Forums >General Running>Anyone ever run in or around an airport on a long layover?
rectumdamnnearkilledem
That too...and spending a fortune doing so.
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
Get up an hour earlier and run before you travel. Or skip it. Or run the next day.
Get up an hour earlier and run before you travel.
Or skip it.
Or run the next day.
This! You'll sleep better on the plane.
Have you spent some time on the website for the airport? Some airports have changing and locker facilities, or at least offer baggage check. With a 5.5 hour layover, baggage check could be quite nice even if you do decide to spend the time at a bar.
Best Present Ever
When I travel, I haven't ever figured out how to run in an airport, though I've wanted to. I do walk A LOT. Like Robert, I have walked miles and miles in airports between layovers. Drinking is unappealing to me (I know I am an outlier here), eating is usually pretty unappealing too. All that bad chain food. I haven't figured out how to nap meaningfully either, so keeping moving is usually my preferred option. Or I work. If I can stake out a decent outlet, I can be very substantively productive in an airport. In the plane, not so much. Grading papers and marking up manuscripts is all I can manage on the plane.
Imminent Catastrophe
A brisk walk to the far reaches of the airport after breakfast and a nap may be the way to go,
Unfortunately that's not possible in Denver, you have to take the train between terminals so that limits you to walking in just one.
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
Quick... who can hum the little song soundbites that are played in A, B, and C when the train arrives and departs.
They changed them up a few years ago and I was thrown way off.
not bad for mile 25
There are a lot of moving sidewalks, but I fear the authorities would look askance at running on them against their direction of motion.
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I sympathize with the OP, trying to turn an annoyance (hours of waiting) into an opportunity. Running outside certainly sounds more fun than walking inside (much less just sitting).
However, modern security theater stuff may cut down on how much of the time is comfortably usable -- which point srlopez has already made.
I've never done it (run in, at, or around an airport), myself.
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
Thanks for all the replies. I still haven't decided for sure one way or the other.
Part of the reason I might do it would just be for the novelty of it, kind of like my post a few months back on running in the mud. I know I could skip the run and probably should, but getting it in seems intriguing to me.
I don't think getting in and out of security would be a time issue. I don't think I would try to get in a very long run, probably just 3 or 4 miles and I think I could get the jog in and come back through security and still have enough time left to take a nap.
The economy parking lot looks the most appealing if I do it.
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
The following has happened to me once at an airport and once at a Disneyworld hotel. It has NOT happened to me other times... so just consider it food for thought, not an "it'll happen".
Be prepared as you are moving up and down lines of cars in a parking lot that you might get a visit from security.
Be prepared if you manage to find yourself running/walking along a fenceline that you might get a visit from TSA.
"Might". In general, this hasn't happened to me. Twice it did. Nothing severe, no strip searches. At The Mouse, the guy kind of laughed at me.
If I were going to do this, I would hop on a hotel shuttle for one of the hotels near the airport (as was pointed out "near" being a relative term wrt Denver Airport). I would tip the driver, tell him/her what you are doing, go for a run on the roads near the hotels (safer than Pena by far), get back on the shuttle (another tip) and back to the terminal.
I'm flying into Denver tomorrow morning (arrive around 10 I think), but I'm renting a car and will run before I leave Nashville!
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
Some hotels might even have a sort of "public" shower connected to a pool area. I don't know how common this is, but I've seen it occasionally.
Like SRL, I'd be a bit paranoid of literally running into extra TSA scrutiny, nowadays. Airports always give me a feeling of extra "big brother" surveillance, even before 9/11, but especially now.
I have to admit, as a runner I would find it pretty awesome if I ran into some guy cruisin a tempo run around the airport.
They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."
No worries about running into me on a tempo run right now. I'm still doing my low HR stuff.
It's been awesome this week in North Dakota running in MUCH cooler temperatures than I'm used too. It was 58 degrees when I finished my run this morning!
That's what got me thinking about this as well, I've actually been having troubles with my HRM the first few miles in the mornings here because I'm not sweating enough to make it work right. Denver is forecasting a low of 58 tonight with fairly low humidity. I bet I could run a couple miles at an easy pace and not even break a sweat.
. Still not sure if I will do it or not. It's not that I desparately need to get the run in as much as I've got a 5 1/2 hour layover and not sure what the heck I'm going to do to kill time. I thought getting in a run might be better than sitting around the airport bored stiff or having to hang out at one of the charging spots because my phone won't make it that long surfing the internet.
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Still not sure if I will do it or not. It's not that I desparately need to get the run in as much as I've got a 5 1/2 hour layover and not sure what the heck I'm going to do to kill time. I thought getting in a run might be better than sitting around the airport bored stiff or having to hang out at one of the charging spots because my phone won't make it that long surfing the internet.
There are these old fashioned things called books that you may still be able to find somewhere, small, fairly inexpensive and don't even require batteries.