Once a year we host an event that actually kind of requires a bit of physical capabilities. Most of the time our 5-7km treks in the jungle are something that can be accomplished by just about anyone but there is a single event in a year that actually requires some sort of athletic prowess. That event is called the "Ballbreaker" and it is a full half-marathon as a trail run.
It requires a great deal of planning because just like any other Hash event, the trail is filled with surprises such as false trails and sections where the true trail must be discovered before the group can carry on. Also, normally on these events we will have at least 2 "bail out points" that can also be used to rehydrate or if you want full honors at the finish, it is a place to sit and drink a beer before carrying on.
The Ballbreaker has a long history and it normally ends up being one of our most attended events because it is 4 times as long as a normal run that we do three times a week. Also, the get-together time is at noon rather than 4pm because we have to allow for so many more hours for the runners to actually complete more than 20km of trail run.
The trails isn't any more difficult than other trails. In fact, it tends to be easier because we know that if we introduced massive hill climbs into an already long run, that most people wouldn't be able to do it. Therefore, these runs tend to be quite flat although we do put them as far out in nature as possible.
This doesn't mean that we aren't expecting people to get tired, we already know that they will and it is completely expected that there will be a lot of people resting on trail and in the last couple of events, 3/4 of the pack bailed out before going the full distance. This is just fine and expected. If you want to try to be a hero you can, but you are not obligated to.
The few who do make it the entire way through are celebrated though because this is quite an accomplishment for our group especially when you consider that the average age in our particular Hash Chapter is over 60 and nearly everyone has a few extra pounds on them.
Whether they are walking, running, jogging, or crawling; this event is something that will push our members to the limit and it is something that really should be seen as a true challenge especially since most of us aren't really athletes. We can pretend we are for a day though, right?
At the end of it we do our usual sitting around with beer making fun of one another except we tend to have much more food on these runs than we would on a normal meetup. It takes a lot of energy go complete more than a 20km run in the jungle and we also let people drink water if they absolutely must.
So what do you say? Do you have what it takes to do 4-6 hours of exercise followed by copious amounts of beer drinking? Many will enter, few will complete! This is a 3-day event and it has already been planned for the 7th through the 9th of January, 2023. Get in touch with us for more details as there is always limited space available for this exclusive event!
