A few “warm tips” from my early morning in Kathmandu:
1) Just because you’re up and awake and you’re trying not to make too much noise in the room as you found out upon checkin you’ve got a roommate, does NOT mean going for a run at 4:30 am on the darkened, labyrinthine streets of Kathmandu is a good idea. It turns out not be a bad idea, but it’s not necessarily a good idea.
2) If someone advises taking the time to acclimate to the altitude, do not shrug this off as “eh, I’ll be fine.” Such arrogance (pant, pant) is the sign (gasp, gasp) of a foolish “little engine that couldn’t.”
3) The streets are akin to running a Spartan Race or an Obstacle Course Challenge Run. Sidewalks and roads are often collapsing or under repair… or both in a never ending loop, like when my mom handed me a bucket of water as a kid and told me to paint the sidewalk… just as I would finish a part of the curb, the beginning would have dried and needed a fresh coat of water. I was and remain a gullible kid I guess. But I also remember it was super fun, Tom Sawyer!
4) Besides the road conditions, pedestrians, mopeds, rickshaws, cars, trucks and roving bands of dogs provide added “Paperboy” style duck and weave challenges. The dogs by the way are more scared of me than I of them. I gather it’s not typical to have folks out running in the streets at 5 am before sunrise.
5) Offline Googlemaps downloaded to one’s phone over WIFi will work if you preprogrammed the destinstion for walking whilst still on that WiFi. Putting in a return destination at your turnaround whilst in airplane mood and offline (to avoid the $2/mb data roaming charge) will tell you there’s no walking directions available… but you CAN get driving directions.
6) The reason everyone… and especially the traffic cops… are all wearing bandana masks is that there’s a fair bit of dust and grime and pollution. The garbsge strewn into the streets at odd intervals also has a unique smell one can discover.
7) Pashupatinath Temple Is about 5km from my hotel so that was my destination for a 6 mile morning shakeout run. I arelived there just about at sunrise and was going to go in but hesitated. I obviously was cool with their request about not taking photos but the “no concealed carry” of phone threw me for a loop. I figured I’d be fine as it probably meant not to have them out and be checking the latest news/sports scores but I also didn’t want to chance it and cause an international incident. We Americans have enough global political image problems at the moment.
8) It’s a universal truth – on any given weekend you’re probably able to find a race to run. I came across a KASBM Marathon and wished I could’ve signed up. Sadly there was no spot registration… and I wasn’t carrying any rupees anyway. I thought about banditing but that’s not who I am.
I hate when I’m that Mr. Know-it-All runner guy (Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a stat out of my hat! AGAIN?!). But they billed their event as a “marathon” and then offered distances of 4K, 10k, and a half-marathon. Historically I know the marathon distance was arbitrary and fluid for a long, long while. But in the early 20th century, after the annoying British royalty insisted on adding a bit for an Olympic Finish in front of their box, and after that race became a global press sensation, well, we’ve kinda agreed a marathon distance is 26.2 miles (or 42.195k). So, ya know, now I’m being an awful “run-splainer” and grousing about this “marathon” event having to be described with “Air Quotes” (or as this is printed then literal quotation marks).
Nonetheless, it was fun to see a race started… and funny to have course marshalls trying to direct me onto the route as I was running in shorts and a blue shirt and apparently looked the part. The huffing and puffing only added to the verisimilitude.
And now to breakfast, perchance to hear the itinerary for the day. I hear there’s monkeys in my future…