1. Along the River, Starting from Wanguo Stadium Golden Week turns Shanghai into a softer city. Traffic thins, the air cools, and the river path near Wanguo Stadium feels like it belongs to the runners again. On the first morning of the holiday I slipped onto the trail, followed the water south until the path ran out of concrete, then traced the same route home. ...
Weekdays lately feel like a sprint between meetings, so the only way to keep training is to embrace the office treadmill. Surprisingly, I don’t mind it. I leave the headphones in my locker and listen to the belt hum in rhythm with my footsteps. It’s a stripped-down kind of focus. On September 25, the console flashed 11.11 km in 55:31, roughly 689 kcal at an even 5'00’’/km. Because treadmills can feel forgiving, I nudged the incline up a notch to mimic pavement. ...
Sometimes the best tour guide is a pair of running shoes. Before 6 a.m. on a September Saturday, I stepped out for a 21.34 km half-marathon loop through central Shanghai and let the city unfold in silence. I started near Zhongshan Park and slipped onto the Suzhou Creek path. The city was still yawning awake: museum facades mirrored in the water, Jing’an’s skyline stretching its shadows. Around the 6 km mark the Oriental Pearl Tower appeared, its pink spheres glowing softly through the haze like lanterns waiting for dusk. ...
10.20 kilometers. 51 minutes and 29 seconds. Average pace 5'03"/km. Calories: 625. Those are the facts from a morning run in Palanga, a seaside town on Lithuania’s Baltic coast. The watch keeps the numbers; the trail keeps the memories. From Amber to Adrenaline I set off near the Amber Museum, letting the path pull me south. The forest smells like pine needles rinsed in salt water, and the run began as a quiet conversation between footsteps and the Baltic breeze. ...
Budapest wakes up slowly, but the Danube is already busy with light. At 5:02 a.m. on July 12, 2025, I slipped out of the hotel, shoes squeaking faintly on the cobblestones, and followed the cool air toward Margaret Island (Margit-sziget). The island sits like a park set afloat between Buda and Pest, and at dawn it belongs almost entirely to runners. Morning Numbers Distance: 10.55 km Time: 55m 20s Average pace: 5'15"/km Calories burned: 654 kcal The lap is familiar on paper—two loops of the red track that wraps the island—but it never feels repetitive. The surface has just enough give, and the trees form a tunnel that lets the sunrise drip through in thin ribbons of gold. ...
Back in 2010 I dove into WordPress, spent weekends tweaking themes, and posted whenever inspiration struck. I also tinkered with the server far more than I wrote. Inevitably the machine crashed, backups were missing, and the archive vanished in one swoop. (Lesson learned: backups are dull right up until they become priceless.) I attempted a few comebacks, but work ramped up and two small kids arrived, so the blog went into hibernation. ...