Running In The Capital City Of Chisinau Can Be...

Chisinau, Moldova

Running in the capital city of Chisinau can be very pleasant. Running is not all that popular yet, but it is improving, in fact, in late October 2000, the city held "The city of Chisinau Marathon". From the center of Chisinau and if you are staying at the Codru or the Jolly Alou hotels or any other accomodations near Stefan the Great Park, a good course is to head down August 8th Boulevard and left on Lazo past a soccer-football stadium to another city park that includes a small lake. At the end of Lazo Street, a set of 109 steps will get you down the valley to a nice wide vehicle-free paved path that circles the lake. The course is triangular in shape and is marked off in three increments of about 1000 meters each. It is quite shaded for warm days, and is very safe from vandals and stray dogs, but bring your own bottled water. On a weekend morning you can find a dozen or so runners of various abilities doing their laps around the lake. Two options are available to get back to street level... one is to take the 109 steps and another is to take a similar set of stairs at another corner of the triangle where a total of 179 steps have to be negotiated. A good and challenging finish to your workout is to run up either the 109 or the 179 steps. Enjoy your runs and the steps in Chisinau.