I have been running for a long time, so much so that it’s a core part of my identity and how I go about experiencing the world. The knowledge that running is good for one’s physical and mental health is well established, but something that is often overlooked when discussing the form of exercise is how running can be means to explore and to become familiar with an urban space. So yeah, that’s what I’m going to write about in this post.
About three weeks ago I moved to Philadelphia and have ran a good number of days since the move. I put on my Aesics (a brand that I’ve used my whole life) and make my way out the front door, ready to explore. I am fortunate to live in close proximity to the Schuylkill river trail, so that has been my go-to route since arriving in Philadelphia. However, I have gone on other runs just around various streets and different parts of the city. On these runs, not only am I exercising and practicing mindfulness, but also get to take in my surroundings, see different buildings, get acquainted with different neighborhoods, and visit various landmarks. And yes – I have already unironically run up the Philadelphia Museum staircase.
I originally linked running to competition and a sense of athletic identity throughout my high school running career. Once I quit my college team, running I associated running became a way to maintain mental and physical. Reflecting back on what running has really meant to me is not explicitly a health thing, but rather as a way to gain a sense of adventure and exploration as well as a way to understand a place. While running to Gettysburg Battlefields during my Undergrad experience was absolutely beneficial to my body and physical being, my gratitude for running is more linked to how I became extremely familiar with the battlefield.
These past couple of weeks, as I ran around Philly, I gained a sense of space, culture, and significant landmarks and regions. Running allows one to learn about how everything is connected geographically. Walking and biking are also ways to accomplish this, but running just happens to be the main mode of corporeal transportation I prefer. In a single run, I am able to explore various areas of a city, and they all become connected to my understanding of space. There’s a special moment in time when the streets begin to click and you begin to become familiar with your surroundings, not a strange locals but as known landmarks
While recognizing geography is valuable, it’s even more valuable to learn about what happens in different spaces. When I run through a random neighborhood, I am able to sample the area and evaluate if I would like to revisit. When I move to a new city I look at a map and say “huh, I haven’t been there yet, maybe I’ll run there today”. I put my shoes on and go on an exploration. More often than not, I find myself lost or aimlessly jogging around some back residential neighborhood that is not all too run-friendly. But consequently, I learn the lesson that there is no real need to return. Alternatively, I might be running and find a cool bar or coffee shop that I would want to maybe get to later in the week. Yes, I am the runner who stops at a restaurant to read a menu. But this is valuable because I learn new places to go and where I won’t need to return to.
Furthermore, I am a huge consumer of the aesthetic environment of a city. This includes buildings, street art, traffic cones, strange oddities, and the vibes of people. Using my feet to see all the different artistic and cultural elements of the city is invaluable. On a recent run I specifically kept my eye out for certain street art tags: “irregular” and “nylon”. I noticed each tag more than 10 times and was able to gain a sense of these street artists own particular movement paths. It’s almost like playing I-Spy in urban space. Running is a way to investigate the repeating patterns of the city, and the way in which one is able to move through space is via one’s feet is how
Running is also a fun way non-touristy way to engage with touristy spaces. I already mentioned the Rocky staircase, but in all the cities I’ve lived in I made it a point to run to touristy spots on my long runs. This was especially true in Gettysburg, where I would basically use the various monuments as markers to identify how far I ran. When I lived in London, I often found myself running to sites such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye. I enjoyed this for a couple of reasons. First off, it’s a fun skill to learn how to run at a reasonable pace in a crowded place, learning how to navigate human traffic. Secondly, it’s great being able to run “to” a place and a running objective makes the run more enjoyable. But the main reason I enjoy this practice is because it makes me feel like I belong to a place. People come from all over the world to visit a location, so being able to run to a notable place allows for me to feel like a resident and establish a form of ritual ceremony in connecting to the city’s biggest draws in almost cinematic fashion.
Running with the intent for adventure and exploration also increases the likelihood of running into adventurous scenarios. One of my fondest memories from a couple years ago was when I was running through a park and heard distant music. I ran towards the sound of the music and I stumbled upon a band playing by the border of the park with a handful of people watching. The band consisted of at least 8 people, and they were really grooving. I wish I had had my phone on me to record the moment, but I did not and thus it exists only as a sweet memory. But they had all the instruments: guitars, horns, synths, and even two drummers. It was rather surreal and created a memorable experience. They closed with a cover of Radiohead’s National Anthem, and at the song’s climax the bearded lead singer screamed heavily and the rain came down as if he were the one who summoned it. I feel like these types of opportunities are only available if one thinks about running as a form of exploration.
Overall the point of this post was just to explore the philosophy of thinking about running as a means to explore rather than exclusively as a type of exercise. Running as exploration allows for me to gain a better mental map of a city, explore different neighborhoods and regions, investigate new spaces, as well become familiar with various patterns of the city, such as people and street art. In addition to all this, explorative running allows for a mentality where one can encounter spontaneous events. So, my new way of framing running is no longer exclusively an exercise, but as a way to become connected to the unique patterns and flows of a city.
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