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tourism

Rave Runs

May 31, 2011 by · Leave a Comment 

As you’ll start to see in this blog I love to run. While since I starting having kids four years ago I haven’t been as consistent with running as I would like one thing continues to remain true; I love to run to see the sites when I travel. It is the best way to see the sites! I have tripped while staring up at the Eiffel Tour in Paris, gotten lost running while running around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, braved impressive rainstorms along the Río de la Plata in Montevideo and taken in the peace of Hyde Park in London, all during some of many memorable and touristic runs.

I have experienced altitude sickness running in the historical Peruvian city of Cuzco, appreciated the majesty of Chile’s lake region, pushed myself hard on the super steep hills of Steamtown, aka Scranton, Pa and enjoyed the amazing oceanside views of great running cities in Brazil like Florianopolis and Rio de Janeiro.

When I travel I don’t only go the running path or the park to run– sometimes I just like to weave through where the people are and take in the action. When I lived in Sevilla, I had a route that took me along the River Guadalquivir but also through the dense action of the Triana neighborhood. When I visited Puerto Rico I loved running through the colonial section of Old San Juan, checking out the many feral cats that greeted me along the way.

Running through the Plazas in Madrid is amazing as well (however tempting it is to stop for tapas) although I still love the Retiro park as well, especially on weekends, teeming with families and friends enjoying the outdoors. San Francisco is another amazing running town, with great calf muscles made not only along the Bay but also up and down the hills (again, like in Scranton, what an amazing leg workout). Portugal is also a spectacular place to run – my favorite run there has to be Sintra , the westernmost point on the continent of Europe, which the poet Camões defined as “where the land ends and the sea begins”  

These are just some of the memorable places that I have run – there are so many more that I want to run still! Every place I have I run lives on with me in some way – through a funny story, a beautiful image or a cultural or historic appreciation. Through these runs I have connected with the locals, found nooks and crannies far beyond the typical tourist eye and garnered great fodder for storytelling.

What runs – and where – do you rave about?