I have moved to France two and a half weeks ago, after living for close to 5 years in Atlanta. In other words,  I ran in Atlanta for close to 5 years.

I ran along the stretch of Peachtree Road at Buckhead that has been widened for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. I saw the construction area at my “no man’s land” in Brookhaven morph into a new residential district. I witnessed a Starbucks store go into business near Lenox Mall, only to close its doors shortly after. I watched the blue-green-and-white signs at what used to be Wachovia Bank outlets being replaced by the red-and-gold Wells Fargo logo. I got all excited over a “Clearance sale” poster at a Borders store on one of its last days of business only to find that all the good stuff were gone by the time I returned after washing up from my run.

I have stopped counting the number of races that I have participated in. It is true that after running in the same place for some time, a race feels like “just another race” and the routine business takes away the excitement in running.

To my relief, this is changing.

As I settle into a new city, trying to re-establish my running routine signifies the attempt to seek some regularity in my everyday life. While doing that, there are new things that I need to learn and experiment. I have to relearn to count in kilometres instead of miles. I have to find new running routes and calibrate them. I have to think of a hydration solution for my long runs. I have to test new fuel. I want to tune in to the local running calendar and I want to check out the running stores where I can get all my supplies.

I am doing this all over again. A new city is bringing a fresh breath of life to my runs.