Time Off: Precious Moments

More Than Once Around the Globe

There's an unfulfilled niche in the guidebook market that could use Harold Scharlatt's help. Scharlatt, who is often traveling on business, can best be described as a jogging excursionist. His jogs around the cities he visits serve as sightseeing trips.

"This is my version of getting on a tour bus," says Scharlatt, 54, the president of Training and Development Associates, a boutique consultancy in Lexington, KY. "I try to never stop to ask for directions, because it ruins the fun of it."

Scharlatt, who admits he's not in the best shape, runs every day to control an asthmatic condition. He has calculated that he has run more than once around the globe — albeit in four-mile bursts at a casual pace. He will often go back for a more extended visit to sights he has passed while exercising.

"It's probably not your best run, because you're starting and stopping, but there is something challenging about running through congestion in downtown cities," he says.

These challenges pose themselves as crowds, carts, zippy motor scooters, buses — and in some cases — cows. Throw a horrible sense of direction into the mix and things can get hairy, as when he wandered into a mostly abandoned neighborhood in Detroit.

People who want a pleasant run should stick to a nature path in Colorado or a beach in Florida. Others who want to follow in Scharlatt's footsteps should first repress any feelings of embarrassment about exercising in workout clothes among the well-dressed in the business districts, and just go.

Sidebar: Here are some impressions of cities he has visited:

• Bangkok, Thailand. The problem in Bangkok is that they have these open-air taxis called tuk-tuks, which are like golf carts. The tuk-tuk drivers didn't seem to feel that my jogging was something they should tolerate, and the fact that you were running across the street was not something they were very concerned about.

• Delhi, India. Delhi is just like it is in the movies. It's very crowded, and you wind up dodging buses and running around people and cows.

• Istanbul, Turkey. I was right on the Bosporus Straits, which is cool because Asia is on one side and Europe on the other. You can run from one continent to another and back again just by going across a bridge.

• Katmandu, Nepal. This was the one place where I didn't go jogging on purpose. It's ancient and deteriorated, and you really feel like you're in another world centuries ago. I had a problem with my visa in India and ended up going to Katmandu to clear it up. The area between the airport and downtown just had huts, and I thought this wasn't a safe place to be wandering around.

• Geneva, Switzerland. This is my favorite place to run. It's a wealthy area, and surrounding Lake Geneva are these beautiful chateaux. When you are running beside the lake, you feel like you're in an interesting fairy tale.

• Rome. This is the worst place in terms of nearly getting hit by a car. If there's a traffic jam in Italy, the drivers go up on the sidewalk.

• Taipei, Taiwan. This is the worst place to jog, because many people ride little motor scooters. They're harder to avoid than cars, because they zoom in and out of traffic jams.

• Washington, DC. Everybody likes to jog in Washington, DC, because you get to run past the monuments, the government buildings, and the Potomac River. There are a billion joggers here. The only problem is that they are all in great shape. There are a lot of military people, ex-military people, and just great joggers. It's so popular there that I find myself looking like a pretty bad jogger.