• Altitude is certainly one: going from 150' to 5700' above sea level is a huge difference. I'll reap the benefits later and this will actually become a Nairobi advantage but starting out is tough.
• Road conditions: Short Pump/Richmond has nice wide, smooth roads; Nairobi -- well, let's just say they leave something to be desired. They're not runner-friendly -- narrow, mostly in very poor condition for either running or driving, little or no verge, very dusty (even when tarmaced). Friday, one one stretch of road, I was running faster than drivers were able to navigate their cars over, around, through the potholes.
• Running time: Because the road surfaces are so irregular, I don't think I'll be able to run in the dark. That means waiting to head out until almost 6AM -- it's light at 6AM almost year-round. My normal Richmond starting time was 5:15-5:30AM. Factoring in cool-down, showering, breakfast, etc., an 8AM meeting is much more likely to interfere with running here.
• Runner-aware drivers: Richmond is a runner-friendly city. In 4 1/2 years of running there, I think I was run off the road only a couple of times. Here, because of the amount of traffic and the generally poor driving, drivers are not watching out for me. In a country that produces the greatest long-distance runners in the world, you would think that would generate some respect for runners. NOT! by drivers. When you're fighting the traffic in a 4+ million person city where good infrastructure is either non-existent or deteriorating, you're not paying attention to runners.
• Route variety: in Richmond I had a couple of hundred different routes mapped out. Some were only minor variations of others but I almost never ran the anywhere near the same route twice in a week. Here, I'm limited -- there are lots of dead end roads and I'm somewhat hemmed in by a major thoroughfare. So, without driving somewhere else to run (which I hate to do except infrequently), I suspect my routes will be much more repetitive.
• Climate: While I enjoyed the change in seasons in the US, I didn't enjoy running whenever the temperature was above 70° and the humidity was 90%+ -- that was most mornings between mid-May and mid-September. Here, early morning temperatures will rarely be above 62° and the humidity is closer to 50-60%. I'll miss the crispness of running in sub-freezing temperatures but overall the climate will be more conducive to running.
Friday, my first run here since getting back, the temperature was something like 55°. I was able to do just under 4 miles at a pace of approximately 8:30 mpm (if you want the exact figures, see my Running Log on the right (scroll down a bit). It's good to be home!
Run well, y'all,
Bob
4 comments:
Wow!! Glad you made it over safe and sound. Hang in there, you'll get your routes down. 5700 feet! What's that like running?
You develop your new library of routes, albiet a smaller one, in no time.
I'll be traveling a bunch over the next few weeks and although I love running new routes it through a wrench into the comfort of training on the known routes back home.
Thanks, guys, for stopping by. Yeah, I'll get some variety but I think my options will be much more limited. I figure running at this altitude is roughly equivalent to running about 40% more distance at the same pace in Richmond. After 2-3 weeks, though, I'll get used to it. Then, when I head back toward sea level, I'll see my pace get faster and the runs easier for a week or so.
I really enjoy running in new places -- always put my running gear in when I travel. Best exotic run to date: Chapman's Peak outside of Capetown, South Africa. Second would have to be Toliara, Madagascar. Denver, CO was nice, too.
Sounds like an incredible adventure!
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