By Claire Truscott

KABUL, Sunday 15 August 2010 (AFP) - The group of foreigners jogging past mounds of fetid trash on the streets of Kabul attract bemused stares from locals, but the brief escape from bulletproof cars is a welcome break for ex-pats living in war-torn Afghanistan.

For the small crowd of intrepid foreigners whose lives are confined to heavily-secured pockets of the Afghan capital, the weekly "Hash" is a chance to do something normal in an environment that is anything but.

On a run earlier this month bodyguards and armoured cars securing the route tried to be low-key, but the surreal scene of Westerners running was hardly inconspicuous.

"Car at the rear, goats in the front," bellowed the leader of the 12 runners, dodging a farmer's herd to reach an old military fort at the top of Kolola-Poshta hill in a residential district of the dusty, fortified city.

Pausing briefly to fly a kite on a roof with an excited group of young men, they ran past the gilded homes of former Afghan warlords, through bustling bazaars where men clad in traditional Muslim garb looked on mystified.

"I really don't know why they run, maybe it's a race," said university student Ahmad Wais. "Cultures are different but it looks a bit funny to Afghans. Some people might think they are weird."

"Maybe they do it for exercise. I don't think it's dangerous," said tailor Feda Mohammad, watching the band of sweating foreigners jog past.

Others were more familiar with the group, which meets every week in a different secret location to tackle 10 kilometres (seven miles) of the city's roads and hills, except when intelligence reports suggest a greater risk of attack.

The Kabul group is one chapter of a loose worldwide federation of "Hash House Harriers", which describes itself as "a drinking club with a running problem" and has a weakness for innuendo-laced rituals that take place when the running and walking are done.

Set up by a group of beer-loving British colonial officers and expatriates in what was then Malaya in 1938, "Hashing" marries exercise with drinking and an irreverent humour well-matched to the needs of Kabul's battle-worn expatriates.

Most of the runners and walkers work for aid groups, embassies or private security firms, their lives closely entwined with the ongoing war around them.

"Kabul, Kabul, What a wonderful place to hash! We have such fun, dodging the shit and trash!..." went one chant, part of a rude repertoire of rhymes the Hashers sang in a circle after the run, dishing out punishments for arbitrary "sins" such as flirting with a fellow Hasher.

The Hashers say the runs provide much needed respite from their daily lives cooped up in armoured cars and behind blast walls -- though not all aspects of running in Afghanistan's dirty capital are enjoyable.

During this recent run, barefoot toddlers chased the group along filthy alleyways lined with clogged drains and running sewers, flies buzzing around as the runners covered their mouths from the stink.

Minutes later the group had left the impoverished surrounds and climbed to the top of an old Soviet base, marked by an Olympic-sized swimming pool that was used for public executions under the 1996-2001 Taliban government.

The brutal reminder of militant Islamic rule contrasted with the spectacular view that made the run worthwhile -- Kabul's raw beige beauty -- mud hills and houses set against rugged rocky mountains in the distance.

Back at the starting point, the runners grabbed a drink and formed a circle as a burly American security contractor donned a jester's hat to preside over the naming of new Hashers.

The newly-named bowed their heads as they were doused in egg and flour, cheered by the eclectic 50-strong crowd of Australians, Americans, Britons, a Canadian, South African and one Afghan.

The Hash later took on a more sombre tone to commemorate British Hasher Karen Woo, one of ten aid workers killed a week earlier in remote northeastern Afghanistan.

An official memorial had taken place a day earlier, with a plaque laid in Kabul's British cemetery for Dr Woo and her colleagues.

But for Woo's fiance Mark "Paddy" Smith and her friends, who have lost many loved ones to the conflict, a more fitting remembrance came in the form of a run and a song.