Not a virgin anymore!

When was the last time I heard that. This doesn’t relate to a sexual experience, but about what we did this weekend. For the first time in my life I went hashing. What is hashing? Is a group of people who like beer and exercise and they sort of combine both in an activity form. They lay a route through an unmarked trail. Yes, the middle of the woods type thing. It’s not a competition, as I thought it was, it just a matter of making it…the price at the end…beer.

There were a few flaws in this experience for me. I love the outdoors and adventure, so does the husband, who had a blast. This was somewhat more extreme. As a “virgin”, as they call the newbies, I was not prepared enough to endure what was about to happen.

Mistakes:
1. I had the competition mindset.
I sent my husband at the front because I know I’m way slower than him, so I figured I could do it at my pace, but I didn’t want to be the last one back. I have been working out since December, and even in a somewhat hilly park, I’ve been able to walk/jog for two miles. This trail was supposed to be four miles. Given the fact that I had walked 6 miles around Stone Mountain and the previous factor I figured I would be fine. Wrong!

First of all I started running. This was in the middle of the woods, meaning, it was hills, valleys, mountains and between trees. Five minutes running, my heart and lungs advised me how stupid was to start this as a race. I saw everyone take off running, so I did the same…not smart.

2. Not being prepared
I have asthma. My inhaler was in my backpack. My backpack was in the truck that would be waiting for us at the end. After the first five minutes I started feeling short winded, my body never caught up with me. I kept pushing down the road until I felt dizzy. I had to make several stops to catch up my breath and make sure I was not going to pass out. I prayed, I prayed A LOT!

I had no water with me. I had some leaving the start line, so I figured I would be ok for four miles. Again, wrong! After the initial part, there were no trees; it was just hills, valleys; up and down two mountains in the open. It was very hot, 105 degrees if you ask me. I got overheated dehydrated and yes, in the middle of an asthma attack… I was having too much fun.

At one of my stops, a lady ran next to me. By the Grace of God she happened to be a nurse. She’s a regular hasher, so she knew everyone in the group. She ran towards the crowd and found someone (smarter than me) who she knew was asthmatic and brought back an inhaler. Another lady, in her sixties and a retired nurse, was walking behind me and because of my stops caught up with me. She had some water and helped me out. These two angels stayed with me for the rest of the trail. I had made it so far into the route that there was no point in turning back; it would have been just as bad. The older lady called the Hares (leaders of the hashing) and told them what was going on. They gave them an alternate route to get me back to the camp quicker. The original trail included crossing a swamp, so they tried to keep me away from the water. I don’t know if my route ended up being worse as it included an extra mountain, but I made it.

At the end of the second mountain, another hasher found us and came with a second inhaler. They didn’t know I had already been assisted in that area. He brought ice cold water. Thank you Jesus! I drank some and pour some over my head, face and chest. It felt like living again. I asked him to not alert my husband that I was having trouble. He said he already knew. Oh crap! was the first thing that came to my head. I was feeling better and didn’t want to worry him.

The after party
Once you make it in, and after my husband gave me a hundred kisses…lol, they feed you snacks and beer. They sing songs and nominate people for awards and punishments…but not real punishments, it’s all about the beer.

While I was a medical emergency to them, my husband was a hero. A seasoned female hasher got stuck in the swamp and the other gentlemen were unable to get her out. My handsome hunk of a husband was able to get her out. She and her husband could not say enough to thank him. She too thought she was going to die. My response to them was that it was all fair game. God placed some people to help me and had placed my husband there to help her.

Will I do it again? The jury is still out. The hubby and I have been talking about it all weekend and we both agree in what the pros and cons are.

Pros

• We both love the outdoors
• Neither of us is scared of extreme experiences. ( I’d be more prepared next time I promise)
• We had fun. Yes there were some scary stuff, but it was tons of fun
• The people there were adorable, very caring and fun. We really liked them

Cons

• The language- I’m not a purist by any means, but this was way more that I could handle. Even my husband who is more used to it than me found it too extreme for him. Let me paint a picture here, if the after party was televised, there would be no audio, it would all be bleeped, so you could not hear a thing.
• Names- Somewhat continuing the prior topic. You don’t use your name, after your fifth hash the group gives you a hashing name. Well the name is based on things that you’ve done wrong or said which is ok…The turn off part is that your name is related to a body part, sexual act or cuss words (all of them, if you can think of it it’s included, all in slang of course, if you’re disgusted by it, it was included too) Their songs have the same content as well. So neither of us wants to be named after one of our reproductive organs or any one of our private marital activities. Again, not a purist, but it was a little bit too much for my taste.
• Beer- It’s just not my alcoholic drink of choice. I don’t like the taste of beer and their activities revolve around beer. They call themselves “a group of beer drinkers with a running problem”, if you catch the drift.
  
  I tried to look online to see if there were other groups with similar activities that didn’t include the beer and had other formats and couldn’t find one. I had not worked out in a couple of months and this was a great kick off. It really kicked me off...LOL. So yes we had tons of fun, enjoyed ourselves, but the jury is still out if this is ever happening again in this setting.