Alison shares this latest report from the Isle of Wight Has House Harriers. Ed
On 14th March, twenty Isle of Wight hashers journeyed to Rome to take part in the “Ides of March” hash, an international weekend event hosted by the Rome Hash House Harriers and involving hashers from as far away as Taiwan. Over the course of the event, we had three very different runs.
Friday turned out to be the usual social run involving a number of bars, lots of drunk/lost hashers and finishing at the Miscellania Cafe Bar for a splendid feast.
Sight-seeing and hashing
Saturday, a free morning meant time to explore the Eternal City, which is truly stunning; Rome casually hides architecture other cities would be proud to own.
The afternoon brought a train ride to Ostia for a six mile hash in the forest, where most of the hash missed the beer stop and unfortunately ran through an area occupied by a Lady of Negotiable Affection about to start work. We were treated to a marvellous scene of two Italians (the Lady and a local hasher) screaming at each other whilst being blissfully unaware of what they were shouting.
Broken wrist
A mention must go here to Flossing, who tripped over a tree root in the middle of the forest and broke her wrist; despite being in lots of pain, she gritted her teeth and carried on until we reached help in the form of an American hasher who is a doctor in real life, and the ever-reliable Oates, who, as if by magic, produced a first-aid kit and beer.
Jaded start to the day
Dawn’s rosy fingers (too Greek?) on Sunday morning saw rather a lot of jaded people.
Wrapped in togas and glum looks, we travelled the metro to Circus Maximus for the main run in central Rome. Cameras all around snapped the sight of 50 hungover senators running through the circus.
Gotta get up to get down
A hill climb sweated out some of the drink; spirits were further raised by the viewpoint at the Aranci park, and so a cured group jogged down to Tiber Island, stopping only to test the depth of a Byzantine trough using a dipstick (a hasher from Oxford).
Then it was on through some roman passages (beautiful buildings everywhere) to Galleria Varsi, where by tradition the Island hashers performed the Death of Caesar, (sorry Bill); you can catch it on the Wight hash Facebook page.
Obligatory drink stop
A drink stop at the base of the hilltop basilica, more photos, before running up Ara Coelli steps (all 124 of them) and then down again (wrong steps) and up the adjacent steps to the Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo.
The final mile saw yet more ruins and beautiful buildings, the impressive Coliseum and 100 metres of hop-scotch on the Via del Verbiti, eventually finishing back at the Circus, where our lost fluids were replaced with more litres of italian beer, and a splendid feast conjured up by Oates.
A fantastic time was had by all. Accesso Accesso!
Next meet
And if you would like to join us, we run every Sunday at 11am from various locations around the Island.
This coming Sunday (31st March) we will be meeting outside Smallbrook Stadium, Ryde – hope to see you there! Image: jdn under CC BY 2.0
