Geek's Guidelines for Hares

I only know what now seems to be common sense because that I've either been told by other long time hares or I've learned it the hard way.

  1. Make your marks obvious. The purpose of the marks to isn't to slow people down but to suck the frops in faster and farther than they ever cared to go. The frops are slowed down by a devious trail not by devious markings.

  2. Getting a run to be 40 - 60 minutes long sounds easy. My don't break upon the pain of death rule for a street run is keep the real trail inside a box 2.0k by 1.5k. The checkbacks can wander outside if need be. A great hour long run can be set in an area considerably smaller if you are careful.

  3. Choose your location carefully. Give the hashers something special. A bad run in a great location gets better reviews than a great run is a bad location. Hills, a view, shiggy, etc.

  4. Don't run with the front of the pack. I find it to easy to give advice to the frops. If the frops muddle so be it. They can find the trail or waste themselves trying.

  5. Be careful when your trail gets close to itself. Either mark the possible overlaps with several checkbacks or guard it during the run. This may break rule 4.

  6. It's extremely hard to have too many checks. Setting checkbacks on them can take a lot of time. With 2 hares it may take up to 3 hours to set a run. With 3 hares about 2 hours.

  7. Be particularily careful when setting marks around schools. You may have to remark those sections the next day.

  8. Be aware that marks weather differently depending on weather and marking surface. In particular marks on poles may dissappear during windy rain storms. Flour becomes brown, weathered and almost invisible after the smallest amount of rain.

  9. Some non-hashers have been known to come out of their houses after you have finished marking the trail and erase your marks.

  10. A lot of runs kind of peter out at the end. Try to avoid this. You can set the end first. Be careful during the route choosing phase. After you've been marking the trail for 2-3 hours you get a little tired of doing it and relax. This may cause the end of the run to peter out. Near the end of the run don't go to near the on in unless you want the hashers to ignore the rest of your trail. Another hare once said a well set run can be run backwards. There is only one known example of this being tried and the hares screwed up at the start because no one could find the start if the run. Apparently the people who ran it backwards thought it was an OK trail.

  11. The goal at any check is to have options. Always at least 2 good ones and sometimes 3 or 4. Choose the non-obvious direction once in a while.

  12. Choose to be consistent about running on the streets or the back alleys. Choose to be inconsistent. It is a conscious choice.

  13. When setting a run in flour/tape in the woods have a co-hare come behind you about 8-10m and they will know if the trail is as obvious as you think. This works really well in brush.

  14. Set some long and some short checkbacks.

  15. Try to use the terrain to your advantage. You can tempt them with uphill and with downhill. Try to make the frops shortcuts a longcut.

  16. If you say every checkback is marked then mark them; Damn it! If you say it is abu-dabi then make it so. Especially if it is cold!

  17. Be aware and sensitive of the running conditions. Don't attempt overly steep terrain in the wet or the icy. When its really cold a regroup part way through from where the cold wimps can easily go home is thoughtful.

  18. Water crossings are always kind of neat.

  19. Always consider the BOPs and their need for shortcuts especially after a stretch where the FROPs can just use their jets.

  20. Choose a great On-In with lots of cheap beer and 1-19 really won't matter a whole lot.

    You need to negotiate a price for jugs at the pub that you choose. Anything up to $12/jug is acceptable. Big Rock is our sponsor, so ask Lakey to contact the Big Rock rep if you need help negotiating a deal. If the pub or bar will not negotiate, go elsewhere to get a better deal.

    Here is a list of bars we like, along with the dates that we were last there. This list will be updated as and when we visit new bars.

    Remember: we don't have to run from a bar, we can run from another location and drive to the On In afterwards.


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