Before last year, going on holiday was generally reason not to be running, but with my commitment to run in more different locations, and to maintain fitness without the excuses of travel (leisure or business), that has changed. My runs while away from home may sometimes be shorter or easier, but hopefully most offer plenty of novelty. First up from this trip away for some sailing in the Baltic was Denmark: a 6km circuit of the Copenhagen lakes. Quite a few other runners about including a tall muscular blonde going at just the right pace who I enjoyed following, then overtook for a kilometre while she followed me, then we swapped places again.
After a train journey from Copenhagen to Kalmar in Sweden, we sailed overnight to Visby on the island of Gotland. Overnight watches could have been an excuse to take things easy but instead I headed out for a 7km Swedish run past the port and then along a delightful promenade, partly under the old town walls, then past a large campsite which seemed to settle well into the landscape and not be a blot. Lots of people about including a few other runners, all slower than me.
We had more sailing around Gotland, then another overnight sail, heading SE to Klaipeda in Lithuania. I was on deck from just after 1am, seeing three watches as I didn’t feel tired and was enjoying the various other tall ships visible in the dark and then more as the dawn broke. Klaipeda was to be a port in between two legs of the Tall Ships Race, which made for some great explorations on foot and by bike, and for an interesting 5km Lithuanian run relatively early on Friday morning – later we spent more time exploring some of the square-riggers, and enjoying the party atmosphere with Lithuanian music vying with Omani bagpipers from the RNOV Shabab Oman II.
