TO the pleasure of joggers everywhere, on November 24 the Sofia Hash House Harriers running club will start running in Sofia from the Vitosha entrance of South Park at 3pm.

The Hash House Harriers is an international club, often described as a drinking club with a running problem, which believes that physical fitness should be fun and social. One active hasher described it as 'an exhilaratingly fun combination of running, orienteering, and partying, where bands of hashers chase hares on trails through town, country, jungle, and desert, all in search of exercise, camaraderie, and good times.'

The club welcomes everyone regardless of age or social class. Getting fit and socialising are the two goals within the club, according to Elanor Wilson, co-founder of the Sofia club and a former member of The Hare and Hounds Hash House Harriers in England.

The club started in Kuala Lumpur in 1938, when four expats wanted to keep fit and enjoy a glass of beer on the side. "These founders of the hashing events did not want to interfere with their social lives," said Wilson.

The trail is arranged beforehand and the runners do not know the route. Trail markers usually consist of biodegradable material such as sawdust or flour. The club's runners are also referred to as FRBs (Front Running Bastards), hares or even religious advisors (RAs). A hare is be given a short head start to blaze a trail, marking his devious way with shreds of paper, soon to be pursued by a shouting pack of harriers.

The Hash House was the mildly derogatory nickname given (for its unimaginative, monotonous food) to the founding hashers' residence in Kuala Lumpur. The second hash was started in 1947 in Milan, the third in 1962 in Singapore. Growth greatly accelerated in the 1970s and today the hash network is estimated to be over 1500 chapters in over 190 countries with 100 000 - 200 000 hashers on all seven continents, all mismanaged (hash terminology) solely by volunteers and with no central organisation. For people traveling around the world it provides an instant social network. The hash now also involves many invitational hash weekends with many hashers hopping across continents to attend.

Despite the lack of centralised control and far-flung locations, hashing is virtually the same everywhere. For each run different hashers volunteer (or are volunteered) to set the trails which are devised so that both strong runners and walkers can participate. The Hashers avoid any and all competitiveness or handshaking. Any type of body touching or other distracting behaviour is forbidden under the watchful eyes of the RAs. When the Hashers return to the pub they are called into a circle for a song.

The hashers form a circle run by a 'religious advisor' where they will be 'rewarded' with 'down-downs', a beer, wine, or water that they must scull for various transgressions, all given in an irreverent humorous vein and often punctuated by songs. Typically afterwards the hashers are invited to eat dinner together in a restaurant or at the hare's home. Hash names, special nicknames, are used to protect the guilty.

The 1938 charter of the founding Kuala Lumpur Hash House Harriers aptly sums up the hashing spirit by uniting promotion of physical fitness among the members, getting rid of weekend hangovers, acquiring a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer and persuading the older members that they are not as old as they feel.

Hash House Harriers welcome all, including children and the unfit. "Just bring your sense of humour with you," is their motto. The Sofia Harriers are planning another run on December 8. Sofia Hash hopes to host an Inter-Balkan hash in the spring of 2003.

For details about these runs or future runs or any questions email sofiahash@yahoo.com . Further details about hash worldwide can be found at www.half-mind.com , www.go-tothehash.net or www.harrier.net