Long Run
This weekend was a bit staggered as we rented an apartment on the opposite side of the island with some friends and so I didn’t have the hills nor the will(s) to do an extended long run. Instead, I did two short-ish ones to make up for it as best I could.
The town we were staying in is super touristy and completely dead this time of year, which was nice and also a bit creepy. The streets which are jammed with pedestrian and vehicular traffic from May to October were shuttered and ghostly as I ran down the middle of the road:
I ran my way up to a church that overlooked the city of Paralimni to see what I could.
I descended, ran down a few dead-end dirt roads hoping to find a trail, and then looped back to the apartment. Much to my dismay, most of the route was on paved roads but that didn’t stop me from doing a fair bit of walking and checking around. There’s only so much trail searching you can do on Google Maps before going to a new place – sometimes you just need to get on the ground and see what you find. Anyway, it was a rather uneventful run. The only eventful part was how dark and gloomy it was, which was caused by a dust storm that was rolling through. I probably should have avoided running outside, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I was already back inside.
I found myself running out to what is known as “Cyclops Cave”, at the tip of the coastline on the southeastern-most side of the island. The air had cleared and the water was bright blue and clear. Some fisherman were at the end trying to catch their dinner, I presume, and I ran around to catch a glimpse of the Cave.
There wasn’t much to see in or around the cave, so I turned around to head back, running by Konnos Beach – one of my favorites on the island!
The last little bit of the run was on the road, but I’m just thankful to get any non-asphalt training in!
Weekly Jam
Of all the Christmas songs in the world, this one is in my top 5. What could possibly be better than a DMX rendition of this classic? Not much. I saw a clip of him freestyling this for a radio show back in like 2012 and this year he decided to release a studio version. It’s awesome. Enjoy!
Summary
Jetlag is now a thing of the past and I’m getting back into the swing of my running. Weekends around the holidays are always tough since it’s difficult to escape for 5+ hours in the mornings, but I get in runs when I can and enjoy the festivities. My brother will be visiting next weekend so I suspect I won’t be doing much running then either, but I’ll see what I can squeeze in.
Until next week!
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Brandon Chase is a writer, endurance athlete, and guide based in Maine. He is a former Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and spent nearly a decade overseas serving at embassies in Egypt, Cyprus, and Pakistan.
Along with a 98-day thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, he has summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, hiked the West Highland Way, fastpacked in the Himalayas, and trekked around New Zealand and South Africa. He also regularly competes in ultramarathons at the 50k, 50-mile, and 100-mile distances. He is a Lead Guide for Andrew Skurka Adventures and the New England Outdoor Center.