A Malaysian runner asked me to check if there are any running events or races held in Vietnam. I've checked in the two largest cities in Vietnam; Hanoi (capital- 3 million population) and HCM City (7 million pop.). What I did was call the Hanoi and HCM City Hash House Harrier (HHH) club member and asked him if he knew of any running races or triathlon events in Vietnam. The answer given was they have not heard or knew about any running or triathlons events held in Vietnam. If I may quote the reply from the Hanoi HHH runner "They are not really into this thing(running)".
Most towns and cities in Vietnam are not suitable for running. The roads and streets start filling up with motorcyles and other vehicles as early as 6.00 am. In most towns, there are no public parks to run in. The only city which I've seen that has large parks to run in are Hanoi, Hue and HCM City. Danang (Central Vietnam) has traffic free stretches suitable to run along the beach.
For HCM City, I consciously selected my hotel as it was located only 100 m from a public park. I ran there in this morning. I had to start very early at 5.45 am and the park already was full of people walking , doing Tai Chi and playing badminton. There were only about half a dozen "runners" (joggers, really). The surface was not very good for running as it consisted of concrete slabs with embedded small peebles. A really hard surface to run on. Even worse, the concrete slabs had gaps in between which made the surface uneven. The park was quite small; I ran around the rectangular perimeter in just 3 minutes (600 m, I think). I ran for about 8 laps until I had to give up because of the impact on my legs.
I found another park about 500 m away but it was a gated park which only opens at 7.30 am (??). The reunification palace is in this park but it is a good place to run if the opening and closing times are more suitable; I plan to recheck again this evening.
1 comment:
Thanks bro.
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