A Tribute to Some Really Worn Shoes

I'm not one to pay too much attention to fashion, but when it comes to trekking I am very particular about my shoes. Each person has different things they look for; some want to make sure they have ankle support, or waterproofing- me I want light weight and grip and just about nothing else matters. I met my perfect shoe back in  the middle of 2007 when I discovered GoLite's Spike Tail. Love at first fit. These shoes are exceptionally light, get an excellent grip even on steep wet granite and dried very quickly if you happened to go wading across streams. They were comfortable to boot, making them my favorite shoe I had ever put on my feet.

This is roughly what my shoes looked like when I got them.

I purchased the shoes specifically for my planned ascent of Kilimanjaro and went to work immediately making sure they got broken in on the trail. The shoes not only accompanied me up that very large mountain in Africa, but have since been my default shoes for trekking back in New England and now here in the Himalaya. They were also excellent running shoes, so they got plenty of use running the streets of Kathmandu two or three times a week. Here is a quick list of the places this pair of shoes got me;

Giving the Palace The Run Around

Now as I stated recently, I'm the only person I usually see running in the streets of Kathmandu. During a conversation with some expats while we were in Bhaktapur observing the Gaijatra festival the topic of exercise came up and someone mentioned "It's not like you can go running in Kathmandu". Well you can, I do. Kind of. It's a little more like an obstacle course, and in some ways it makes things more interesting. Some times though you just want to run and not deal with all of the traffic and people and cows or whatever might get in your way.

As I've mentioned, the only place I see people running jogging most of the time is around the palace. The house owner of my apartment also recommended it to me as a place to go running. So the other day I didn't get a chance to go out until sometime around 5PM. I really wanted to go running, but the traffic out by the ring road on the way to Boudha would be terrible during this part of the day, so I took the opportunity to try out the route around the palace. I gave it two laps plus the distance from and back to the apartment.

Map showing the route around the palace, almost exactly 1.6 miles.

The palace route has some real advantages going for it. First there are sidewalks around the whole thing, and in most places you can actually use them. In some places they are full of people, like near the east gate and over by the foreign ministry on the west side, but other than those two spots you don't have to run in the road. Because really no vehicles go in or out of the palace area for the most part, you don't spend too much time dodging cars or getting stuck in traffic. Another bonus is that the trees and bamboo that line the walls provide some decent shade from the sun. With many of the normal obstacles removed from my path I was able to keep a fairly consistent pace. Also the mile and a half loop that isn't far from home allows for a nice variable run depending on how I feel, and if I pull a muscle or something it isn't a long walk back to the apartment. 

So with all of those advantages, you'd think this would be my new route, but I think I'm gonna stick to the Boudha route. The main reason is that the air quality around the palace is terrible. Sure I cross the ring road on my way out to Boudha, but for the most part the air isn't all that terrible on my way out there. Around the palace I felt like I was constantly sucking exhaust. Narayanhiti Path and Kanti path are especially bad. The sidewalks that are concrete are fine, bu the brick ones, though even enough for walking are a bit tough when running, during these segments I usually shifted to running on the side of the road. While the trees and bamboo provide shade, they also provide homes for birds and fruit bats, and thus when running under the trees on Kanti Path especially, not only do you have to dodge poo from the sky, but you have to inhale the smell of the poo on the sidewalk. 

While the sidewalks are nice, young Nepalis seem to like to take up as much space on a sidewalk as they can. I don't think it's done on purpose, but it's common to see four people spread out perfectly to take up the entire length of the sidewalk, and thus you end up jumping off and back on to the sidewalk. The sidewalk near the foreign ministry is always full of Nepali people waiting to get a passport. The quantity of people there is always really high, and due to this the number of people already walking in the street is already high, thus you end up dodging people and oncoming traffic through this section. Also there is very little difference in elevation over this route, just a few places with some minor variation giving some gradual up hill and down hill segments. On my route out to Boudha I get a couple of really good hills in each direction, so I get some good practice on both up and down hill running.

All in all maybe not a bad place for an early morning run before the traffic gets going. I'm sure I'll use the route from time to time, but all in all not too impressed. If I want to do some distance running once in a while it might not be a bad option if I got up in the morning and did like five laps or something. Running long distances otherwise gets me too far from Kathmandu, and I'd hate to strain my calve way out by Sundarijal or something. 

It's a Cultural Difference: Running Through Traffic in Kathmandu

Now I've been better at keeping up some good habits than others. For instance I am no closer to speaking fluent Nepali now than I was three months ago. This is of course my fault, as I haven't kept up with classes and spend all my time speaking to people who speak English. Sometimes I'm really good about sitting down and writing, and sometimes not as much, but I have stuck to it and get at least three pages written or edited each day. In line with that project I have also been reading quite a bit and have been going through rather in depth books every week or two. Thank god for Kindles, because I would never ever find the books I'm reading anywhere in Kathmandu, or most US bookstores for that matter. I have also kept up my running, and continue to run to Boudha about every other day or more, and that has made for some interesting adventures.

South Asia as a whole doesn't seem to be all that interested in athletics. Sure they watch and occasionally play soccer and cricket, and in the press I see things about badminton, table tennis and judo, but serious competitive athletics are just not part of daily life for school kids apparently, not on any scale like what we do in the US anyway. As for running you occasionally see people do some fairly lazy laps around the palace wall, or a few people on cardio machines at some of the gyms, but even there it is most often expats. I have never ever in all my times I've gone running seen another person running as well. You see some Nepali's doing back breaking work, so they aren't afraid of breaking a sweat, but they seem quite averse to doing so if they don't have to. Judging from some of the puzzled looks I get as I go running and some of the conversations I have with people here, most Nepali's don't have any idea why you would put yourself through running across town.   While people back in the US might think you're still nuts they implicitly understand the health and fitness benefits that go along with running, and I'm not sure that is ingrained in the psyche of South Asia.

As I have finally gotten back to actually running and not just jogging I am starting to find that I actually can move faster than a large segment of Kathmandu traffic, which brings some benefits as well as some awkward situations. Kathmandu has an incredibly dense population, and there are people everywhere. There are no sidewalks, so people, bovines, dogs, and all manner of transportation from tractors and tuk-tuks to SUVs and school buses all fill the roads. Trash is not collected in bins or bags, but dumped in piles on the side of the road for pick up. The monsoons have eroded some parts of the streets and new sink holes have opened up in places to add to the already large array of pot holes, large puddles, open manholes that one can encounter in the streets of Kathmandu. This all makes for some tricky maneuvering when you are running, and you rarely get to keep a nice even pace as you have to switch sides of the roads, temporarily jump up onto a limited sidewalk, or slow down as you reach a traffic jam.

The strangest thing is that people do not look where they are going for the most part, and even if they do see you coming they continue on what ever path they are on, regardless of if they are on foot, on bikes, motorcycles or in a taxi. The other day I almost slammed into a woman who just stepped out in front of me without looking, luckily I just put my hands out, and kind of moved to the side so as not to fully collide with her, but had I been a motorcycle or a car, she would have been seriously hurt. Bicycles tend to go at a very lazy pace through the city, and often many of the men I pass who are on bikes feel it is some kind of personal challenge to them that I have run by them and start peddling a little faster. For a minute they will get ahead, especially if we are on a down hill, but then they go back to their lazy pace again and I pass them. I get the most puzzled looks from these guys.

The funniest thing is when I get out past the ring road I start passing a lot of the white mini-vans that transport people out toward Boudha. I'll pass them in traffic, and they will pass me on some open road,  but then I pass them again when they stop to drop people off or pick them up. Then as we inevitably hit traffic again as we close in on Boudha I often am running right next to them, and the looks I get from the boys that holler out where the van is going and collect money from passengers is priceless. Sometimes they or someone else in the van will try and say something to me in garbled in English, and sometimes they will even cheer me on. I passed a school bus the other day on a downhill where the bus had to keep stopping for speed bumps. The children on the bus had moved to the side I was passing it on and many of them were cheering me on, and as the bus hit traffic I pulled away to them all pointing and laughing.

Now navigating traffic here is on a bit of a learning curve, as many of the rules and signals from back home just don't apply. Blinkers for instance often are a signal saying that it is OK to pass on the side that blinker is flashing on. On the buses and vans that have young men hanging out the door, they kind of hit the side panel of the vehicle every once in a while, two whacks indicating that it is OK to proceed and one whack means stop (they are signalling to their driver). This is done most often when they are backing up, when people are trying to squeeze by each other in a very congested street and when passenger vehicles are letting people on and off. Horns also constantly update you on a vehicles location, if they are coming up behind you or if they are coming around a tight corner. Luckily Kathmandu traffic rarely exceeds about 25 MPH giving you plenty of time to assess your situation in relation to everything on the road, and more often then not in stop and go traffic you can actually move just as fast if not faster than they can. In fact I am averaging about +/- 17 minute runs out to Boudha right now, and there is no way in hell I could get a taxi out there that fast.

When I get to Boudha I generally do three walking laps around the stupa to kind of collect myself and take some deep breaths. Often a curious monk will start talking to me, and several have asked me why I am sweating so much. I tell them, that I ran from Lazimpat, and they just kind of look at me like I have three heads, but are then happy to move on to more traditional conversation about where I am from, if I have seen the monasteries here and some general questions about any interest in Buddhism. Taxi drivers waiting at the exit to Boudha, people normally perplexed that westerners would want to walk instead of ride in a taxi, always point and shake their heads as I go running back toward Lazimpat. Sorry guys, it's faster and it's free.

I really think that in my school days I learned as much from athletics as I did in the classroom. In school you learn math, English, critical thinking, problem solving, analysis, etc. In athletics you really develop discipline, courage, character, teamwork, and leadership. While those traits can be tested under other non-athletic conditions, it seems to come naturally and easily in that kind of environment, and is something that most youths enjoy. Track and cross country are not expensive sports, you just need a place to run, any country or community can support that. It's somewhat strange then to see a society where it is so under utilized as an educational and developmental tool. To be honest, as cool as it was to have those kids cheering me on as I passed their bus, I kind of wish it was myself and other adults cheering them on.

Healthy Living

Kathmandu isn't a city for everyone, but it seems to fit me really well. Seeing the extent of the pollution here, the first thing that pops into your head isn't a healthy lifestyle, but that is what it has provided for me. Since moving here I have gotten into the best shape I have been in for at least ten years, I have a lot more energy, and I am getting so much more done. The downside is that all my pants need to have a couple inches taken out of the waste.

There are two large factors contributing to this, the first being a large shift in diet. I don't think I had an unhealthy diet in the States, I've always tried to consume lots of fruits and veggies, and tried to stick more to grilled and lean meats. Back home though I ate out a lot more, and I ate tons more bread, cheeses and although i have never been a heavy drinker, I consume even less alcohol here. I prepare more meals for Kim and myself together here, and since she is vegetarian I mostly only eat meat when we go out to restaurants. Cheese is either expensive or impossible to get and so its consumption is way down. We occasionally get French style goat cheese, and use that imitation grated parmigiana  stuff that comes in a shaker, but that is about it. 

The Will to Run

As I stated in the last post I love running. You know why? Because I have not found a better, more accessible activity that allows you to push your own limits so easily. Most of the time when people say things like sports or athletics is 90% mental, people never take them seriously. I think in part it is because when most people think 'mental' they conjure up cerebral school style smarts. That can help but it's really about mental toughness, about having a will that can overcome your body screaming at you to stop or slow down. The difference between a runner who wins and one who looses is very often just a sheer test of will. How deep can you dig?

I was lucky for many reasons when it came to running. I was naturally gifted with some speed, and I had some very good coaches through school. My natural talent helped, but I wasn't the fastest when it came to sprints, although I could compete, I lacked the explosiveness to win anything larger than a three way school meet. It wasn't until I hit the the quarter mile mark that I really started to shine. At that distance you still had to run fast, but it was about who could sprint the longest, who wasn't afraid of just putting everything out there. Those longer races also took a certain amount of training to do. There were several kids I ran with that if they had trained as diligently and as hard as I did, could have most likely beat me. I enjoyed the discipline that running demanded of yourself, and that part of it is what has kept me in it all these years.

When you go out for a run, and your body starts aching, you get a cramp, your quads get tired, and your body tries to coerce you into stopping. You even come up with mental excuses to justify it. Running is 90% mental, because most of the time it's about fighting that weaker part of you that wants to give up, the one that wants to slow down. Running is physical training, but real running is training to tell that voice to 'go to hell'. Running is about training your will. Your body is capable of much more than most of us believe ourselves capable, mostly because we rarely venture beyond what is comfortable. You can go a long way outside of comfortable, it is just a matter of having the will power to push yourself to it.

In many ways I feel the same way about hiking, though it's a different kind of event. Running takes place over anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or so. Trekking, like what I have planned, is something that is done over a few weeks. Trekking is the long drawn out run, with some really spectacular scenery thrown in for kicks. Trekking in the Himalaya is great, because the trails are just like the ones back home, where the trail often goes from point A to point B in a fairly straight line, regardless of what kind of elevation change is in between. The difference between the Himalaya and home is that those elevation gains and drops are huge, our highest mountains would simply be un-named hills here. This can make for some grueling ascents and some stretches where you just want it to be over, but in finding those things that make us want to cry 'uncle' we can face up to it, buckle down, persevere, and be the stronger for it. People's bodies do occasionally give out on them, but it is rare, it is a persons will that gives out first and far more often. You are the only thing standing in your way, and learning to push those limits, to take the reigns of your experience and know that you only fail if you give up is liberating.

So like I said, I love running.

Running to Boudha

I love to run. To most people that seems like a crazy thing to say, but I truly do enjoy it. Before I came to Kathmandu I had expectations of doing some running at the valley fringe on a regular basis, but the reality is that getting there is a pain in the ass. The pollution put out by the traffic on the larger roads seemed like just too much to put my lungs though, and the back roads can be extremely cramped for space, uneven, and have many blind corners. I was holding off until we got membership into Phora, thinking I would just use cardio machines or make use of the 600 meter path around the perimeter there. 

Then as I posted during the maoist bandha I took the opportunity to run the traffic free streets out to Boudha, which was just about a perfect run. The route is about 2.6 miles, has one really good up hill and one good down hill. So when I got the urge to run again I thought about my options and said 'what the hell' and gave the same route a shot with traffic. 

The Stupa at Boudha

Running the Bandh

So today is day five of the strike, and you are starting to notice that supplies of certain things are running low. The place where I normally get eggs, has no eggs. Vegetables and fruit are becoming more withered and in less supply. People's patience with the Maoists is starting to run low, and reports are popping up here and there of shops opening in defiance and a few Maoists actually getting beat on instead of the other way around. Tomorrow there is a peace rally in Durbar Square which seems to be organized by several groups that are sick of the strike. The Newar community in particular seems ready to tell the Maoists to get lost, and I think they will represent a large chunk of the people at the rally tomorrow (at 9AM for those interested).

There is a central tenant in stoic philosophy that says to take that which seems to be an obstacle and make it instead enhance your life. With that thought in mind I took advantage of the clear air, and streets filled only with pedestrians to go for a run. I ran from my apartment in lazimpat to Boudhanath, just over two and a half miles. There was a light rain, but it was warm, and was almost perfect running conditions. It was really a great running route, with long straight aways and gradual inclines and declines, with good sized hills on either side of the river. Almost a perfect mix of terrain. Normally I would never ever be able to run this route due to the sheer volume of people and traffic, not to mention the exhaust you would breathe in over the course of the run.