning five bonus runs for correctly guessing the number recorded for her on the C List (6, so she's now at 11).  Aaron made it back for number two, and admitted he was unfamiliar with the local strain of poison ivy, having been here only two weeks.  Oh, boy.  Someone watch him carefully.  Chris, Rosemary and Alyssa celebrated #1s, and Randy and Tim both hit #2.  I myself reached 300 runs, and you may now all call me Bubbles, instead of the nickname being exclusive to the Ole Fud.  Probably no one but me will call him Trouble, though.

It was a great hash.  Nipples had prizes for the three hashers involved in discovering the egg:  handsome furry ears and a little chocolate bunny.  Plus cake, without even a birthday.  Check out the pix if you like; thanks to Blow in the Hole and Beef Strokemoff for shutter assistance.

GFH3 Run #1,743; 15 March 2014

Beware the Ides of March, they cautioned J. Caesar back in the day, but the warning doesn’t seem to apply to the GFH3.  Perhaps that’s because for Lezley, there’s no such thing as the Ides; she calls it "two days before St. Patrick’s Day."  So she ladled up a warm and sunny day, silly hats and green beads that caused one Herndon civilian out on trail to guess that we were celebrating a tardy Mardi Gras.  We were, of course, actually celebrating the news that Zipperhead got through serious surgery successfully.

Lezley and Lori were responsible for a five-mile true trail for the runners that included, in the celebratory spirit, ‘real water crossings, not the wimpy Herndon ones.’  That’s a paraphrase, but Lori’s share of the brief certainly included the word ‘wimpy.’  The walkers’ trail is a perennial favorite, permanently marked in blue and white spray-paint arrows.  Word is that the runners’ trail went a considerable distance; evidence suggests that it was quite successful in keeping the pack nicely grouped.  Only Rick got seriously lost; that’s what you get for being FRB at that age.  Sheesh.

The pack, part I, following Rick and Mini Schlonga, both some distance ahead.

Back at Antrim West, there was a feast of corned beef on a platter, regular beef stewed up with spuds and carrots, and a sublime potato-leek soup for those who eschew red meat.  (There’s a pun struggling up through that sentence.)  Also some sausage, possibly to be called bangers just for today, and a huge quantity of Irish beers, including Guinness, which is Good For You, that more than satisfied forty hungry hashers.

The Mufti having decided not to return early from Hawai’i, the Associate Mufti performed his signature 45-minute roll call.  For reasons of his own, he first demanded a shot of whisky, then settled for a nip of Drambuie.  Later, for what can’t possibly be any good reason, Don brought out a full-size, brand new bottle of single-malt Scotch, which the Hash consumed so quickly you’d think they believe they’re worth high-quality hard liquor.

Hash time is happy time!

Despite taking sick leave (is this elective surgery?) Zipperhead got credit for a run, which is unprecedented.  Ole Fud made it to 700 (he was one of our first hashers, but what with traveling the world to save the global economy all those years, he didn’t make it to as many hashes as he would have liked), and I think it was the Oral Advocate himself who hit 750.  Michael attended his first hash but didn’t put himself up for the roll, and Robert made four.  Whoo hoo.  Lori hit 100, and the O.A. declared her, “Nippletism,” but we’ll believe it when the Mufti says it’s true.  Rick hit 99.2 – he’ll make 100 when Double Breasted Boobie is here to see it happen.  Speaking of Mufti, he’s stuck at 1,496.  Whoo hoo.

Here’s what it looked like.  Be sure to keep checking the website; prospective hero Drill Me Fill Me is considering hosting at an empty lot near his home next week.  He’s considering Port-a-Potties, but you might want to stop by the toilets at the Brogue on your way to the meet, just in case. 

Get well and stay well, please.

THIS JUST IN:  Chip Off the Old Dick fills in the details of an October 2013 run that sounds like an unusually excellent good time for all.  Check it out here.

GFH3 Run #1,739; 15 February 2014

Missed it -- please fill me in,

and

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

 archival photo courtesy of Radar, in the spirit of the day

We love the Great Falls Hash!