Hotfooting Through the Landmarks, From Los Angeles to Athens

Local guides around the U.S. are offering urban running tours that point out city landmarks while also giving devoted runners a good workout, writes Bonnie Tsui in The New York Times. New York, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco all have such tours, which are apparently growing in popularity. Though runners (me included) on vacation have been huffing and puffing on the back roads of new cities for years, their exploring has often been haphazard and befuddling. Who, after all, wants to run while holding a sweaty map?

Enter outfits like American Running Guides in San Francisco. Most who sign up for ARG’s tours are intermediate runners who want to check out a city and still get their exercise. “It’s amazing how much you can squeeze in on a five-mile route around San Francisco, if you only know where to go,” said Jim Vernon, an ultramarathoner and trail-running devotee who founded American Running Guides. “A lot of business travelers don’t see anything more than the shuttle bus from the airport.”

In Chicago, City Running Tours can take you along scenic Lake Michigan as well as less obvious routes, such as one themed on the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, according to the AP.

Having recently gone on my own self-guided and mapless run through Nicosia‘s old town (in which I spent much of my time circling my new favorite ice-cream shop), I love the idea of a running partner who knows where to go. Anyone want to trade a running tour of Dubrovnik for an Acropolis-themed run through Athens? I’ll even throw in some giant iced coffees afterwards.

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Photo by Jacob Garcia, via Flickr (Creative Commons).

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