Running in Beijing

It sounded like a good idea at the time.  Immediately after getting off of two international flights to Beijing, go straight to a friend’s house and run 12-17k.  In the dark. Sweltering heat.  With dust and pollution. Combined with jet lag and lack of sleep.  How wrong could that be?

After de-boarding from my Korea Airlines flight from Seoul, I had to first logistically get to Ludvig’s place and arrange to get back to my hotel in the city.  This involved  a series of calls to the hotel, driver, Ludvig etc to sort out the address – amazingly the driver found the house.

By this time it was almost 9pm Sunday evening, and having not really slept since Friday night and I was feeling a bit queazy and dehydrated.  But after saying hi to Anna and the mostly sleeping kids, we suited up and headed out into the dark to stretch those legs.

After starting out slow, I mostly got slower.  Ludvig, who has a runner’s physique if there ever was one, barely broke a sweat or lost a breath.  I got to hear about his next adventure challenge which is a 100m race near Chamonix and Mont Blanc that requires him to carry his passport as they cross in and out of French and Swiss borders.  This 40h single-stage race requires runners to be mostly self-sufficient as they run mostly at high altitude with temps ranging from +30c to -3c.  He’s in good shape for this after having done the Gobi Desert Challenge a year or so ago.

We did have a great run, though we only made it 12k – my ask.  Besides all of the normal talk about Everest and such, we were also able to catch up on our two companies and people that we knew and who was doing what.  It was kind of bizarre running through a wooded area in the heart of Beijing through dusty paths and paved roads and occasionally running into locals that were singing and looking at us like we were really strange foreigners.

We ended up finishing before 11pm local time and after a quick shower, the driver was able to get me to my hotel where a comfortable bed and wireless internet awaited me before our week of meetings begins.

If you ever want to sleep really well after a long plane ride, go out and run. I guarantee your body will thank you for it!