When you go on a Hash run and if you have things explained to you properly before you take off you will be told about FT's or False Trails.
False Trails are exactly what they sound like, trails that are not the correct ones. These are introduced into Hash runs in order to keep the pack together or more notably, to slow down the FRB's, or as they are known in longhand, the "front running bastards."
Look guy in your 20's, we know you are faster than us pot-bellied oldies are but we have things built in to ensure that you are not going to finish 45 minutes before us.
here is a run that we recently did in Chiang Mai. As you can see the total trail length is around 4.5 km. The amount run by our "chief FRB" was 6.5 kilometers. This is not to pick on him but it did serve its purpose because when he got to the part of a trail all by himself leaving the oldies behind him he would get 300 meters or so down said trail only to discover that it was not the correct trail at all.
When this happens you need not be overly concerned because the only thing you need to do is return to the last crossroads where you were on chalk/ paper before, and then resume in the opposite direction. I've been the FRB that has encountered this many times and it is actually kind of funny when it happens since there is no reward for finishing first other than pride, and it is kind of fun to re-encounter people that you are definitely more fit then as you return to the main trail a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time.
Normally, you will encounter a false trail immediately after a circle check, which is another instrument that is used in Hashes to keep the group together. It's really quite simple yet remarkable when you stop to think about it. We can have an athletic event of sorts that involves people sometimes 40 years apart in age and all of us finish about the same time just because we have failsafes built in that ensure that it can't really happen any other way!
If you are ever the victim of a False Trail, there is a certain high level of futility in getting upset about it because nobody is going to care. It has been a part of the Hash House Harriers for over a hundred years and it will continue forever. At the end we are all just there to get out in nature, have a few beers and get a bit of exercise and we all accomplish this in our own special ways.
I remember my False Trail discovery moments a lot more than I do my ones where I finished in the top 3. It's really a big honor to be the person that first discovers that the trail is not the correct one.
When you do encounter a false trail it is crucially important that you shout it out though. Just shout FALSE TRAIL, then kick out the double line that should be there on the ground to indicate that it has already been called out, then head back in the other direction. You will have plenty to talk about with the people that you catch up with that you have likely already passed at least once before if you are actually young and fit.
At the end of the day these events are all about getting along and having some sense of community and the false trail is just an excellent way of enforcing this because let's be honest, you 20-something kids are definitely going to finish a long time before the average beer-drinker in his 50's regardless of how many false trails we put in there.
On On!
