My Rotary guide for my professional day was Gordon, the secretary of the Moscow International Rotary Club, a financial consultant in Moscow who had worked for many years with the World Bank, and at the end of the day he invited me and anyone from the team who wanted to come with me to the regular weekly meeting of the “Hash House Harriers”. There would be about a six kilometer run and a barbeque afterwards, with beer, with a contribution of 250 rubles (or somewhere between $8 and $9). I felt confident I could get my money’s worth of the grub and grog, and I hadn’t had a chance to run since I left the sanitarium on the outskirts of Vladimir. Plus, I had nothing better to do in Moscow on a Sunday afternoon. I met Gordon in front of one of the seven Stalin skyscrapers on the Garden Ring.
John and Jen decided to come along, but as they were delayed we agreed to meet at the Yugo Zapadny Metro stop.
We rode the Metro to Yugo Zapadny station where about 30 English speaking expatriates and their significant others were gathering. We had to take a short bus trip to Ul’yanskovy Park where the run was being held; Gordon and I hung back a bit to wait for John and Jen, who made excellent time across the city and found us with no problem.
Gordon explained to me that the “Hash House Harriers”, was started by British troops in Malaya in the 1930s who after some long term drinking decided to do some long distance running to cure their hangovers … and then have a few beers. It had absolulely no formal organization, but they do have a presence in most major cities in the world now and a presence on the World Wide Web. They have been called “a drinking club with a running problem”. I was excited to join them because I hadn’t had a chance to do much drinking in Russia.
On the bus ride we Gordon pointed out the Russian Pentagon, and some former missile sites.
We got off the bus at the sign of the car on a pole.
Ul’yanskovy Park is a large, heavily wooded tract of land by the outer ring of apartment blocks. We walked by horse stables (during the run the trail of horses was easy to find) and into a soggy field.
There the rules were laid out by the “Mismanager” of the contest who was wearing a large funny hat. A trail of flour had been laid in the forest, fields,, and pathways of the park by the “hares”. Two strapping young Marines were carrying backpacks full of beer. When runners came upon a spot of flour, they were to yell “On On”. That made them sound something like a pack of hounds. From time to time the trail would lead to a circle sign. At the circle the pack had to fan out to find the trail. Whoever found the trail had to yell “All On” and the pack would follow. Sometimes a trail would end in a dead end marked with three X’s. Then it was back to the circle to find the right trail. This was actually an old English schoolboys’ game called “the Paper Chase” and I thought it was thoroughly fun.
We ran up and down hills, over streams and along pathways yelling “on on” to the astonished looks of the local Moscow citizenry, old folks, young lovers, mothers pushing baby carriages. We came upon a band of teenaged beer drinkers by a brook who began singing raucous songs and hooting at us. Since we outnumbered them greatly, peace prevailed. At one point we got to the monument of the 158th Cavalry where they assembled for the march on Berlin during the Great Patriotic War from 1941 to 1945. There we stopped and shared the beer from the Marines’ backpacks. Then it was on to the barbeque.
At the barbeque everyone was introduced by their nicknames, or the case of me and other first timers “Just” plus their first name (so I was “Just Mike”).
We were then brought into the middle of the circle for the initiation. The mismanager was their in his funny big hat, joined by the chefs (and hares) who were wearing pink bunny ears. There we were asked embarrassing questions. My answer was “the Missionary position because I had converted a lot of women”, which drew derisive hoots and jeers. John and Jen hadn’t shown up, and I was about to get Gordon to call them on their cellphones when they arrived somewhat bedraggled with wet feet. We discovered this group without rules had actually a lot of silly rules (like saying the T (thinking) word, or pointing. These infractions had to be dealt with by drinking a “pot” of beer down and putting the cup upside down on your head.
We had our fill of food, and John and Jen were finally happy.
We snuck out of the party with Gordon about 9 PM. We thanked him for a wonderful time and went our separate ways on the Metro. Back at the hostel we met up with Robin, Sarah, and Aaron, and had a pleasant evening together until just past 3 AM.
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