Description

Planning a trip to New Orleans for the Red Dress Run? Get the best rates on hotels in the French Quarter and other New Orleans hotels on NewOrleans.com. 

A yearly event for the New Orleans Hash House Harriers (NOH3), a "drinking club with a running problem," the Red Dress Run is a nationwide fundraiser with city chapters that raise money for local charities. Men and women throw on their finest rouge-hued frocks and take to the streets for a five-mile run. NOH3 claims their Run is the largest in the world, with over 7,000 registered participants for the 2010 event (unsurprising, given New Orleanian's love of any occasion to play dress-up). NOH3 raised more than $200,000 in 2010, and past recipients of their fundraising efforts include the NO/AIDS Task Force and local chapters of Girls On the Run and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

While the Run has a known starting point, which in previous years has been the Ernst Café, the complete route is revealed once the run is under way, as is typical of "hash" runs. The runners, known as hashers, follow messages in chalk and colored flour left by fellow hashers (called hares) to navigate the route. The successful participants are rewarded at the end of the run with beer and food. Pre- and post-run entertainment is also provided.

There are a few stories floating around about how red dresses became part of the run. Some say it started when a woman who was invited to her first hash showed up in a red dress — not realizing it was a running group. She ran the route anyway, and the tradition carried when others began wearing red dresses. Another origin story goes this way: after a particularly grueling run, a group of runners were enjoying a dip in a hot tub. A woman in a red dress joined the group in the hot tub. As "punishment" for the amount of attention the men gave the woman, the women in the running group made the men wear red dresses at the following hash.  

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Details

Price: $50 by June 30, $60 by July 31, $75 August 1 until day of race. Cash only if registering day of event.

Phone Number:  (504) 889-4274 (HASH)

Age restrictions: must be 21 or older

Additional information: Must wear a red dress (or snazzy top/skirt combo) to participate