Run baby, run: work with what you have

(Not a running related picture, but it wás taken at the airport, and it's pretty nontheless :) )

As you may have seen on my Instagram feed, I've spent the last two days in Munich, for work. Or rather, at the Munich airport. Which appears to be about 40 km from actual Munich (we're staying at the Hilton [ahem, humble brag] which is directly at the airport). 

The evening before my run I had checked Google Maps to plan a 5k route, but I knew that this was not a foolproof method. You can’t always tell if certain roads are accessible to pedestrians. I memorized the direction I wanted to head in, and hoped for the best.

And indeed, already after about 300m my sidewalk disappeared… No way I was going in that direction. The same happened in a few other directions, and it was clear that a change of plans was needed. 

So I took a good look around. How could I make use of my environment? This pedestrian island I was on turned out to contain a few elements I desperately miss in my neighborhood back in Eindhoven: slopes and flights of stairs. The concrete jungle in front of me turned into a playground full of possibilities:

I ran around like crazy. Up and down, fast and slow, all with a great big smile on my face. It must have looked crazy to anyone observing me, especially since I ran the same circle about 4 times. I didn’t care - this was much more fun than the 5k I had planned!