Results tagged “running” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Senior Researcher Marilyn Terrell is in the Yukon Territory for this week, and she's blogging, and of course, tweeting, whenever she can. She sent along this dispatch:

I spent ten hours yesterday walking the streets and trails of Whitehorse, (pop. 24,000) the capital of the Yukon Territory (pop. 40,000 people, plus 30,000 bears). Ate breakfast at Baked aka Bakerei Kaffeehaus (+1 867 633 6291) where the blueberry scones are wholegrain, the latte foam artfully swirled, and toddlers saute plastic vegetables in tiny pans in the wooden play kitchen.

Down by the Yukon River waterfront at Rotary Peace Park, '60s classics blared and crowds cheered the anchor-leg runners of the 110-mile Klondike International Road Relay as they approached the finish line. The race began at midnight in Skagway, Alaska, and runners carried flashlights over the Coast Mountains through White Pass along the Chilkoot Trail, which originally brought the goldminers in the stampede of 1898. The race officials announced the names of the runners and their teams: the Skinny Ravens from Anchorage, Sole Train from Juneau, CrowsFeet, an all-female masters team from Anchorage, the Chocolate Claim Runners from Whitehorse, the Smokin' Old Geezers, Team Run Amok, Blood Sweat & Beers, Twisted Blistered Sisters, the Molten Lava Tigers of Doom, The Fast and the Delirious. There were 1,200 runners, 700 women, and many junior teams.

Traveling on foot gets a whole lot more interesting when you're barefoot...kind of. Amelia Mularz explains.

I decided a few weeks ago that barefoot is the way to go. I had just finished reading Christopher McDougall's new book, Born to Run, an account of the writer's adventures with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico's Copper Canyon. The Tarahumaras are a tribe of ultramarathoners, running 150-mile races for fun and outlasting some of the Western world's fiercest athletes. They are also known for their athletic footwear--nothing more than sandals fashioned from tire strips. Halfway through Born to Run I was curious about barefoot-style running (ditching all the padding of modern-day running shoes for a more natural feel). By the end of the book I couldn't look at my Nikes the same way. I had to go barefoot.   

Of course, barefoot in New York City is just crazy talk. The shattered glass collection just outside my apartment's front gate is enough to send any barefoot novice running back for her shock absorbers, gel insoles, and heel pads. Fortunately there's Terra Plana--a British shoe company that makes sneakers that have the barefoot effect, minus all the abrasions.

I snagged a pair of Terra Plana's Vivo Barefoot shoes. The idea is to strip the shoe down so that the foot can perform as it was naturally intended to--landing midfoot rather than on the heel. This shortens the stride and keeps the feet beneath the hips, which many argue is a healthier, more balanced form. In addition to realigning natural posture, the shoes also flex and strengthen muscles within the foot and stimulate all 200,000 nerve endings.

The weather in Washington has finally made up its mind. And it's cold. I have to smile when I see the double-decker buses pass by, topped with a few miserable-looking tourists. Even though hot coffee is never more than a block away (D.C. has the highest number per capita of Starbucks in the country), what makes a person brave the bitter cold from the windy upper deck of a bus? Most of them probably have a limited time in the city and can't think of a better way to cram in all those outdoor sights. My solution: Go for a run. It's healthy, it's free, it's environmentally friendly, and best of all, it's warm.

If you're healthy and motivated enough, running is perhaps the best way to see a new city--or to see an old city in new ways. So pull those sneaks out of retirement and lace up. You'll be surprised where they can take you. My first marathon training program took me across the mountainous coastline of the French Riviera, from Nice to Monaco, and finally to Barcelona for the race. While training for this year's Marine Corps Marathon, which took place in October, I plodded my happy little feet through locations from Maine to Florida. In a single week, I ran through Boston, New York City, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. And of course, I got to know my home city of the District really, really well.