Running Around Lucknow

Summary: Went for a run yesterday and found the experience of running around Vishal Khand / Gomti Nagar / Lucknow a frustrating experience, as I was trapped by cars and people.

In the past year, I’ve come to see running as a good way of exploring an area and becoming familiar with it. It’s difficult (though not impossible) to get lost when running, as long as you maintain a general sense of where you came from. I saw running in Lucknow as a win-win: I’d get some exercise, and I’d get to learn about the area.

On my run yesterday, I found myself in something akin to a rat maze, confined to an area about 6 blocks by 6 blocks, bordered by schools (kids were just arriving by bus) and major roads. In this small area, I twisted an turned, ran back and forth along the small streets, and around any “park” I saw. After about 10 minutes of flustering running, I settled for a small ‘track’ (i.e.,an overgrown walkway) in a ‘park’ (a closed-off area / meadow of dead plants). With some crude measurements (a phone and familiarity with my own pace), I found this track to be about 1/5 of a mile long, and ended up running around and around for the next 20+ minutes.

Running in Gomti Nagar (Vishal Khand, specifically) is similar to what I would imagine trail running to be like. Broken roads, potholes, piles of sand, and mud. It’s also a little like being in a race; random folks will gawk and stare. Running for exercise is almost unheard of around here (few areas are traffic-free), and on top of that, a foreigner!

What can I say, I like to make my presence known?