The Wanderlust Chronicles: Saturday Morning Run in NE Syria

Since planning this trip, I must have asked a half a dozen or more official people whether it was okay to go running in Syria and Iraq. Everyone keeps telling me yes, although I just didn’t believe it for a long time. There are no land mines, UXOs (unexploded ordinances), or anything sketchy in this area even, and no cases of or history of any issues of crime, abduction, anything. Even the street dogs are pretty tame- another common hazard of running in developing-ish countries. (let’s talk about this idea of “second tier” or developing-ish countries later…) I’ve had the same perceptions that many of you have had of this region, that it’s just one big conflict zone. I think that’s why I’m writing about it. I even asked the Syrian guard for the house as I was headed out in my running gear the first morning I set out- “It’s okay? Go for a run?” as I pointed to the road that leads out of town. “Good! Good! Sport! Okay!” he replied.

The first morning I was here, I did a short 3.5 mile run just down the road that leads out of town, right near the guest house. A quick, but muddy, out and back. Today however, I was due for a 9 mile run, according to the half marathon training program that I’m following back home. I couldn’t use that same route as yesterday, because even 2 miles gets you to the next town and just beyond that is the Turkish border, which we are not allowed to cross nor really go near. We don’t have authorization to do programming in Turkey and there’s a lot of sensitivity around it as the Turks are not big fans of the Kurds in general. So, I needed to run through the city to get to another road to lead me on a longer route North and a bit East of the city, to get the mileage in. The folks here told me about a great app called maps.me which allows you to download offline maps and drop a pin and still use it easily without heavy signal, and they were right- it showed extreme detail of all the small town roads and paths and worked well offline.

For the first mile or so, I had to keep stopping to check where I was going through the neighborhoods, to connect to the main road that would take me out of town.The town is like any small town really- houses and neighborhood streets which lead to a more commercial area with some shops and restaurants, and sort of a town square- well, roundabout in this case. Once I got to the main road I was searching for, it was just me and Sam Sanders (I’m a big fan of “It’s been a Minute with Sam Sanders” podcast) and a long country road ahead of me. I was lucky to have a break in the rain, just overcast skies and pretty moderate temperatures- it was in the low 50’sF, which was a big change from the complete downpour of the day before, that started pretty much after my run yesterday and went on all day and all night. I even rolled over at 3am to pounding rain, and assumed there would be no running for me today. But alas, it was clear when I woke in the morning, and wouldn’t you know it, 15 minutes after I got back the sky opened up to hard, cold, pouring rain again. I was lucky!

And then, I just ran out until I hit 4, turned around, and retraced my steps. I decided on only doing 8 miles, since I hadn’t run too much this week and I was not patient enough to keep getting my phone out to watch MapMyRun click over to the half mile marker- it tells me in my headphones at the full mile marker. The countryside was green rolling hills and a river I crossed via the road. I passed a number of herds of sheep and sheep herders, plus a couple mules here and there, and some street dogs, including a litter of puppies, and a few kids just hanging out. Stray dog puppies on the side of the road are so cute and kind of sad (they are always around trash heaps) but Bentley already got the lucky ticket in that regard so I think I’m good for now on the dog front, not to mention the neverending foster called Lola. :) These dogs here are overall much healthier than stray dogs in Africa, for example, so although it's sad, I think they'll be okay.

I passed what looked like a decommissioned or winding down UNHCR refugee camp, and a small town, but that’s about it. People smiled at me on the road, but it wasn’t too crowded or too eventful. I think the most remarkable thing about the run was the fact that I kept saying to myself, “Holy shit, I’m doing a long run in the middle of Syria.”