Sights not ordinarily seen

Why run when you travel? At BTG, we maintain that running is a great way to see a city's sites. But it's also a fantastic way to see sites in a city that you didn't even know existed.

For example, about a year ago I was in Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb is a fascinating capital to spend a day or two in (and that's about as much time as you need). I woke up early my first morning to get in some preliminary running research, which consisted largely of a quick cruise around the towns central gardens (In two months see Zagreb Run #1 - The Unfinished Garden U").

It was a beautiful morning before what was going to be a hot day, and I was in a hurry so that I could put my notebooks away and rent a bike to explore the nether-reaches of town. Interestingly enough I found that, although the Zagreb Gardens are full of wonderful fountains, beautiful flower beds, and great paths, and all-in-all make the perfect city-center spot for an early-morning run, I didn't see any runners there.

The only people I did see running, as a matter of fact, were several streets down at a dirt running track that ringed a dilapidated soccer field. The scene was far from dramatic - it was a nondescript neighborhood lacking the history and charm of the nearby area - but I remember I stopped for a long time there, and took a lot of photos.

Why? On the one hand, I needed to - actions shots would be a great addition to the Zagreb chapter, of course. But also, I was fascinated by the contradictory scene I had wandered through that morning. Just a few streets away were gracefully-designed buildings and monuments but here, under the hot sun and grey-block buildings, was a much more real version of Zagreb. A version that was very human, a version that was at the same time very foreign and very easy to identify with.

Why run when you travel? Let's start with the question about why run. We run because we are human, and movement and breath and heartbeat and pace combine to concoct the ultimate celebration. When we run and travel, we take ourselves to sites that any other means of motion would not let us discover and experience, and we are reminded of the everyday beauty, humanness, and normality of those on the other side of the world.