Someone jogging with a stick, jar on the end, touching lamp posts. Why?

June 3, 2024 12:02 PM

In Cambridge UK (in case it's relevant) today, the traffic was crawling. Looking round I noticed that a woman was jogging along the pavement carrying a pole, maybe 4ft long. The pole hung vertically from her hand. At the bottom of the pole was what looked like a jar, attached to the pole with tape. Each time she reached a lamp post, she lowered the pole so the jar touched the post, paused a second or so, then jogged on. WHAT WAS SHE DOING?
posted by BCMagee to Technology (16 answers total)

Could it have been a can of spray paint, and she was marking that set of poles for something later? Was she wearing any sort of uniform/safety gear?
posted by sagc at 12:12 PM on June 3

I wonder if she could have been marking a temporary trail for something like a Hash Run?
posted by Stacey at 12:38 PM on June 3 [3 favorites]

Could she have been blind?
posted by coffeecat at 12:39 PM on June 3

Response by poster: sagc> She was wearing athletic gear, although that might have been weather related. I think there were hi-viz elements, but nothing like a full tabard or helmet, goggles, gloves.

I couldn't see her doing anything with the apparatus except lower it close to the post.
posted by BCMagee at 12:40 PM on June 3

Response by poster: hash run> never heard of such a thing but now I want to go on one, though in my case more hash shamble I think. Thanks for the knowledge!
posted by BCMagee at 12:43 PM on June 3

Best answer: Following up on Stacey's suggestion - there was a very active community of Hashers in Cambridge when I lived there a few years back. The group that ended their run at the pub I worked at (since closed, but, I believe, under new management now) ran on Mondays, and marked their trails with flour.

On a given Monday, whoever's turn it was to set the run would go out in the afternoon and mark the trail alone, and then the rest would follow the run later in the evening. I'd wager good money this is what you saw.

Were you in the general vicinity of Parker's Piece/Jesus Green?
posted by spielzebub at 12:46 PM on June 3 [11 favorites]

Response by poster: blind> What she was carrying didn't look like my primitive notion of a white stick, and she seemed to see and slow for the lamp posts.
posted by BCMagee at 12:48 PM on June 3

Response by poster: location> I was travelling North on Histon Road, but that's only maybe 2 miles on foot from Parker's Piece, isn't it? Maybe she was marking the scenic route to the Carlton ;)

Amazing to go within a few minutes from not knowing a thing exists, to finding that it not only exists but probably happens near me.
posted by BCMagee at 12:57 PM on June 3 [5 favorites]

If it was a hash run, she would have been marking it with flour.
posted by foxonisland at 4:41 PM on June 3

Could she have been catching insects that were attracted to the light?
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:16 PM on June 3

I've known security guards who need to prove they are patrolling their route tap a stick or flashlight to a marker stuck to a lamp post or such, and that transmits and proves they arrived at point X at time Y to their patrol log software in their smartphone. Maybe it's something similar?
posted by kschang at 9:29 PM on June 3

Yes the flour thing! I’ve never seen them doing it but there’s always flour.
posted by lokta at 12:23 AM on June 4

There might be a couple of groups in Cambridge but the one I've heard of is the Cantab Hash House Harriers, and they run from the Castle Inn, which is only a few hundred metres from the end of Histon Road.
posted by parm at 3:37 AM on June 4

I had never heard of this before but now I desperately want to do it! Off to see if there are any in my area. Thank you BCMagee for asking this question so I can tick my 'learn something new every day' box!
posted by widdershins at 11:23 AM on June 4

Is this the little piles of flour thing? Confused me for years, that one did...
Oh Cambridge.
posted by EllaEm at 11:48 PM on June 4

Response by poster: Whoops, thought the topic had reached a conclusion.

insects, light> probably not, this was during daytime.

guards> it did look as though she was doing some sort of proximity tap, but the tap could also just have been to knock some flour out.
posted by BCMagee at 2:55 AM on June 5