The smell of running

If you drive to a race with your family, you most certainly will smell the smell of running in the car on the way home. That’s one of the reasons that some of us at Applied Race Management only drive our own cars to and from races, or if we need to head to the rail trail instead of a route right out the front door. In in one vehicle, we have installed one of these. After all, our spouses prefer to be able to breathe in our car — and keep the new-car smell in their own car as long as possible.

The topic of smells is an interesting one, and not just because of body odor, for runners. Because we are outside in the fresh air, it’s something that comes to mind as we pass by particular area with a specific smell (e.g. that dead skunk in the road, right?).

Here in Elizabethtown, PA, the headquarters for Applied Race Management Solutions, we are fortunate to have the factory that makes all of the Dove chocolate. So occasionally, stepping outside for a 5-miler smells as sweet as it does sweaty. We are surrounded by lots of farms, so nearly as often as we smell chocolate there’s an overpowering aroma of manure.

Other smells that we’ve encountered are stale cigarettes, especially passing one apartment building in town. At this time of the year, freshly mowed grass is a welcome smell since it’s a reminder of spring. During the Frozen Foot Race, we’ve smelled wood stoves and fireplaces working overtime during cold race days. At some of the races we’ve timed, and some where we’ve raced or been spectators, it always surprises us to smell fresh cigarettes from other people in the crowd. What are they thinking at an event that promotes healthy lifestyles?

When we put the question of smells to a couple of Facebook groups, several people mentioned more than cigarette smoke. They’ve encountered the smell of cannabis, as if running alone doesn’t jump start your appetite!

Restaurants were a popular source of smells for runners. One mentioned specifically Chick-fil-A waffle fries. Someone else said a grocery store bakery and fresh donuts. Another said she runs laps of a playing field with a cinema and a number of restaurants the other side of the hedge. It “makes for a very hungry run.”

Speaking of food, Chuck Wells, owner of ARMS, was running with his daughter, training for the Hershey 10K a month or two ago. They couldn’t get out until the evening — just as someone was grilling hamburgers or steak. Which leads us to the question of what’s more challenging, hill repeats or running past someone’s dinner on the grill?

Of course, if you’re an early morning runner you might smell someone’s breakfast cooking. Bacon has a way of making everything better, doesn’t it? Even your weekend long run? As caffeinated as we are, we love the smell of coffee that accompanies bacon in the morning.

The further we get into spring, we know we’ll be smelling flowers more often. Several people specifically mentioned, jasmine, lilacs and roses. One person said her route has houses are lined with rose bushes. “Every other house is full of rose gardens and it smells like roses the whole way, I just love it.”

Other smells in nature include the salty aroma of the ocean and dried leaves during the fall.

A few people mentioned that their favorite smell is fresh laundry and a clothes dryer with fresh Downy. That makes us wonder if it’s a fellow runner washing her sweaty workout clothes and trying to eliminate the smell of running from them.