The Running Tourist Thwarted

When I first became interested in entering the longer running races like marathons and half-marathons a few years ago, I naturally went on the blogosphere to see what other similarly interested folks were writing about the topic and their experiences.  One blogger, a woman a few years older than me, had just completed the Walt Disney World Marathon (I think it was January 2010).  She wasn't a fast runner and that didn't bother her a bit, something that I could definitely relate to.  Instead, while completing this theme park course she would take pictures of what was going on around her, effectively becoming a "running tourist".  I thought that this would a cool thing for me to take up, too.  I had just finished a local half-marathon, my first ever, and discovered by surfing the Net just how many there were nationwide.  I also had plans then of lengthening my distance to the marathon event.  Had I the free time and funds, this would have been a fun ongoing adventure.  But alas,  I am limited in what I can do.  Still, I have thought of taking pictures while in the races I do enter.  With poor results...

Take this last race I ran, the Ocala Half-Marathon, a few days ago.  I had thought about bringing my Kodak digital camera along, but instead opted for running with my cellphone and its camera.  Bad decision.  The few photos I took on it were too blurry to use.  Better to just strap on a fanny pack and take out the Kodak instead when a photo opportunity presents itself.  More than that, though, I found myself too caught up in the running to pay that much attention to my surrounding environment.  And the start of the race was relatively dark, anyway. 

The last time I was in Ocala running this course, I had been forced to walk much of it due to a leg injury.  I enjoyed the sightseeing, at least, and wished then I had carried a camera along.  But this time, the running changed my focus, even though I could have looked around more.  I wondered why I'm like this and then it dawned on me that when I am training, I am either running around my neighborhood, past house after house, or using the treadmill.  With the latter, I had better not look around too much or I'll lose my balance on the machine.  And with the former, I have been very careful not to look as if I am casing the neighborhood by gawking at other people's private residences.  So I generally look down the road instead.  Frankly, after all of these years of running past the same houses, I couldn't begin to describe what the great majority of them even look like...

So if and when I enter another half-marathon, I'll just strap on that fanny pack and whip out that Kodak.  And resurrect the running tourist...