(This Saturday, the Hash House Harriers, a group of “drinkers with a running problem”, held their annual Red Dress Run, culminating in Gas Works Parks. Veteran Harrier and Wallyhood writer Patrick Shaw went along the job.)

I sneaked out of the house with my red dress tucked up under my tee-shirt – my wife didn’t think that the new neighbors should see me sporting a spaghetti strap dress and running shoes this early in their tenure here in Wallingford!

The Red Dress Run was hilarious – I jogged down to Gasworks park to find close to 60 men and women milling around (beer cups in hand) in all manner of red dress: Slinky, gaudy, stylish, garish – you name it. The guy with the tattoos, beehive hairdo and beer belly was especially attractive!

As I approached the group, I un-tucked my dress, peeled off my t-shirt and handed my entry fee over. “Honey”, she said, “You really want that tee “UNDER the dress, not over it”.

I explained that since I’d borrowed a sleeveless dress, that I thought I should let the whole world see – even though it was cold and rainy. “You DO have nice shoulders, she commented,”  handing me a plastic beer mug and a Sharpie “You’ll need that mug several times today”.

Hash runs (this one is sponsored by the Seattle Hash House Harriers) are fun, silly and freeing: where else can you find a group of 60 men and women cavorting around Seattle, singing beer drinking songs, and charging into local pubs yelling “beer check!”? And they are a class/income/race/gender/you name it erasing event, too: No last names, no talk about work, just a get together to socialize, run a little, drink some beer and laugh. We did ALL of that for the next 90 minutes, including stops at the Fremont Troll, The George and the Dragon, and a few other local hot spots.

I had to leave early to get to another event. I had a few bad moments on the way back home: It is one thing to be a man in a red dress amongst a group of men and women wearing red dresses, and quite another to be charging home to Wallingford on the Burke Gilman in a red dress by myself!

Hashing (as it’s called) has a long history, a growing presence on YouTube and Facebook, and is tons of fun and non-competitive.

See Matt Mason’s photo set of the Red Dress Run on Flickr.