Running in Oceania: Tahiti's Belt Road (Route de Ceinture)

Thrilled to be able to continue my "Running in Oceania" series with a new trip to the French Polynesia last week, 3 years after our first visit to celebrate our 30th anniversary then. With the pandemic my collection of "Running in..." has been seriously challenged.

Last time we visited and I ran in Tahiti, Huahine and Moorea (the whole tour of 60K) in the Society Islands archipelago. This time we went North to the flat Tuamuto Islands, aka atolls, with a Tahiti, Tihehau, Rangiroa, Fakarava, Tahiti loop. 1 night in Tahiti, then 3, 2 and 2 respectively, always on the move so we could see more!

United Airlines has 2 super convenient direct flights to Papeete, one from LAX and the other from SFO. Less than 24 hours after leaving home in the Bay Area, I left for an early run at 4 am in an attempt to avoid the blazing heat and humidity. While that proved to be a good strategy until sunrise around 6 am, the rest of the run has been quite brutal in the sun. We were staying 10 kilometers South of the airport this time, as opposed to downtown last time, so I went South this time. On the Route de Ceinture (literally Belt Road) to be safe. Although it was Sunday, there was still quite some traffic, which of course increased through the morning. But the road is in great condition and, with one bike lane on each side, is rather wide. Still, you have to  run against the traffic and pay attention all the time, especially with the booming adoption of electric bikes, a very recent phenomenon.

If a picture is worth one thousand words, how many is a Relive video worth then? (Click on the image or this link to play the video in a new window.)

Well, one thing which is surely missing from such a data-generated or synthetic video is an idea of the number of ounces of sweat I lost. I stopped at 3 shops along the route to buy water and indulge a couple of ice cream bars. At the last one, as I was handing out a soaked bill, the cashier asked if I was back from a plunge in the ocean, oops! With that, I didn't quite complete the 50 kilometers I was aiming for, cutting the run short at 48K. We had a plane to catch early afternoon, otherwise this map shows how tempting it was to keep going!

Anyway, no words can replace the experience of running in this amazing place, along the ocean and experiencing the sun rise in the South hemisphere! Here are few pics along the way and see you in a few miles, on another island!

Running South toward a bright star

Turning around at Taharuu beach

A Protestant church in Paparā

1 week to French Presidential election day, with only 6 out of 12 candidates campaigning that far from the metropole:

The famous and national flower, the Tahitian gardenia or tiare mā'ohi: