S.B. man organizes hash run in Edison

BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

Want to brave all the dangers the wilds Edison has to offer?Eastern Villages Association and the Lawrence Brook Watershed Fellowship member Ken Vercammen are organizing a 4- to 6-mile group run along the Raritan River, through the woods and marshes of Edison. It will be the run’s eighth year.

The EVA, based in South Brunswick, and the LBWF, Milltown, are community organizations that try to call attention to excessive development in New Jersey, specifically in Central Jersey.

The trail is entirely off-road, with the path for runners marked off in baking flour. According to Vercammen, a South Brunswick resident, participants will face potential hazards such as “get bit by starving animals,” “slip on ice and break bones,” “touch 29,000 volts of electricity,” “rabid raccoons,” “swamp gas,” “wild dogs,” “parts of trail underwater,” “loud men over 50,” “bad drivers from Iselin” and the “dangerous tunnel of glass.” It is also anticipated to be bitterly cold that day.

Hash runs differ from a regular run in a number of ways. The first is that they are not just off-road, but off any path whatsoever. Participants are not running along sidewalks or premade running trails in the woods. They are, instead, going through trails rougher than some runners may be used to, trails that go through hazards, split off and sometimes even lead to dead ends. The second is that hash runs are entirely noncompetitive.

According to Vercammen, hash runs tend not to attract hardcore runners and racers, who mostly stick to linear road paths.

Hashing began in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1938 by British officers, who founded a running club called the Hash House Harriers, named for their meeting place, nicknamed the Hash House. While its popularity faded after WWII was over, it exploded back to life in the ’70s, and there are now thousands of hashing clubs, complete with news letters, directories and conventions, all over the world. Hash runs have traditionally ended with all runners enjoying ice cold beer at the end.

The run begins on Saturday at 10:17 a.m. at the Ken Vercammen Law Center, which is located at 2053 Woodbridge Ave. in Edison. The run is free, though the postrun social, at the Green Derby Bar, costs $5 to register.