Running in Kannur, Kerala

I had never run in my hometown - in fact very few people take to serious running in our town. They want more action - football was the main sport in this town for long time. Though public interest in football reduced a lot since the last couple of decades when they started watching international and european football, people still like the game here. So people consider running as a boring sport even though PT Usha, the greatest Indian female athlete hit it big while she was in Kannur Sports School. The other reason why running is not such a big sport is also due to the fact that people still walk a lot in the hilly terrain around here. But lifestyles are changing here as well and I would predict that I will see many more runners in the coming years here.

I did some hillwork here with some excellent gradients available around my place. We are in a valley at almost sea level(arabian sea is just 3KM) surrounded by hilly areas. So any small road you take, you can be sure of an uphill gradient. Even walking would be difficult on some of these uphills and surely it can keep folks here really healthy. I couldn't locate my socks the first day so I couldn't run, but went around walking and figured out couple of gradients where I could run the next day. I saw one serious runner and was inspired to run the next day. It was a 30-min run with couple of very good gradients which exercised both the legs and the heart well.

Though I lived all my life till college here, I haven't really explored the country roads here. It was no big deal then with life on the main highway being cool and the country roads were real trails as well. I was also hooked on to football during my younger days. Also I wasn't good at short or long distance running as well. But I have to say this is a wonderful place to run and I want to make sure I hit the roads everytime I am here. BTW, this is green country which they call "God's Own Country" or "As close as it gets to heaven" (but not really in many other aspects than natural beauty however). Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures of my running trails, but you can take a view from the top from RunningAhead.com maps.

I also did my long run on a beach, will share that with some pictures!