The nice thing about working in Washington is having ready access to some great running routes. Having been stationed in some interesting places around the country, and then travelling around the world, I have come to appreciate DC's relatively decent weather, abundant side & crosswalks, and a nice mix between buildings/parks/monuments as well as the scenery along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. On ambitious days I'll run from the Navy Yard, up around the Capital, down through the Mall, across Memorial Bridge, and head up either into Georgetown or down to the Pentagon (hoping nobody's noticed I am taking a rather long lunch break), and come back via the Key or 14th St Bridges. Some days I'll go one way following Orange or Green lines and hop the metro to get back to my building (but don't worry, I try not to sit near anyone on the train).Of course on the flip side, the bad thing about working in DC is that well, it's DC. You never know when you are going to get tasked for last minute travel, called into some meeting, have to respond to someone's inquiry, revise a plan/procedure/budget, etc. Although I guess the same could be said for lots of other people everywhere, or maybe I'm just grumpy because my running plans got interrupted today...
Which got me thinking to some of the other places I have had the pleasure of running...
Newport takes a close second, especially running downtown, the Cliff Walk, or up and down Bellevue Ave. As I was stationed there mainly in the winter months, I usually didn't see that many other people running. However, having grown up in Syracuse I have no problems running in the cold. Wimps.
Norfolk/Virginia Beach probably wouldn't have been a bad place to go running - actually now that I think of it is actually pretty decent with miles and miles of trails, the beach, the boardwalk, and plenty of big, flat, parks. The only problem for me was life was so incredibly busy for us down there I had to grab my runs where I could get them. I remember running in Virginia Beach every night between 11:00 and 11:30 pm, grabbing a quick shower and then going to bed (my roommates probably thought I was nuts). I remember one time when I got up at 3 am and went for a run, only to be almost hit by my roommate Jerry's car as he was driving to work for early underway. It was either running at crazy hours, or running around the piers on the base in Norfolk, where you are always dodging cars, power cables, and steam lines.
I'm ambivalent about New Orleans (pre Katrina). The primary factor down there is the weather - it's either raining, or it's hot, or a mixture of both. You either run at 6 am or 9 pm, or lose about 20 pounds in sweat by running in the middle of the day. There are lots of nice places to run - especially on the now infamous levee trails that run up and down the Mississippi River. Audubon Park was also a nice place to run with its 2 mile loop and the surrounding garden district. Of course, you had to be careful where you were running as a wrong turn could get you into a very bad neighborhood rather quickly...
Pascagoula is, well, not a very pleasant place to go running. You're either on one of the main roads or you risk going into a side street where the MASSIVE bugs will get you... After Katrina, the roads were so full of debris I resorted myself to running laps around San Antonio's flight deck. For those of you interested, according to my GPS it is about 10 laps for a mile around the flight deck a LPD 17 class Amphibious Transport Dock (close to 9 if you do it in the well deck).
Which isn't to say being on a ship wasn't so bad. I've run in places like Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Italy, Greece, and Bahrain (running in Bahrain, not very pleasant). A friend and I went running in Spain and once rain into a tunnel going up a big hill - only to discover that the tunnels over there don't necessarily have lights (we turned around rather quickly). Underway of course it a different story. You can only do so much treadmill before go nuts.
I'm ambivalent about New Orleans (pre Katrina). The primary factor down there is the weather - it's either raining, or it's hot, or a mixture of both. You either run at 6 am or 9 pm, or lose about 20 pounds in sweat by running in the middle of the day. There are lots of nice places to run - especially on the now infamous levee trails that run up and down the Mississippi River. Audubon Park was also a nice place to run with its 2 mile loop and the surrounding garden district. Of course, you had to be careful where you were running as a wrong turn could get you into a very bad neighborhood rather quickly...
Pascagoula is, well, not a very pleasant place to go running. You're either on one of the main roads or you risk going into a side street where the MASSIVE bugs will get you... After Katrina, the roads were so full of debris I resorted myself to running laps around San Antonio's flight deck. For those of you interested, according to my GPS it is about 10 laps for a mile around the flight deck a LPD 17 class Amphibious Transport Dock (close to 9 if you do it in the well deck).
Which isn't to say being on a ship wasn't so bad. I've run in places like Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Italy, Greece, and Bahrain (running in Bahrain, not very pleasant). A friend and I went running in Spain and once rain into a tunnel going up a big hill - only to discover that the tunnels over there don't necessarily have lights (we turned around rather quickly). Underway of course it a different story. You can only do so much treadmill before go nuts.
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