It has been said that runners have their best thoughts of the day while out running. Runner and writer
Michael Selman shares his
"Thoughts on Running" with us here at ontherunevents.com.
Sometimes, I play the role of road warrior, and I mean that in two
different senses. Often, when Saturday morning rolls around, there I am,
at 8 o'clock SHARP, along with all the other road warriors, waiting
anxiously for the signal to start charging down the road.
But in the corporate sense, I'm occasionally a different kind of road
warrior. It is not uncommon during these stretches of relentless travel
for me to navigate through three or more cities within the span of less
than a week, and I find myself looking at my itinerary just to remind
myself what city I'm in at any given time.
One of the wonderful benefits of business travel is suddenly having a
few extra hours to write down thoughts like the ones I'm writing now,
while waiting through a 3-hour flight departure delay trying to get home
from Philadelphia on a Friday night. My 6:40 flight still has a chance of
leaving by 9:30, and I still have hopes of being home before 1 AM
tomorrow. And joy of joys, I have the whole day tomorrow to unpack my
bags, mow the lawn, get in a run, go to work to clean up the mess that's
accumulated while I've been gone, and pack my bags again before leaving
for another week on the road around noon on Sunday.
Running while traveling can be difficult, but packing in the miles
while traveling actually starts before ever leaving home. It starts with
packing the suitcase. This is an area I've failed at miserably the last
two trips I've taken. In June, I flew out to California to conduct
interviews in San Diego and Irvine. When I got to the hotel in San Diego,
I was thrilled to see that there were ample roads for running right from
to hotel. I couldn't wait until the next morning, so I could jump out in
that cool southern California weather and go for a great run.
Thanks to the three-hour time difference from Atlanta, I woke up at
about three the next morning, and forced myself to stay in bed until
almost four before getting out of bed. Then I eagerly went to my suitcase
to get dressed to run only to discover I had not packed any running shoes
for the trip. I spent the next three hours alternating between sulking and
kicking myself with my bare feet. Oh, the irony, I thought, to have 20
pairs of unopened shoes just sitting there at home. During lunch that day,
I drove down to RoadRunner Sports, the same company I had ordered the
other 20 pairs from, and added one more pair to my inventory. I vowed
never to let that happen again.
And this week, I was true to my word. I was so diligent with my packing
that I packed on Sunday evening instead of the Monday morning I left for
the trip. My running shoes where the first thing I packed, and I was very
proud of myself for remembering them. Then I packed everything else
running related- my socks, my singlets, and even my runner's log.
Everything, that is except my shorts. But they had just come out of the
wash and were still wet. So I made a mental note-to-self to pack them
before I left the next morning.
Unfortunately, my note-to-self got misplaced somewhere between Sunday
night and Monday morning, because I didn't give the shorts another thought
until I went to lay my running clothes out in Conshohocken on Monday
night. I spent the rest of the night kicking myself again, but at least
this time, I was wearing shoes. I just wasn't wearing shorts. The next
day, I added to my collection of running shorts by purchasing a couple of
pair at a sporting goods store called Dicks. I couldn't help but to laugh
at the irony. I think I'm going to ask my wife to pack for my next trip.
Now, even if you do remember to pack everything and you don't have to
run either barefoot or half-naked, business travel can still create some
unique challenges for a runner. A first trip to a new and unfamiliar city
can be particularly unsettling. Whenever I am sent somewhere on business,
my first thought is whether or not I'll be able to find a place to run
while I'm there. While the rest of my world turns topsy-turvy, the run
becomes even more important to me, because, when I travel, all the other
elements of stability seem to be swept away. Instead of a warm home to
come home to and a nice meal cooked with love, it's a sterile, cold hotel
room, and room service. So the run really almost becomes my home away from
home.
I've had some of my most surprisingly sweet runs while traveling on
business, and I've written about some of them in the past. I experienced
my most memorable run the time had to go to the city of Niagara, and found
Goat Island while I was there. As I ran right past Niagara Falls, I first
understood the true meaning of a rave run. It was a thrill beyond
description. In other business travels, I have found White Rock Lake while
working in Dallas, I've run the Bloomsday course while in Spokane, and
I've traversed Towne Lake while on business in Austin. They have all left
fond images in their wakes.
But these are the exception, not the rule. More often, I've run
repetitive short loops around hotel parking lots, and multiple
out-and-back stretches of road which are less than 1/2 mile long. It's
boring, but I need the stability of the run in the unstable environment of
corporate travel, and I have yet to ever give in to running on a
treadmill.
I'm now going to share a side of me that few have seen before. I'm one
of those rare men who rejoices if I find that there is a mall near the
hotel, but the reasons have nothing to do with shopping. Since I'm an
early morning runner, I need a place with light, and malls are usually
very well lit. In addition, most malls have an outer perimeter that's at
least a mile around, and they provide a close looped, traffic free setting
for running at 5 in the morning. These loops are also easy to measure in
the car, so I can write some actual distances in my log which are pretty
accurate. Oh, and one more thing about having a mall nearby. You never
know when you're going to forget to pack something like shoes or shorts.
As I finish this essay, it is 9:30 PM and I am still in Philly, with no
end in sight. The plane has finally arrived, but now they're testing it
for mechanical problems, and it has just backed out of the gate again. The
rain is starting to come down hard. It will be at least another 45 minutes
before we're airborne, and that's best case scenario. It looks like my
projection of being home by 1 o'clock tomorrow morning has been a little
optimistic. Maybe thinking I would get home at all was a little over
zealous on my part. Perhaps I'll just rent a car and drive to Baltimore,
where I'm supposed to be on Monday. It's the life of a road warrior.
At least I know that I already have my shoes, and my shorts, and my
singlets, and my socks. In my suitcase, I have packed in the miles, even
if it's last week's dirty laundry.
(Note: I finally got home at 2:30 this morning, and then, after about
four hours of sleep, spent the day doing exactly what I said I was going
to do.)
The Roads Scholar, Michael Selman runs and writes in Atlanta GA. He
would love to hear from you. Please e-mail him at TheRoadsScholar@aol.com
with any questions or comments. You can also subscribe to his Newsletter
at that same address.
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