30 Pack Marathon info

Press coverage July 2008, my interview got cut, though

The 30 Pack Marathon was my favourite thing I did in Tucson…well, the favourite that I did in public…erm, okay, it was a pretty hip event, anyway, and didn’t involve commission of any felonies across international borders.

People hear about it and have one of two reactions.  Hashers usually just say “I’ve heard about that,” or “that sounds pretty cool, maybe we should do that at our hash.”  Non-hashers (civilians) tend to react with patronizing disbelief until I point out that it was covered by CNN and is still one of the most popular videos that they’ve archived.

So, this entry is meant to be a clearinghouse of 30-Pack Marathon lore, links, and opinions.  Granted, most of the opinion from the civilians/infidels has been overwhelmingly negative but I really want one link I can give to folks at the labs or in my real running club that they can go and find these other links and decide for themselves whether to believe the story or not.

I’m also, at this time (I may edit this line out since hashers are savages–my people it’s true but definitely not right-in-the-head) I’m asking for participants in the Tucson 2008 or El Paso 2009 event to add their 2 cents worth (that’s about 1.3 p, british folk) and help me build this as a public database.

The original poster

Now, here’s what I’ve come up with on my own:

The best link site I’ve seen, without a doubt, is Bloody Z’s blog posting.  He, via subterfuge, cheating, and pure force of will was the only finisher at the first event (I went back a few days later with my ankle still swollen and wrapped and did the ceremonialy final few miles, but hats off and guts emptied in honour of Z):

http://bloodyzz.blogspot.com/2008/07/30-pack-beer-marathon.html

The CNN coverage was unexpected as I had sent out a joke press release to a bunch of radio stations around the US and got a call the day before the “race” from a local television station saying they would like to cover it.  Before the night was over, folks in the video were receiving emails from around the country, nay, around the globe saying they had been spotted.  No one seemed at embarrassed by this:

CNN has an annoying commercial before the video starts, but the video is far superior to this youtube capture of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Fjm62YmTY

Then a show called “World’s Dumbest Partiers” picked up the video for it’s show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJH6pBA3_eU

The “sponsors” of this first staging were the jHavelina Hash House Harriers, an irresponsible and obnoxious group of losers I am well shod of and miss dearly.  Here is their photo collection from the day (note…this has disappeared from smugmug, perhaps at the request of people in the images that need to keep a job or a security clearance…sorry you can’t see these, and sorry I didn’t make copies):

and, I believe this is the collection from Bloody Z himself:

There were various other bits of coverage, notably on the Meet Rack’s myspace page.  I don’t know if there are any photos posted anymore, though.  Other blogs picked up on the event, as well, with the official first results posted at the end of this one:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2596634

and also, a little discussion from this one :

http://www.thatsfit.com/2008/08/11/30-pack-beer-marathon/

and this from Runner’s World.

Other sites of interest for 30 Pack Marathon v. 1.0 include:

http://hashspace.ning.com/group/30packmarathon [dead link…HashSpace moved off ning.com leaving this group behind]

t-shirt front (none ever printed…we thought it was all just a joke)

t-shirt back (none ever printed…we thought it was all just a joke)

The 30-P-M should never have been done even once, but the El Paso Hash House Harriers saw our stupid actions and had to have a piece of that for themselves.  The 2nd (now annual) event went off very well.  Here are some of the recruiting pages:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97240107105&index=1

http://hashspace.ning.com/events/30pack-marathon-ii

Flyer

Results

and a photo slideshow:
http://www.hashspace.com/photo/photo/slideshow?albumId=2021388:Album:1581630

The 3rd annual 30 Pack Marathon has been announced, this time in Jacksonville Florida where you can enjoy both heat AND humidity.  The following is an announcement of sorts from the organiser, clipped from Hashspace 30 Pack MArathon group:

Sorry, All the Way In, your post reminded me to post some of information for the 3rd Anal Traveling 30 Pack Traveling Marathon Hash, as part of the stipulation set forth by the previous two 30 Packs it will be in the month of July. Tentative hash date is 17 July in Jacksonville, FL (exact location still in the works), a pre-lube/warm-up will between 11am-noon with a start time of 1pm (giving people 13 hours to do a half(13.1) or the full marathon(26.2). More information will be coming out sometme in the next couple weeks.

Bloody Z
2 x 30 Pack Champ

Update 24 May 2010:

The 3rd Annual running of the 30 Pack Marathon (the Race to Drunk to Die) will take place in Jacksonville, Florida on July 2010.  There is a facebook group dedicated to it and information can be gleaned from the Jax Beach Hash House Harriers (best contact there will be Bloody Z, who is organising the fiasco this time around).  Where will it be next year?
from the Hashspace announcement:

This year Jacksonville Hash House Harriers (JaxH3) is hosting the 3rd Annual 30 Pack Beer Marathon Traveling Hash on July 17, 2010 at Bo’s Coral Reef Restaurant & Bar in Jacksonville Beach, FL. It is a .874 mile loop course (30 laps x .874 miles = 26.22 miles) that will pass at 6 bars of cheering spectators. We will have a prelube on Friday and then the 30 Pack on Saturday. So cum on down to Jacksonville, FL in mid July and soak up the sun, the beach and the beer. If a Marathon is too long for you, there is the 1/2 Marathon option (15 beer / 15 laps = 13.11) or for the lazy spectators a Beer mile an hour before sunset.

There will be prizes for each distance on:
Best Overall Time
Fastest Lap
Slowest Lap
Fastest Beer
Slowest Beer
Miss Congeniality

This hashtory-breaking event was first held last year in Tucson, AZ by the jHavelina H3 and Mr. Happy’s H3s on July 27, 2008 and was covered by CNN (CNN video). The following year it was held in El Paso, TX by El Paso H3 and Digg’s Tavern on July 28, 2009.

Don’t foget to join the 30 Pack Marathon hashspace group.

Click here for the Facebook event page

———-End of Update———-

Other similar runs happen all the time.  I participated in the Cantabrigiensis HHH River Run last year, 4.6 miles with a half pint in each of ten pubs…36 minutes flat.

The Atlanta Hashes do the Peachtree Road Race as a beer-per-mile 10K pub crawl (have to finish in 55 minutes amongst 50000 entrants).

The Town and Gown 10K Run here in Oxfordshire is turned into a pub crawl by the Oxford HHH.

Beer miles should be done frequently by anyone considering this sort of behaviour.

Finally, some DC hashers are organising a 24 Pack Marathon for 15 May 2010.  Details here:

http://www.hashspace.com/events/2010-dc-full-case-full

[Note: Hashspace requires an invitation from a member…it is a closed group for Hashers only.  Go to a hash and ask someone to send you an invitation if you really want onto it.]

It would be rude, of course, not to include the venue:

Meet Rack’s Facebook page

Meet Rack’s Myspace page