I served a mission in Ukraine several years ago. This means I lived in the country for several years, and saw quite a bit of what it had to offer. However, a few weeks ago, I decided to go back. But this time, I wanted to see and do things a bit differently. Naturally, I still wanted to meet up with my great friends from when I lived there, and for the most part I did. However, I also met lots of new friends, and that was absolutely splendid.
I got to run in Chersoneses, which is an ancient Greek settlement in the middle of Sevastopol. The views are spectacular, and I have so many great memories there. Granted, it's not the best place to run, so I did it early in the morning as one of several runs that day.
Spectacular views at Fiolent.
One way that I tried to shake things up was a goal to run in a cool place every day, and I think I did it. I'm getting ready for a marathon right now, so running has become a huge part of my life (since it totally wasn't before). I don't want to go too much into this, because I have big plans for a later blog post on the subject.
This was my afternoon run that same day at Balaklava. I decided this is Hurty McPain's Ukrainian cousin (very few of you will get that, but короче it was a really steep hill and it hurt to run up it).
You can't hear too much of what I'm saying, but I explain that I ran from the farthest mountain you can see to the beach down below, and that I'm tired, but in a good way.
The other days in the Krim I also ran along the southern coast, but unfortunately didn't bring my camera. In Zaporizhye, I ran the length of the longest prospect in Europe, ran in one of my old mission areas (borodinsky), and across the dam in Zaporizhye. I always tell myself that those pictures will just have to stay on my soul.
Another part of the trip I thoroughly enjoyed was monkeying around on the cliffs of Fiolent, and swimming and jumping in the water of the black sea. I think I swam just about every day I was in the Crimea (usually in the middle of a run).
This has always been a dream of mine, to climb a cliff with the express purpose of jumping off at the end.
In the end, I was able to see a side of Ukraine that I never really experienced, and in the process, I discovered some things that I want to do in all of my travelling. I really took to the idea of running in different places, it sort inspired me to stay in shape, and it was just a blast.
You're training for a marathon?! That's great! Which marathon are you going to run? You can always fly back on Sept. 29 and join us in our marathon at Big Sur (voted the prettiest marathon in the states). Or you can show us up in a big way by running an exotic marathon. Either way, good job! I'm jealous of your cool runs. Today I ran 16 miles (from my house to Cabrillo Ntl Monument...a super cool lighthouse on a peninsula, then back home). I almost passed out, so hopefully you had better luck than me. I'll just say that the term Hurty McPain made a lot of sense to me. sigh. I miss you.
ReplyDeleteYou are living my dream. I think running adds a completely new dimension when exploring a new place. Especially if you can do it early in the morning when there aren't many people out. We should go on a running vacation sometime. How about Thailand?
ReplyDeleteWendy: just the Moscow Marathon, I'm not sure how 'exotic' that is...it's just local. I've thought about doing marathons in cool places though, it sounds like a good excuse to go places.
ReplyDeleteRyan: absolutely. Thailand is definitely already on the top of my list of places to go.
My comment was going to be, "You are living Ryan's dream." He beat me to it.
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