The hutong filled with flowing red dresses paired with beat-up running kicks. Photo: CFP

Runners all had their own take on the little red dress. Photo: Li Hao/GT

           

Men and women in scandalous red dresses, fishnet stockings and colorful wigs dashed through the hutong, hooting, hollering and drinking beer. Don't mistake this as some parade or a convention for people with tragic fashion sense. It was the 2013 Red Dress Run in Beijing, an annual event organized by the Beijing Hash House Harriers, a non-competitive running club.

Last Sunday, about 120 people, mostly expats, gathered at No.35 Di'anmen Xidajie near Qianhai, Xicheng district, to kick off the run at 2 pm. In the bright afternoon sunlight and under the watchful eyes of locals, the hashers started their trot, following chalk marks on the ground.

Participants were divided into running and walking groups, the former going 8 kilometers, the latter about 5 kilometers. Basically, they made a circuit of the Shichahai Lake area, passing the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower and crossing the crowded Nanluoguxiang Hutong. There were three beer stops along the route - as is the Hash House Harriers fashion - where people stopped to rest, drink, take photos and bask in their little-red-dress glory.

Runners went all out for the occasion. Couples wore matching dresses, and parents took their babies along in strollers. A few pet owners also brought their dogs, decked out in cute little red tutus or matching low-cut one-pieces.

Though the women looked great in their finest fiery gowns, the men definitely stole the spotlight. From young, athletic guys in their 20s to long-time runners in their 60s, they all enthusiastically ran and happily posed for photos - pouting with lipstick from underneath their beards and showing off their hairy, muscled calves, six-pack abs or beer bellies that peeked out from under their red dresses.

Xu Huairou, 26, from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, who has lived in Beijing for three months, is no stranger to this sort of scene since she has participated in many hash runs in her hometown. Xu, who works for an international technology company, even convinced two of her expat colleagues to join her.

Both Matt Wisniewski, 26, from Poland, and Edward Chmieliauskas, also 26, from Lithuania, are first-time hashers, or "hash virgins," as the club refers to them. They went shopping especially for this event one day earlier, and bought two girly, over-the-top ensembles.

"I came so I can have fun, drink beer and meet new friends," said Wisniewski. Chmieliauskas hoped to meet girls, but he was also a little worried. "It's not a good thing if I meet a girl and she sees me in a red dress," he joked. 

The Hash House Harriers, an international organization founded in 1938 by British officers living in Kuala Lumpur, has more than 2,000 groups scattered around the globe. As their slogan goes, "A drinking club with a running problem," the first rules of hashers are "hash to have fun," and "run as an excuse to drink." Joining a run with the Beijing hashers group costs 20 yuan ($3.25) a person that goes toward beer money, and 60 yuan to do the run and dinner afterward. Mariah Liu, one of the organizers of the event, and a "hare" - or hasher who lays the trail - told Metropolitan that the Red Dress Run is one of the biggest events for the group each year, besides their regular runs on Sundays. Actually, the first hash runs in Beijing happened in the 1980s, said Liu.

The hasher tradition of running in red dresses started when a newcomer to the San Diego chapter showed up to run in a red dress. Despite (probably friendly) taunts from fellow hashers, she finished the run, and started an oddball tradition. People continued to don red dresses on the jogging jaunts as a joke, and the joke simply spread - around the entire world. The point of the event, Liu said, is to show people that man or woman, dress or no, everyone can join in on the runs and stay active.

Three hours later, runners, walkers, dogs, babes and all other participants returned to the starting point to have an hour-long "circle," a gathering of hashers at the end of a run, followed by a dinner party that went until 9 pm. During the circle, senior hashers may be bestowed with funny and creative hash names, made after a set number of runs or in honor of a memorable incident. Xu's is the "Porny Rider."

Charitable donations were collected from the sales of hash patches, and will go toward earthquake rebuilding efforts in Ya'an and Boston for victims of the marathon explosion, said Liu.