Pace Maker

Think of how many eyes have been on the stretches of interstate and the facades of houses but how few have penetrated past a couple of meters off the shoulder or down an alley. There’s a windshield between you and the buildings and grass in a car, not unlike a television screen. The speed is too fast to take in much at all. Like most things “American”, seeing a landscape from a car window is about getting in quantity, not quality. And as lovely as a stroll may be, it’s a slow way to see a place. Most people see the same stretch on their walk, to and from a Metro or the grocery store. And those folks are the lucky ones, who live in proximity to places they can walk to. For me, the middle ground is also what keeps me sane throughout the week – a run. In the States I would run almost every day, covering about 6 miles each time, trying out new routes or trying to return a library book in a new neighborhood and accomplish small tasks as I go. On the weekends I’d strike out to see someplace new, further away. Sometimes you get stuck on a hot street without a sidewalk or a shoulder, stepping into gravel and cigarette butts when you hear a car coming. Another time I discovered a bright blue adobe house that inspired me to repaint my own house. I ran by it numerous times afterwards to test paint chips against the trim.

Now I live in a place where I get sideways glances for breaking a jog in my running shoes on the way to the market. Running for Croatians is for exercise or getting away from something. Even then, it is done on a treadmill, perhaps at Maksimir Park or if an angry dog gets off its leash. It doesn’t belong on city streets unless a tram is about to slam into you. Sometimes I don’t care at all and I’ll jog around my neighborhood. But mostly I find it most peaceful just to head up the hill where the city ends and the “suburbs” (if you can call them that) start, where there are less people on the streets and those who are there care less about the…. what…. “inappropriateness” of breathing hard and wearing shorts on the city streets.

Europe is amazingly laid out for the pedestrian. So why then, does a runner not seem to fit into that category? And more importantly, how can running be programmed into the city better? For all the inadequacies of American cities when it comes to pedestrians and all the priorities given to cars, traffic and parking, Americans often run through their streets more than they walk them. Especially in suburbia, you may see an American driving a quarter mile down the street to stick a letter in the postal box or driving into their garages never to be seen in the public domain in their street shoes and office clothes. BUT… they’ll be out in their spandex and Nikes for a forty minute jog every morning. In this case, often runners will get themselves as quickly as possible to a bike path or off-road running route. For me, although this is always a pleasant place to run, I like running through urbanity. I like the distractions of architecture watching and the minutiae of life that happens at each doorstep and corner. I want to run on pavement (is this wrong?).

Here in Zagreb, I want to run down Illica, the commercial street, and window shop for shoes. Or run to the market, pick up some peaches and walk home. Makes total sense to me. For now I’ll get glances and children will lag behind their parents as they follow me with their eyes. Women smoking cigarettes at a sidewalk café will pause and follow me like an owl turning its head. I won’t look as put together as the mother in stilettos at the market with her baby carriage. I’ll be sweaty but who cares. I’ll be planting seeds. People will start seeing my strength and find it perhaps ‘cool’ (maybe…). The peanut gallery of smoking old men drinking their morning Karlovakco will snicker at first and then call me over one day to “chat” and soon enough, it won’t be so weird. Not that I have any aspiration to goal to change their way of life – just to accept a piece of mine. Seeds are planted, growing own little revolution of sorts.

The next step is to think about how the city infrastructure could support this newly seeded running culture….

That’s the next entry.