Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Running here and there...

Just getting back to running here in Ottawa again after a month away...a month where I was able to run in Paris, Continental Greece (Attica, Vravrona & Loutsa), Crete (Kotouloufarri & Hersonisos) and Paros (Dryos) and I noticed a few interesting differences.

The routes:

Here:
In spite of out tendency to complain, we have an incredibly mature and developed network and infrastructure perfectly suited for running.  Mind you on the routes I've run, the bodies of water (Canal & Ottawa River) are polluted, opaque and smell of dead fish on the best of days.

There (Paris):
Surprising given the size of the city, but within a 1/2 hour I was able to reach a beautiful park with a dirt trail around a small pond with an island in the centre where there was a Buddhist temple, the water was opaque but lacked any distinctive odour

There (Greece):
To be fair, I was running in small villages, so no infrastructure or formal paths to speak of, but the vistas, clear blue water and unique architecture more than made up for that!

Traffic:

Here:
If you've read my facebook status updates with any regularity during my short running career, you'll know I have had a few incidents with vehicles both as a runner and as a cyclist, most in the early or twilight hours when I felt, given the amount of lights I tend to use, were avoidable, but in most cases, drivers are aware (once the season starts and they grow accustomed to us being out there again) and generally courteous.

There (Paris):
I came to the conclusion that Paris motorists must either leave really early, really late or they take public transit until well after my running for the day was done (I was typically back in my hotel by 7:00 a.m.)

There (Greece):
For such a laid back people, from my experience, they are anything but when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle.  The speed limit seems to be as fast as the vehicle will go with the pedal firmly pressed to the floor, regardless of road conditions, other traffic, pedestrians or cyclists. The acceptable distance/clearance between vehicles, immovable objects, bicycles and/or pedestrians seems to be anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of an inch...scary to say the least.  I found myself running onto the gravel shoulder or into the ditch on more than one occasion...and running facing traffic only seemed to aggravate the drivers, I noticed in the third week that local pedestrians appear to walk with traffic, so I'm left wondering if that was the reason I was given so little room.  Granted there was the occasional drive who would make the effort to move over and allow a 3ft buffer, but that was rare. Now maybe I'm the one who just is not accustomed to the close proximity, because the European concept of personal space is quite different than ours the 1/4 to 1/2 inch buffer seems very appropriate on an uncrowded metro or bus too...odd for me, perhaps quite normal for the locals.

Other Runners:

Here:
Typically when I am our running and I encounter another runner, there is some form of acknowledgement, a wave, a smile, a gasping hey, hullo or some remark about that dang hill or the weather..there's an unspoken camaraderie from a shared interest/joy, that's not to say there aren't crusty old sods out there who won't give you the time of day...but as a general rule, most runners will offer up some form of greeting to each other when they're out there.

There (Paris):
In Paris there seems to be some common understanding that as you approach another runner, eye contact must be avoided at all cost.  In spite of my attempts to offer a greeting to the runners I encountered on my workouts (a conservative estimate of 25-30), I received a grand total of a 1/2 smile (maybe an ex-pat) all of the other runners upon noticing another runner approaching would turn their head to the opposite side and glance towards the ground...very odd indeed.

There (Greece):
Other runners...what other runners...I drew more than one odd glance from the folks sitting at the Tavernas and encountered not a single other runner in my 9 run workouts in 3 different areas of Greece.  I didn't expect a race, but for the birthplace of the marathon...I thought for sure there would be other folks out there training...not so.

My intent is not to pass any sort of judgement on running here or there, only to point out the differences I observed.  I had as much fun doing my workouts in Paris in Greece, in part because they were different than my experiences here in Ottawa, my guess is I would have been very disappointed to travel across the ocean to experience exactly what I do here on a regular basis.

I definitely want to add a European endurance race to my bucket list and I know that my best way to do that will be to sign up with Team in Training.  If you're thinking about a destination marathon or 1/2 marathon, I strongly suggest you checkout http://teamintraining.ca/tor