Running Away With Tom Casarella

Thomas Casarella runs the world. Well, almost. After graduating from business school at Harvard, Tom accepted a job at the US Treasury Department. As a lifelong traveler and athlete he knew he had to find a way to continue staying fit while traveling for business and pleasure. Thus, his running career began. And it has proven to be mighty impressive to date.

Kate Lincoff: Have you always been a runner?

Thomas Casarella: Well, growing up I played a lot of soccer and hockey in high school and college. I went to college in Bowdoin and played soccer and hockey there. I ran my first marathon senior year of college. Boston was my first marathon. I ran as a bandit with a bunch of my friends.

KL: That’s a great first marathon to run. How many have you done to date?

TC: I’ve done 11, but I’ve gotten much more serious over time. The first ones I would do in like 3:30 or something like that but the more recent goal is to break 3.

KL: How do you find routes when you go travel?

TC: For me it’s the best way I’ve found to see a city. I usually just grab a map, I find something that looks like a reasonable distance and then I go. If I get lost and it ends up being a bit longer that’s ok. I tend to just try to get out and run in every city I go to.

KL: What are your favorite places that you have run?

TC: There’s a mountain in the middle of Edinburgh, there’s a park trail that runs all the way around the circumference of the mountain. I think it’s called Mt. Arthurs. That was a great run.

KL: Do you take any precautions when you run abroad?

TC: I always feel safe when I run traveling. There would def be a different scenario if I was female. I’ve run in some pretty dodgy places or at least ended up in them.

KL: Why do you like to run when you travel?

TC: I know that had I not been a runner the aspects of cities that I’ve been to around the world would have been much narrower than what I’ve gotten to see and experience because I go out and run. If you have limited time in a city that you aren’t familiar with, you really can only walk so far. But if you run 6 or 7 miles in those cities, chances are you are going to see a lot of the important or renowned sites.

KL: Have you been anywhere that you found you just could not run?

TC: It’s very hard to go running in India. You need to have roads to run. India is kind of a cluster mess of roads and trails and there is no good direction. I would say it is difficult to come up with runs in third world cities.

KL: Have you been surprised by any country’s running communities?

TC: Tokyo is one of the best runs you can find, around the imperial gardens. In the center of Tokyo there is a huge park and trail around the imperial.

KL: Do you meet people when you run?

TC: No. I tend to do my own thing. There is ample opportunity to do that.

KL: Do you listen to music when you run abroad?

TC: I always listen to music. I have a pretty eclectic mix. Everything from the Killers to Johny Cash to Justin Timberlake to Miley Cyrus.

KL: Eclectic indeed.  Any final words of advice to runners traveling abroad?

TC: If you go on a run in Paris, Rome, Moscow, you can easily and quickly acclimate yourself to the environment. You get to see things that it would take you much longer to see and accomplish if you weren’t a runner.

KL: I couldn’t agree more. Thanks, Tom! Keep running away!