1:30 Glen Echo with DC Harriettes and Harriers (DCH4)

I moved to Washington DC in 1989. I was stationed there after I rotated out of Okinawa, Japan with the Marines. DC was a big chunk of my life; on and off I lived there for about eight years.

One of the first things I did in DC when I first arrived was to start running with the Hash House Harriers. It was the running equivalent of a rugby club-- there were a lot of songs and beer drinking, and many of the people running were either attached to the embassies or had gone overseas with the military or the Peace Corps. One of the officers I was assigned with was involved with the hash and encouraged me to come.

Some of my oldest friendships date from that initial hash-- for example, my friend Lou, who I'm having brunch with today, was at that first hash, 16 years ago. I eventually drifted away from the hash-- it was difficult to go to the hash when I first stopped drinking.

Sonia and Daniel are still in Barcelona, so I realized yesterday morning that I could make the drive down to DC from Philadelphia and see my old friends. I hit pay dirt (sort of): a lot of the same people who ran 16 years ago were there yesterday. The run was in Glen Echo, where I had lived back then, so it was a run down memory lane for me.