Runs
Sightseeing on the Run
Running tours offer a new way for fit-minded travellers to soak up the sights of a city.
January 12, 2009It’s July 4, Quebec City is in the throes of its 400th birthday celebrations and I am running on the ramparts of The Citadelle. It’s a wow moment. Oozing history beneath my Brooks, these fortified walls are among the oldest in the Americas and running here is not an activity the average visitor expects when touring this four-century-old city. That’s one of the great things about guided running tours – sometimes you get to go where masses of other soles have not tread.
Launched in the spring of 2008, Quebec Jogging Tours is among a growing number of such running tourism companies now operating in various cities around the world. Of the lot, New York City-based City Running Tours is one of the largest. Two years ago, owner Michael Gazaleh, a practising chiropractor, was working in a small New York gym when a request came in from a visiting client looking for someone to accompany him on a run. Gazaleh responded to the request, took the client out for runs on two consecutive days, and by the end of the week he had launched NYC Run. By mid-2007, the business had become City Running Tours and branched out to include Chicago and Washington, D.C. Since then, the company has expanded to include Austin, Charleston and San Diego, and now boasts a roster of about 40 running guides.
Running tours appeal to both the runner and the tourist in a traveller, says Gazaleh. For the runner, City Running Tours accommodates both distance and pace, provides water and a souvenir bag “like one might get in a local road race,” he says, and for the tourist, “we pick up and drop off at the hotel, they can learn about the history, culture and local myths of the city and we can stop for pictures.” While the company started off with just a few runners a week, “we’re dealing with a unique niche that every year gets bigger and bigger.” says Gazaleh. In 2008, he estimates they will escort 250 to 300 runners across his six-city network.
Cities such as Rome, Berlin and Argentina also have their own running tour companies, but the Los Angeles-based Off’N Running appears to have been the “fore-runner.” Owner Cheryl Anker says she launched the company 14 years ago to cater to business travellers who needed to get a run in but didn’t want to be stuck on a treadmill. The company offers a number of tours in the 6-8K range, plus the recently introduced “Running from the Paparazzi,” a 90-minute event that takes participants along Robertson Boulevard past many of the shops and boutiques known for celebrity spotting. “The street itself is usually lined with paparazzi, and they often become the highlight of the tour,” says Anker.
Carolina Gasparetto, director of the Rome-based Sight Jogging Tours, says her three-year-old business caters mostly to a middle-aged clientele from North America, Britain and Germany. She explains that the company’s 15 tour guides undergo a training period to test both their fitness level and cultural capabilities. “They have to be fit, educated, responsible and, of course, fluent in at least one language other than Italian,” says Gasparetto. Sight Jogging Tours is currently working to expand the business into other Italian cities.
Mike’s SightRunning in Berlin is the newcomer amid a handful of similar German-speaking tour companies in the country. Owner Michael Horstmann says he and his guides are experienced marathon runners and all run on a regular basis year-round. Tours include the area around the Berlin Cathedral, another that follows the River Spree to the city’s historical centre, and others that cross through the government district and the most popular tourist attractions. According to Horstmann, attractions such as the summer residence of the Prussian Kings “are lined up like pearls on a string along the riverside.”
He says the tours are perfect for Berlin visitors who plan to tour the German capital for a short time and wish to keep their personal fitness but also experience Berlin and its many sights. “The convenience of combining a sightseeing tour with a regular workout is attractive for many ambitious runners who are on vacation or travelling on business,” he says. The company has plans to expand, but at the moment has “assigned priority to co-operations with Berlin’s five-star hotels wanting to expand their wellness programs,” says Horstmann.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Urban Running Tours offers tours seven days a week in Spanish, English, Italian and French. Their six standard tours take visitors through the main neighbourhoods of the city, and they also assemble personalized tours.
