Rowdy went down to Jordan to join with the Hashemite Hashers and others, between 70 and 80 in all, to celebrate their 1500th run.
The weekend started with a pub crawl in Amman on Thursday night, ending with registration at the final bar. We stayed Thursday night in Amman then caught buses to Beit Ali, where we camped in the desert on Friday and Saturday nights.
After dumping our bags at the camp, having a beer or two and some lunch, there were runs and a walk through the Wadi Rum area. I had a crack at the 25km run which actually ended in Wadi Rum itself. Apparently, there is a charge for going into Wadi Rum so H4 only set the last part of the run through there. The term 'set' is used very loosely here as there were no trail markings, it was a matter of following the hares (who lead/followed the pack in support vehicles).
Towards the end of the trail, there was a long (approx. 2km) gentle downhill into Wadi Rum and then a right turn at the bottom to follow the wadi for 2 or 3km to the finish at a village, I guess Rum. It was getting dark by the time I got to the bottom of the hill and I was starting to kick rocks I hadn't seen in the dark so I jumped into one of the support vehicles and 'auto w*nked' the last part of the trail through Wadi Rum.
We thought we had lost 'Pump Me' from the Beirut Hash in the dark, resulting in us driving back and forth along an approx. 2km stretch of trail in Wadi Rum, trying to find her. However, we couldn't even see the one runner we knew was there still running 'on in' as it got really dark after the twilight had gone. All was OK though as she had reached and entered the village through a different gate to the one where the other finishers were waiting at to be picked up. She didn't know what to do so started to run back to Beit Ali where we were staying before she realised it was quite a long way and turned back to the village and waited at a rest house where the hares managed to find her.
On Saturday we ran the 1500th run through Petra in red t-shirts, an experience not to be missed. There was a beer stop after we had left the main part of Petra behind us, just before the trail finished up a giant hill to where the buses were parked near the top. We were there at the end for some time as one bus was having some work done to it. It was eventually decided to abandon that bus (for the rest of the weekend) so everyone piled into the remaining functional bus and headed for the lunch stop at a 'Bedouin Village' where we also held the circle.
We went back to Petra after the circle so that those who wanted to could go back through at a more leisurely pace. However, since there was only around 2 hours available to go and see it again, most people didn't bother and went to the bar in the Movenpick Hotel where we managed to scare away the hotel guests with hash acts and general merriment. I'm sure it was only the amount of money passing over the bar that prevented us from being kicked out of there!!!
There was a hangover run from the camp on Sunday morning. I felt good before I left for the run but was definitely hungover by the time I got back after probably only around 5km. I thought hangover runs were to get rid of a hangover, not to get one - that's the last hangover run I'm doing!!!
We headed back to Amman late Sunday morning and chilled out in Amman the rest of the day with a wind-up party in the evening, although a bit subdued as everyone was pretty knackered by then. I stayed until 10pm then got a taxi home to Damascus, arriving home at 1am on Monday morning.
All in all, a great long weekend - thanks Guido and the rest of the Hashemite Hashers.
Onon Rowdy
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