"Midnight in Moscow" a Moscow Travel Page by gussymons

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Just after the torture that is Moscow Marathon!

26 miles of Russian cruelty

Still nursing a hangover from that morning's clubbing I took part in the XXII Moscow Peace Marathon on Sunday 1st September 2002. It started on the embankment outside Hotel Rossia (just by Red Square) and cost US$25.

It was bloody hot and it coincided with the 855th anniversary weekend of Moscow's founding. I didn't know anyone else doing it, but one German guy from the hostel I stayed at also did it and we shared war stories afterwards.

Don't believe the hype. This is a boring marathon where one just goes round and round and round... for twenty-six unspeakably cruel miles. The first two hours were OK and I felt confident. Suddenly though my legs turned to iron and I swore I'd never run another marathon again. The last two hours were somewhat painful, although my sprint finish in the last 100 metres came from nowhere!

The other competitors were friendly and I even saw some poor old sod who was running the marathon without shoes - his feet would have been a bloody mess by the end. There were a few other Brits, but most runners were obviously Russian.

There was a time limit of six hours, and I got in in just over four. Caleb, an Australian traveller staying at the hostel too, met me at the finish line and we met up with other people from the hostel afterwards. The old cliche of being drained yet happy is somewhat true, although it took me three days to be able to walk normally.

I wore my finishing medal with pride and had photos taken around the start/finish line. A well run marathon and worth doing if one is in Moscow, but its not worth making a special trip to do it.

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A romantic city - in a Russian kind of way

From Moscow with love

After hobbling into the 855th celebrations in Moscow from the marathon, I was in no state to go clubbing whatsover - even if the duck was hungry!

The guys from the hostel were adamant that we not waste a single night of alcohol consumption, so we went to one place (there were several fellows and only a couple of girls in our group) and got face-controlled out.

Spencer, a real character from New York, and I went up to a couple of dev's outside and asked if they knew a good place to go where we might be able to get in. They must have thought we were hitting on them and point-blank refused to answer. This struck me as extremely rude, since Spencer's Russian was OK and they were blatantly being rude.

If I hadn't known the Moscow female psyche better, I might have taken offence, but I just went back to the group and said 'its a shame, those girls are mute'. After that we ended up at the old faithful - the Hungry Duck.

Not all that glitters is gold, and later that morning one of our party got into a very sticky situation with two whores and a pimp (c.f. Warning's page). For him, love in Moscow with girls of complicated social relations was a risky affair.

Bizarrely enough this stub is from a nightclub in St.Petersburg (c.f. 'Havana'), but it had Moscow in the title so I thought I'd put it here.