Here, There and Everywhere

Surely you’ve noticed with much dismay that I’ve been a bit absent from this blog as of late.  I have yet to write the end of our trail race saga, of which you must be anxiously waiting with bated breath.  Well, you must wait further since, though I have started a few versions of it, it’s a complicated story with a bit of a melancholy denouement so I’ve been a little bit lazy about getting around to finishing it.

I’m hoping a bit of scenery change will jump start my inspiration.  Runner’s World has a feature called “Rave Run” where they highlight beautiful places to run and for the first time, I’ve actually been to a place they featured.

It reminded me that I’ve always wanted to document all the cool places A and I have had the chance to run in.  We like to run when we travel because it’s a great way to see parts of the city you might otherwise skip.  So please find following a selection of places we’ve run, in no particular order:

Amboise, France: along the Loire River, early morning.  A remembered it started to rain towards the end of our run.  It was a beautiful gray, pastoral, picturesque morning.  And then we had a selection of delicious quiches afterward.

Barcelona, Spain: Though the city is fantastic, I didn’t really map a great route for us.  We were staying on La Rambla and ran side streets to the marina and back.  It was a bit of an aimless run, appropriately rambling.  And we did happen upon an outdoor market that we returned to later for some fresh fruit.

Madrid, Spain: around the perimeter of Retiro Park.  A had spent some time in Madrid and compared Retiro Park to Central Park in New York.  It is much smaller.  It was a hot run, but otherwise not very noteworthy.

Yosemite, California: We were staying in the burnt out part of the park so there wasn’t too much to see along the road we ran.  With the absence of discernible landmarks, when the road ended, we simply turned around and headed back as to not risk getting hopelessly lost.

Portland, Oregon: traversing a few bridges across the Willemette River, running along both the east and west banks, just as suggested in the Runner's World article.  It was definitely a run to rave about!

Seattle, Washington: along the bike lane starting from the U (as in university) District through to Gas Works Park.  Got it in between the heavy showers, but did run through a light mist part of the way.

Vancouver, British Columbia:  Was very excited for this run.  Mapped it through the Olympic Village, just three months after Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Games.  Ended up running through a deconstruction site!  Everything was being torn down.  We should have run through Stanley Park, instead.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: along the Schuykill River, and of course up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Miami, Florida: along South Beach.  It was hot.

Stuart, Florida: see previous post.

Buenos Aires, Argentina: through the Belgrano neighborhood, dodging little doggy landmines all over the sidewalk.  We ran to a big park, through what looked like a golf course and tennis club, and ended up in a big dog park, where more land mines were being planted.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: from Copacabana to Ipanema, along the crowded beaches on their famous tiled walkways.

Sydney, Australia: past Hyde Park, through the Royal Botanical Gardens, past the Opera House, and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  We saw cockatoos in the wild!

Cairns, Australia: another rambling, humid run through their botanical gardens, which ended up being rather small.  Picked up some extra mileage in the suburban part of town.

Melbourne, Australia: along the Yarra River.  We ran alongside the rowers training in the river with their bicycle-riding coaches flanking them along the path.

I can’t think of any more places of note.  This doesn’t include the destination races we’ve done or the places I’ve treadmilled since running in a hotel doesn’t count as seeing a city.  Nor did I count when A went on a run in Cassis followed by a dip in the Mediterranean without me!

I hope to add to this list before too long.  There are many more parts of the world I’d love to see on foot.