On the Road Again, Sorta
Travelling for work isn't nearly as glamorous as it seems, but at least you can go for a run.
I used to be a road warrior. In the Before Times my day job had me travelling a lot, from St. Louis to Raleigh, Kansas City to Cincinnati, Detroit to Syracuse, Boston to Baltimore. I have traversed through every desolate nowheresville along the I-95 corridor. I now know that “Express Lane” doesn’t necessarily mean express, and that road kill can come in all shapes and sizes of racoon. For the better part of 5 years, I had been everywhere, man. I was racking up more miles than your grandma’s 97 Camry. I learned things out on the road. Important things. For instance, I could tell you where the only Fairfield Inn with a full-service bar is (it’s in Dayton), or which airport has the best bathrooms (oddly enough, Philadelphia). I was hustling, mid-manager style.
It wasn’t easy. The constant travel can be both disorienting and tiring. There’s nothing quite like the unique thrill of waking up in the middle of the night in a strange hotel room wondering where the hell you are. Wait, this is not my beautiful house! Where’s the bathroom? But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the traveling a little bit. I was lucky to have a job where I got to experience those things, see cities I wouldn’t necessarily carve out time for on my own.
My favorite part of traveling for work was exploring these new places on my runs. Once I was done with whatever I had to do that day, I would find a route on Strava, hope I remember it, and start running. I became a collector of new roads, so to speak. I had some memorable runs on those trips, like the time I ran around the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, or when I ran on a beautiful Fall day along the Ohio River in Cincinnati, or that time I got lost in Kansas City and a fellow runner kindly led me back to where I needed to go. All of these cities have a unique charm that you can only learn by traversing them on foot. And they all have their own vibrant running culture. Boston, in particular, stands out to me. I had a great long run one trip along the Charles in Cambridge. I wasn’t planning on running for so long, but the weather was so nice and I’m a sucker for a gorgeous route along a river. Boston is definitely a running town. Too bad their sports teams are all evil and should be shot into the sun.
These days, my travelling for work is few and far in between. I mean, what’s the point in getting on a plane when you can simply set up an awkward video call with someone and achieve the same goal? I’m no longer that road warrior I once was. That brief moment in my life seems like a different world all together (and it many ways, it was). So, when the opportunity arose for me to fly to Indianapolis late last month, I said “Indianapolis? Really? Why?” I also said yes because, well, it is my job after all and also it would make for a very uninteresting and pointless blog post if I had refused to go.
Indianapolis is a fine city. It’s not as flashy as its northern neighbor Chicago, nor does it have the brand name of a city like, say, St. Louis. But really, what’s not to like about Indianapolis? It’s got everything you could want in a major US city: big buildings, a nice airport, a football team, a big ol’ convention center (there was a firefighter convention during my time there, and boy, you’ve never seen so many moustaches and white New Balance sneakers), and a kick ass monument smack in the middle of the city. Again, perfectly fine. It even has a nice little canal that runs through the middle of the city.
The Downtown Indy Canal Walk, built in the 1830s when rivers and canals were all the rage for transportation, was originally meant to extend 296 miles from Peru, Indiana, to Evansville, Indiana, where it would reach the Ohio River. It would have been the longest canal in Indiana. Alas, the project bankrupted the entire state and yada yada yada, it’s now a pedestrian-friendly, three-mile loop that snakes underneath the car traffic of the city above. You know I had to run on that sucker.
It was a beautiful day when I landed in Indianapolis, and even though I was only there for one night, I had to fit in a run after my work was done. It was one of those beautiful early-Spring days that you know you’ll get more of in the future, but you still don’t want to let it go to waste. Not a cloud in the sky, nor a wisp of wind in the air. Not too hot. Not cold at all. Heck yeah it was time to run.
I walked on down to the canal and it felt like I was in a different world all together. Compared to the car-heavy bustle of the land above, life down by the canal had a more organic, creative feel. There were beautiful murals on the walls underneath the bridges. There were odd little statues floating along the water. There were museums for art, history, and sports. There were beautiful little apartments you could picture yourself living in, sipping wine on the back porch and watching people stroll by while listening to the soothing sounds of the water rolling by.
The best part about running along this canal loop was that there weren’t any cars to worry about. Both runners and cyclists can agree, cars suck! And they’re dangerous. Speaking of cyclists, the people riding their bikes weren’t cosplaying the Tour de France and flying by you at a dangerous clip. They rode at a leisurely pace. Kids and adults alike were walking their dogs or feeding ducks on the water. For a perfect 3-mile loop, you were able to relax, take in your surroundings, and enjoy your run, knowing that if you just followed the water, you’d end up right back where you belonged. Yeah, life down at the Indianapolis canal was alright.
That run was a fun one for me. It felt freaking great. I had the incredible new Fontaines DC record to keep me company, my splits were negative, and I averaged a sub-9 minute pace without feeling out of breath or uncomfortable. I tend to run faster in new places for some reason. I guess because my mind is so focused on taking in my new surroundings that I forget to worry about things like being tired. I did have an interesting little interaction with a dude ahead of me about halfway during my run. I would pass him as he walked, and then he would start running again and pass me. As he passed me, he would then turn around and run backwards for a little bit. This happened a few times. Have you ever had someone walk or run backwards right in front of you? It’s unsettling. It’s even worse when they make eye contact, like when you are driving behind a school bus and the kids in the back stare at you and make faces while you drive. What are you supposed to do? Wave? It at least helped me run a bit faster because I wanted to get away from this guy for good. A bit of advice for you avid runners out there: don’t run backwards. We live in a society. People are weird. I digress.
I guess the moral of this story is business trips aren’t so bad as long as you can fit in some “me time,” preferably along some sort of body of water. Sometimes all it takes to have a great run is a change of scenery. I realize I am lucky enough to get to experience this change of scenery and to see a different part of the country. That isn’t lost on me, even if I do complain when I have to travel for work. The thing is, you don’t necessarily need to go somewhere far for a change in scenery for a run. Perhaps a tweak in your normal route is enough to get a fresh perspective. As for my trip to Indianapolis, I’d say it was a successful one. I’ll admit, it felt great to get back out on the road again. I went for a satisfying run, explored a new city in the process, and drank something called a white stout at a local brewery for dinner (it looked like a golden lager, but tasted like a dark stout. It was like a magic trick. What a time to be alive!). I did everything I possibly could for 24 hours in the heart of Indiana.
And then I got COVID.
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IT KEEPS YOU RUNNING: Music for Your Miles
Music and running go hand-in-hand. Here’s what you should be putting on your running playlist this week.
Sheesh, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written on here, and there has been a lot of great music released during that time, like the aforementioned Fontaines record as well as Endless Rooms by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Viv by SPICE. These are all great running records that you’ll want to spend some time with during those hot summer runs.
Running On Nothing favorites Jamie and the Guarded Heart released a great new record Funeral Song back in late April. I know I’ve already written about these guys a few times, but it’s never a bad idea to revisit Conshohocken, PA’s hardest working rock and roll band. Funeral Song is a masterful display heartfelt, fist-in-the-air anthems, and it is quite simply their best album to date. It’s an album for all those broken heroes on last chance power drives, and for those to dare to keep dreaming about making it big or kissing the girl of your dreams. Put songs like “Keep Fighting,” “Running Scared,” and “I Don’t Love You” on your running playlist and you’ll want to run forever.
I’ve also been digging this band out of my old home state of New Jersey called Ruby Bones, another band that knows how to make a damn good power-pop anthem. They remind me a bit of Superchunk, or early aughts blogosphere rock along the lines of Hot Hot Heat, pre-“1901”-Phoenix, or The Kooks. Their latest album Laser Tooth Tiger is front-to-back power-pop goodness full of overdriven guitars and sing-a-long melodies. I know, I know, the album came out last year but whatever. It’s never too late to stumble upon your new favorite music, and albums like this one deserve more than like one-week’s worth of hype. Go run to this one on a sunny day. You’ll feel great, I guarantee it.
Finally, A Day Without Love, the music project helmed by Philly-based musician Brian Walker, has been on a streak lately. Since April, the band released two pop-punk bangers “Show Friends” and “Caffeine”.
Walker once sang that “good friends are hard to find,” but on “Show Friends,” he’s now finding the joys of meeting people out on tour and at those local basement gigs. This sense of community among music lovers was missing the last two years and is only now starting to come back in full stride, and Walker is here to celebrate its return.
The band’s latest single “Caffeine,” released this past Friday, is about a topic near and dear to my heart: coffee! Who doesn’t love a good frantic song about everyone’s favorite breakfast vice? I love how Walker seemingly writes about whatever comes to mind. You know how hard it is to write a song, not to mention making it this catchy? Take a look at this Bandcamp page. The dude has hundreds on there, including a track that features Bartees Strange. Walker is one of Philly’s most prolific artists, and you can catch him on his country-wide tour throughout the summer. Tour dates are listed on his Bandcamp. In the meantime, maybe he will write a song about running.
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