{"id":467,"date":"2011-04-05T10:33:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T14:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/studying-abroad\/?p=467"},"modified":"2011-04-05T10:33:48","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T14:33:48","slug":"opportunities-running-around-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/2011\/04\/05\/opportunities-running-around-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunities ‘Running’ Around Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenny Farris ’12<\/em> –\u00a0Some people look at the world around them and take a picture of it.\u00a0 Others look at their world and want to build something: a large farm in the country, a castle on a hill, or a factory in the depths of the city.\u00a0 Each view has its own purpose, and there\u2019s no simple answer as to which action is more desirable.<\/p>\n

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Farris at Zadar Beach, Croatia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through my nearly three months abroad, I\u2019ve often looked at the world around me and thought about running.\u00a0 Even though I\u2019m away from Wabash for an entire semester, I am still a Wabash College Cross Country and Track & Field athlete.\u00a0 My personal and team goals don\u2019t fade away with a temporary change in location and being away from the team.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for me, Harlaxton College has been a great place to train.\u00a0 Set out in the countryside of England, I can run on country roads nearly void of traffic, a dirt towpath along a canal stretching 30-plus miles, or the mangled network of public footpaths through sheep pastures and small villages.\u00a0 Harlaxton College lies in a valley between two ridges, and most of my routes take me over at least one of these ridges, if not both.<\/p>\n

In foreign cities I search for parks and green space so I don\u2019t have to run down crowded concrete streets for an hour.\u00a0 In London I\u2019ve twice run in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, using a four-mile perimeter loop as the base for my runs.\u00a0 My hostel in Krakow, Poland, sat nearby a 2.5 loop around the old city and connected with a river footpath that extended six miles one way without street crossings.<\/p>\n

Not every foreign city has good running, as often times cheap housing isn\u2019t close to a large park or green space.\u00a0 I found a canal footpath in Dublin, but it seemed to be a hangout for jesting alcoholics easily entertained by those wearing running shorts.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t explore trails in Croatian woods near Zadar, as signs warned me of potentially active landmines.\u00a0 Even so, slipping on my shoes on a Saturday morning often works well for a daily run, as tourists and locals normally don\u2019t greet the morning sun and I\u2019m not changing group travel plans.<\/p>\n

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A running\/walking path along Grantham Canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve traveled three places specifically with running in mind.\u00a0 In January I visited Iffley Road, the Oxford track where Roger Bannister became the first human to run the sub-4:00 mile.\u00a0 There I saw not a tourist attraction but rather an active athletics club for the Oxford campuses, pleasing me that such a personal place of pilgrimage still retained its essence as a place to race fast.<\/p>\n

I journeyed to Birmingham in February to watch a professional indoor track meet.\u00a0 Meet participants placed five world-leading marks at the time, but the highlight of the meet was the finishing 5,000 meter men\u2019s race, where Brit Mo Farah broke the European indoor record for the distance with the help of American and training partner Galen Rupp.\u00a0 The two men provided little flash and remained stoic throughout the race, looking fit.\u00a0 Simply put, they just ran fast.<\/p>\n

March led me to Punta Umbria, Spain for the World Cross Country Championships.\u00a0 I expected to see a race, spend maybe a little time in the beachside resort, and end by returning back by train to Seville for my return flight.\u00a0 Through a chance meeting on Ryanair with a club manager in London, I found myself a free ride to the race and back while talking about Division II and III running (which very few Brits understand).\u00a0 That string of luck would have satisfied me, but at the race I met members of the club, including the childhood coach of Charlotte Purdue, the top European female finisher in the women\u2019s senior race, and briefly chatted with her as she warmed down draped in a Union Jack flag.\u00a0 I discovered that 11 of the 24 British athletes competing in the race had connections to this club, named AFD, and I watched the race with parents, coaches, the manager, and other club runners.\u00a0 I definitely could not have planned or expected such chance meetings with hospitable strangers!<\/p>\n

With this and my solo training, I can’t wait to return to campus and begin training with the team again.\u00a0 I feel renewed, refreshed, and more confident in my own ability to find the will within myself to race as fast as possible for Wabash College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenny Farris ’12 –\u00a0Some people look at the world around them and take a picture of it.\u00a0 Others look at their world and want to build something: a large farm in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-study-abroad"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/04\/Kenny400.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}