Why Running is the Best Sport for Long Term Travellers
Depending on how you travel, finding ways to integrate sport or fitness into the everyday can pose a unique challenge. Whether you use exercise to improve your fitness, support your health, maintain a skillset, or use it as a social outlet with team activities, it’s an incredibly important part of life for most. Finding ways to make it a part of your daily or weekly routine can be difficult even if you aren’t in a new place or living on the road.
In our experience, when we’ve been working and travelling, integrating sport has been fairly easy because our lifestyle was able to sustain a basic routine. It also helped that we had chosen jobs that included an element of fitness; for instance, when we worked within ski resorts, we were skiing/snowboarding everyday, and when we worked within National Parks, we would be on the trails everyday. However, when we’ve been living on the road (usually taking extended holidays between seasonal jobs), integrating fitness and sport wasn’t always easy.
Finding a love for running has inspired a lot of positive changes for me, but one of the things I love most about it is how it is the ideal sport/ activity for travellers in every kind of way.
Whether you’re a backpacker living on the road, a working traveller wanting to explore their new digs, or anywhere in between, below are the reasons why I think running is the best form of exercise/ fitness activity/ sport for long term travellers…..
Running Scotland’s trails have allowed us to explore some of the very best of the Highlands and National Parks that we may not have otherwise experienced.
1. It’s minimalist
Unlike some fitness activities or sports that require a lot of gear, runners only really need a good pair of shoes. As long as you’ve packed some breathable clothes that you can run in (athleisure makes for good travel clothes anyway), all you need to pack are a decent pair of shoes for the type of terrain you’ll most likely frequent.
After having had the experience of travelling with our snowboards, skis and backcountry camping gear, having just a spare set of shoes tied to my carry-on during our last few trips abroad has made our moves so much easier and packs so much lighter.
2. It’s cost effective for budget travellers
If you’re travelling on a budget, taking up running can be a great way to cut costs if you’re hoping to integrate fitness into your everyday routines. It can save you buying short-term passes to the local gym, taking part in pricey fitness classes, or bringing around travel fitness gear with you from place to place. Just lace up those shoes and hit the local trails, park or city streets.
3. It can help you discover your new location
When we were based in Chiang Mai, we loved running around the walled moat of the Old City at dusk (a time when we found the temperature bearable for fitness). Through our evening runs, we discovered so many amazing places- including one of our favourite spots: the Nong Buak Haad Park สวนสาธารณะหนองบวกหาด, and usually stopped in at a night food stall before heading back home.
Walking tours are a fantastic way to see a new place, so why not give a running tour a go?
A great way to explore a new space is to discover on foot, and you’ll be able to cover more ground with a light jog or run. Note down places you may want to come back to explore further or just get your bearings. These running tours can be one of the best ways to get a feel for a new location and you’ll be surprised with what you stumble upon; be that a local market, a neighbourhood that has a great feel to it, or a secret green space perfect for unwinding.
The majority of places won’t offer official running tours, so just put on your sneakers and go exploring - use an app like Strava to track where you end up and use guides or maps to find your way back to your accomodation.
4. You can do it anywhere
Whether you’re on a city break or a beach getaway, there will always be some kind of space to stretch your legs. Although some landscapes will be more inspiring than others, finding a green space or route on the pavements surrounding your accomodation won’t be the challenge.
Our additional advice here would be to consider the climate, safety, and best time of day before you head out - although you can technically run anywhere, there are certain considerations that should come into play depending on where you are. For climate, try running at either dusk or dawn if you’re visiting a hot country, and if you’re headed into cold, wintery conditions, take all the necessary safety precautions before hitting potentially icy routes. For safety, ask around the locals and get an idea of the safest areas for runners (consider leaving your headphones at home so you can be on the alert), and use your Strava to check out routes that local runners use.
5. It can help you stick to a routine
Training for an event such as a 10K, Half Marathon or Full Marathon can be a great way to give you some stability on the road by setting goals.
One of the hardest parts of travellers who are consistently on the move (like backpackers and other kinds of sabbatical travellers), is that it can be hard to stick to, or develop, a routine. Although the lack of a routine works for some people, for others it can create a sense of unease and can prove more unsustainable over time.
Planning for a daily run or working up to a certain speed or distance are great goals that you can strive for while living on the road. If you’re the kind of traveller who benefits from a bit of structure, definitely consider implementing this into your travels.
6. It can help you form a community abroad
There are runners all over the world, and if you’re a long term traveller looking to be based somewhere for a longer period of time (like a working traveller), running can be a great way to form a community and meet like-minded people.
Whether it’s through the internet (there are loads of awesome community-run groups through Facebook that you can request to join) or through meet and greets in local running and/or fitness shops (like participating in a park run), it can help you meet people while getting you more involved with your sport and your new community.
7. it creates a unique way to travel
Running the Loch Ness Marathon last fall, we were surrounded by runners from all over the world who travelled to participate. Stay tuned on a post coming out this month if you’re interested in running Loch Ness and destination racing.
Travelling to race, sometimes referred to as destination racing, is starting to become more and more popular as incredible races across the world open up.
Use your love of running to look for unique places to travel to; the races can help you gain a whole new perspective. Destination racing can help you form a new travel bucket list that includes your ideal racing distance and terrain within locations you’re also hoping to visit. My personal list includes marathons across a number of notable European cities, Northern Scandinavia and a few within Asia.
8. It’s great exercise
For those of you looking to maintain your fitness on the road, running can be a fantastic full body workout with a surprising amount of variety.
Whether you’re looking to target a certain area of your body or hoping to enhance your performance, there are many different kinds of running you can try. Run on a flat course to build up speed, run up hills to build leg strength, run fast to enhance your cardiovascular fitness, or run slow to meditate and decompress (or anything in between). For a sport that can see participants in competitive races all over the world, it’s also very much intended for people who just want to unplug and get some relaxed exercise.
9. It can be a great outlet
It’s really important to create an outlet to channel energy into when things don’t go to plan, especially if you’re travelling long term. Developing a healthy way to digest a problem and see it from a new perspective is really important and in this way, running can be a powerful way to channel that energy and help you deal with a problem with a clearer head.
Running can also be a great idea for people who are travelling as part of a pair or group. Although running with a partner or friend is great, you also may find that integrating solo activities every once in a while is really beneficial for both you and your travel companions. It hits quite a few of the points in our ‘7 Tips for Travelling with a Partner’, and it’s the solo outlet I always turn to both in travel and in our everyday.
Whether you’re travelling from place to place or have just newly re-located abroad, taking up running is a great way to maintain your fitness, decompress, explore your new surroundings and potentially meet new people. Give it a go and see if it’s for you!
happy travels,
Sam
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