Danube Canal, Vienna

I did it! I wasn’t too lazy and got up in time for an early morning run in cold Vienna. I made a loop in Augarten as planned, then ran alongside the Danube Canal. Total was 7.48 km (about 4.6 mi) in 46:17. That’s 6:15 / km or 10:04 / miles, which is pretty awesome, considering the temperature, the lack of my running gloves and the totally new terrain. True, I had had to stop a few times to get oriented, but it was expected.

Augarten, which is one of the oldest Baroque parks in Vienna must be interesting, but running through it, I found it fairly ordinary – and small. After that, running by the Kanal was nice, although the water was very murky. Not much traffic in the early Saturday hours, so I ‘jayran’ some of the red lights, which there are plenty in the inner city of Vienna.

All in all, a very nice experience, and a good feeling that I did something for my health on a business trip that is usually a time for skipping one’s regular routine. In the first half of the run I actually felt full of energy with sub-6 min kilometers.

Here’s a map of the run exported from SportTracks:

Running - Wien 2010-03-06