My Top 5 Runs of Summer 2022

Running is super important to me. I love to run for exercise because it tires out my muscles and allows me to relax.

This past summer I traveled to many different unique places. Through out my travels I kept up with my running regimen and used it as a way to further explore these new places I was in. Through out these travel, I kept track of my most memorable runs and noted what made them particularly unique. The list is in chronological order, and starts on a Homestead in myton utah, a town of population 117, east of SLC, in the “badlands of utah” here in the north east corner of Utah nothing grows naturally. There are no massive mountains with alpine trees like you would get to witness in park city. While Myton, Utah does sit at 5,000 feet of altitude, it is completely flat. So, on July 3rd, my sister and I embarked on a seven-and-a-half-mile run around the family farm that my great grandma once grew ,up on. Myton, which is usually an incredibly hot, dry and dusty place, was experiencing a rather wet summer. In fact, it rained on us here and there as I settled in. Additionally, at 11 am on the day we ran, the sun was hiding behind a slight cloud layer, which protected us from the heat. We ran along a gravel road, in and out of cornfields, and by abandoned houses. With all things considered, it felt like we were in Kansas. Up at 5000 feet of elevation, the air is 20% thinner than it is at sea level. The lower levels of oxygen make running a much more cardiovascular intensive exercise than a muscular one. All in all, this was a really fun run. Danielle and I both had a very good time.

The first one was Myton when Danielle and I ran 7.5 miles in the farmland. Out there it was at like 5000 feet of elevation so when you running you can really feel it a lot more in your lungs than in your muscles. It was overcast that day so normally it is hot dry and dusty but the sun was coming in and out of the cloud layer so it was really nice and beautiful. We were running in and out of through these cornfield so it felt like we were in Kansas. It was completely flat, we ran by these destroyed houses. We were running back and Danielle got a hoot on the horn by an oil tanker. I was like, “Yeah, only in the Badlands of Utah does this happen.” But it was a great run and it got me warmed up for the fourth of July farm the next day. It also allowed me to run around the entire farm which was cool. I think like four farms were encapsulated in that whole area. Danielle didn’t really want to make it the whole way but I pushed her so yeah that was a pretty cool run.

The second run on my list comes one week later after 16 hours of travel over the arctic circle in Basel, Switzerland.Switzlerand. To preface this, when I was a junior in high school my family hosted a swiss exchange student. His name was Dennis. Dennis and I were very close because for a whole year he lived with me and we went to school together. Two years later, my sister and I travelled to his home country to stay with him and his family. It was time that he returns the favor. :) On the second day in Basel, I wanted to go for a run. Dennis is not particularly fond of running but he could run a half marathon with ease. We took of on what was to be a 3 mile run. We set off from his house in the suburbs of Basel and head up into the mountains behind his house. We trail run until the trees clear and we end up in an open valley. Very pretty. We finish our loop and as we turn on his street I tell him, lets go longer. He says, “okay.” We continue and we go down across the railroad tracks into the forest. As we go he explains to me the significane of all the different streets and places. The way each word is pronounced. We pass the schools he grew up going to and he tells me stories from his past. We hit mile six and Dennis asks me if I want to go home. I say now, lets go a little longer. We continue further away from his hous, we loop around the football stadium and see all this really cool grafiti. We jump across the river, we run along the river. We see all of the downtown and finally, we had back to his house. By the end of the run I was tired, regretting my decision to go so far. Upon reflection however, I believe this run was one of my favorite of the summer. In an hour and twenty minutes of running, I learned a lot about Dennis’s home town.

Second was Basel with Dennis when he took me on the nine mile run. It was just a little viillage.He didnt take me around Basel but he took me around Muttenx which is his little suburb of Basel. So we started out we went up into the mountains, the mountains opened up to a valley with vineyards. We went down across the railroad tracks to the forest. We loop around the football stadium and see all this really cool grafiti. We jump across the river, we run along the river. We see the downtown and we end up back at his house. It was like 9 miles, and hour and twenty minutes and we got to check out the entire village where he lives. Running is justa great way, especially in Europe, to explore different places. By running you get a lay of rhte land much more quickly and get a feel for these new places. So that was Basel, super nice run, one of the lognest Ive been on.

Following our week of travel in Switzerland. Dennis, Danielle and I all went off to spain to explore a country we had never been to before. We went to Mallorca and then to Barcelona. In Mallorca I ran many days. It was incredibly hot there. It was high 80’s and 60% humidity. Mallorca is a cool city. Not in enviornment though. It was actually incredibly hot. Many of the days I ran were high 80’s and with humidity. We had an airbnb in Palma which is a big city situated on the beach. ……. For the first mile, I would shuffle through walking alley ways and shops as I made my way out of the old city and closer to the beach. Once I got to the beach, a cool breeze would hit me from the ocean, and I would take the bike path along the beach for two or three miles. It was entertaining to watch all the people who would walk by and who were at the beach. Palma is also situated on a massive convex bay, so at most points from the beach, you could look one way or another and see the coastline. Additionally, there was a US aircraft carrier anchored in the bay, a couple of miles offshore. It was stationed there to break from its patrol of the Mediterranean for the past couple of months because of the conflict happening in the middle east. While the people watching and unfamiliar city enviornment was what made thease runs unique, what made it trully ectreme was the heat and humidity. I was running in a suana. I would bring along with me 3 euros on my run and after half way i would stop at a store to buy two bottles of water and I would drink them both. My pants would be wet with sweat, It looked like I just came out of the ocean. I was sweating out so much of my water weight and replenishing myself with hydration after the run. Overall, I got a lot of good runs in Mallorca, and also a really nice tan.

Thirds was in Mallorca. It was super rediculously hot there. It was 87 degrees and 53% humididty. I do not know how I survived but I guess my body is adept to running in extreme heat. It was nice becuase we were staying in the heart of the old town and so for the f irst mile I would make it out of the town to the beach and then I would run along the beach for 2 miles and 2 miles back. So it was incredibly hot but there was this nice breeze comming off the beach. It was cool because you got to see all the people along the beach. There were difently some unique europeeans. There was also a US Aircraft carrier docked out in the bay with top Gun fighters on it so that was very cool. At the end of the run I would just be soaked in sweat. I would bring in 3 euros on the run and at half way I would buy two bottles of water and drink them both to stay hydrated. Everyone run just flushed me out of water. At night I would wake up finding myself to drink entire bottles of water at like 3am. If you know anything about the midnight thrist it felt really crazy and disorienting.

Following our large expedition to Europe, I promptly receieved covid on the plane coming back home. For the next couple weeks my energy levels where much lower than

As summer neard an end I had one last trip in store. My friend of 13 years, Nate Kajani, Invited me to go to virginia with him and stay with his aunt and uncle on their ranch and hour and a half away from DC. We spent a few days there with thier two horses and four dogs. We visited the battled field of manasas, shenandoah national park, and shot 22’s. the economist, huffington post and

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Fourth best run of the summer was in Virgiinia when we were in the Northen Neck of Virgina. The Northern Neck is a peice of land between two rivers that feed into the Chesapeak Bay. It was really humid there there was one day that was cloudy. It was just super warm and super wet, I felt like I was running in a rainforest. I ran along a straight graven road and it was nice an d rural but the special thing about htis run was that my skin felt the same temperature as there air and so it was a really interesting feeling. I felt like a fish in water. Everythign was wet.

Lastly was in Santa Monica with Uncle dave the day before I moved into my dorm room. I ran barefoot along the Santa Monica beach in just a swimsuit. I started at the boardwalk and I went south for 2.5 miles barfoot along the water. The sun was setting and there was a cool breeze. It reminded me of how eclectic Santa Monica can be. When I got to Venice beach I ran by a drum circle with upwards of 100 people drumming and chanting and having a good time. You can look at the GPS tracker from that run and you can see it was completely straight along the beach up until Venice where I make a big loop around the drum circle to see hwat is going on. Somone told me it happens every sunday evening. on the way back I ran into a silent disco. There were people dancing with headphones on right along the beach. At the end I jumped into the Ocean. In August this water was the warmest I ever felt the Pacific. It was super refresshign because I had just worked up a sweat from the run and the waves were buetiful and it was low tide I went out like 40 feet it was super shallow. To top it off, once I got out and as I was drying off a Bike parade came by and people had light up their bikes and were playing music. It was a great site and it was like a cargo train it started and for 5 minutes people were still coming along. Like the drum circle there must have been hundreds of people participatin.g

So those where my favorite runs of the summer of 2022. The year before I started my sophomore year of college.

Why am I Inspired?

On the full Moon of May, I mounted my old DSLR camera onto a tripod and pointed it to the stars. It was a simple act of curiosity, which soon led me on a great adventure. As I inhaled the crisp air on that tranquil night, my camera's LCD screen lit up with the most stunning image I had ever seen. A moonlit Napa Valley landscape, rich with tones of amber and green, enchanted by a sea of stars above. This image introduced me to the art of Astrophotography. 

Astrophotography is the photography of astronomical objects and celestial events in the night sky. Through the use of a long-duration shutter speed, the camera sensor can accumulate more light photons than it would in a typical split-second snapshot. I use this technique to capture vibrant images of night time landscapes that otherwise would be too dark and faint for the human eye to see. 

I continued out into the night like an owl. Not in hunt of prey, but in hunt of photographs: my own “astronomical data.” I felt like a scientist, and my camera was my observatory, allowing me to explore beyond the horizons of our galaxy. Since this epiphany, I have devoted my late nights to the allure of the stars. 

Through experimentation and failure, I improved upon my skills to produce beautiful works of art. I practiced with different exposure settings, invested in better optical lenses, and learned how to use post-editing software such as Lightroom, StarstaX and Photoshop. With my improving skills, I photographed new areas of the night sky.  Facing south I could see the Milky Way rise over the horizon. Facing north I could capture the rotation of Earth with stunning star trail images. Climbing on top of my slippery roof, I saw my first-ever comet: C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE).

I started venturing deeper into the darkness. Taking these photos helped illuminate what I couldn't see. The lunar phases affected my photos, and I soon realized they were related to the Moon’s orbit around Earth, and the angle of light reflected from the Sun. I felt like Aristarchus of Samos when he gazed at a Lunar Eclipse and deduced that, contrary to popular belief, the Earth was not the center of the universe. As the summer warmth turned to an autumn breeze, the Milky Way lowered below the horizon. From this I figured the Earth had been closest to the galactic core around midsummer and was gradually moving farther away. When I discovered this to be true, it reminded me of Pythagoras, who accurately estimated the circumference of Earth using two sticks and a shadow on the summer solstice. I derived meaning from my photos, and a better understanding of the nature of our solar system.

Throughout this exploration, I have not only discovered my love for the night sky, but also the excitement and exhilaration that come with intellectual adventure. I marvel at the photos taken by the Hubble Space telescope or the Mars Rover, but I prefer to venture out into the night myself. The Moon serves both as my source of light and a source of inspiration. Beneath its pearlescent sheen, my imagination runs rampant. Maybe if I look close enough, the Dreamworks boy is perched up on that crescent moon, fishing for cosmic fish. Will I ever get to see a cosmic fish? Maybe NASA will discover a whale in the ocean of Europa. Or the Voyager spacecraft will successfully attract the attention of extraterrestrial life. Perhaps advances in the field of medicine will allow me to live to the year 3000. Will we have colonized Mars by then? 

The answers to these questions are unknown, and I want to explore and discover. But for now I will lay under the stars, because it’s wonderful out here.