Many people on this board enjoy complaining non-stop about how running is nearly impossible in Florida, Minnesota, Alabama, or even Colorado. Florida is humid but at least it has good air and you can breathe well. Colorado can be windy and dusty, but there are always some good times when running is very pleasant.
But have you ever tried running and biking in India before? You will feel like you are stepping into a war zone as you are running with a mask on your face (the whole place is a smoggy gas chamber), carrying rocks and sticks to ward off dangerous dogs (more related to wild dingoes and jackals than to Western pet dogs), dodging around speeding motorcycles zipping around unpredictably like mosquitoes or flying bullets (people never signal or stick to lanes), and suffering in the sweltering humidity (never-ending wet heat, with no respite even at night or during "cool" seasons).
I've run in India before. It's a total nightmare. Southeast Asia has the same problems but isn't nearly as bad (smog not as dense, dogs not as dangerous, traffic a bit less nasty). Nowhere is nearly as bad as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for running.
I had to deal with this hell every single day. I'd take any state in the US over this cr*p. Please count your blessings and be thankful being able to run in a developed country where running can at least be a semi-pleasant experience.
1. Air pollution. South Asia has by far the WORST smog and haze in the world, even worse than China. The whole subcontinent is a nasty gas chamber. For months on end, you can't even step outside without half choking to death. You are stuck either having to run in a pollution mask (slows you down since you just breathe in your own CO2) or indoors on a treadmill, and India doesn't have many good indoor gyms either. The air pollution is easily preventable, because your neighbors do dumb unnecessary things like burning piles of plastic waste and rice straw every single frickin' day. There is no way to sue them or stop them from doing what they want to do, because law enforcement is ineffective, and locals will basically beat you up if you try to report them for pollution, even though you're going nuts from having to smell burning plastic all day. Plus there are diesel emissions and factory emissions, but they come nowhere close to the foul, nasty plastic trash burning that your idiot next-door neighbors are doing.
Basically you have to deal with two types of air pollution: general, widespread haze that affects every part of the city equally, and localized trash burning that really p**ses you off because your inconsiderate idiot neighbors are doing it to save a few measly cents or dollars on basic trash disposal, and you can't do anything about it because of the way society works. General widespread haze feels different, because the thick clouds of fine dust dry out your throat and burn your lungs, giving you this really nasty feeling that is very hard to describe to Americans who have never experienced true heavy smog before. These are not AQI's of 50 or 100 (which Americans panic about), but AQI's 200 or 250 that linger on and on for weeks.
2. Dangerous street dogs. You know why Indians are paranoid of dogs? Because their streets dogs are so frickin' dangerous. They are these big yellow, coyote-like canids that are clearly not Western dog breeds, but have always been semi-feral scavengers since the beginning of time. Many people won't dare to even walk on the streets without being armed with long bamboo sticks and rocks, because the dogs are really that aggressive and dangerous. Quite a few are rabid and attack people on sight. Believe it or not, many Western expats living in Asia end up hating dogs even more than the locals, despite the average Westerner being far more fond of dogs than the average Asian. When you run in India, on many routes, you are basically playing cat-and-mouse with these nasty dogs trying to avoid being mauled to death. I nearly felt like a US soldier chasing and hiding from Taliban gunmen in never-ending shootouts.
What's worse is that it's against the law to harm any dogs due to animal cruelty laws, so you have to pelt the dogs with rocks when no one is watching. Leashes are unknown, so dog owners let their dogs roam around everywhere and attack anything they want. When you defend yourself with rocks and sticks to prevent yourself from getting killed, some owners even get mad and tell you to f*** off and not come near their house. At least in China it's acceptable to defend yourself against dangerous dogs through necessary physical means.
3. Horrendous traffic. Yeah, bikes, rickshaws, motorcycles move around everywhere like they're mosquitoes or cats. Even in smaller roads that are perfectly straight with just a few vehicles, you can't tell if that wheeled thing in front of you is suddenly going to turn right, left, make a U-turn, or go backwards. They don't care if they run you over, so it's your responsibility to negotiate with the unpredictable cat-like traffic.
4. Heat and humidity. Ugh, nasty. You feel like your head is going to explode as you run in this cr*p with dew points consistently at around 75 degrees for months without end. Often you can't even run in the daytime and can only run in the dark, after sunset or before sunrise, because the strong sunlight is just so ridiculously oppressive. I was often forced to be a complete nocturnal and STILL suffer from near heat exhaustion. Even during the so-called cooler months, the temperature almost never drops below 70 degrees. Max temps are often over 100 degrees, but you can always avoid them during the hottest hours. It's the minimum temperatures that are so frustrating, because there is simply no respite. Anything slightly below 70 degrees, and I'm out the door like I can finally run in a winter wonderland without having to sweat like a pig. As for air conditioning, few people use it, and even when they do have it, it hardly works well and is nowhere near as cool as American A/C.
But hey, at least South Asia is THE cheapest place in the world, and the food is the best, hands down.
So if you're stuck in one of those nasty Asian countries due to family or work responsibilities, then I can really understand the daily struggles with the environment that you have to go through with.
Count your blessings, American runners. Come to India so that you will know how wonderful it is to run in a developed country.
