Before the City Wakes Up

Amsterdam city centre isn't usually the easiest place to run. Kalverstraat is full of shoppers, the streets around Central Station rarely stand still and weaving through groups of tourists isn't exactly ideal when you're trying to keep a running pace. Unless you go early enough.

For our latest Live Saucy Run, we started at Salsa Shop Reguliersbreestraat at 9AM and took the group straight through some of the busiest parts of the city, while they were still surprisingly empty. From Kalverstraat to Zeedijk, we got to run through a version of Amsterdam you don't see very often.

9AM Looks Good on Amsterdam

Starting this early was very much intentional. Our Live Saucy Runs normally take place later in the day, but with a route right through the centre, we wanted to use the city while most people were still having their first coffee.

It worked. Instead of dodging Saturday shoppers and packed pavements, the group could take over streets that would be almost unrecognisable a few hours later. Add music, a big group of runners and the occasional confused person wondering what was happening, and the city centre suddenly felt like a pretty good running route.

There was something especially fun about running through places like this before the usual crowds arrived. They're streets most of us have walked through countless times, but running through them together when they're almost empty makes them feel completely different.

Worth Setting the Alarm For

The route might have been different, but the best part of these runs stayed exactly the same. Familiar faces from previous editions showed up again, new runners joined in and everyone ended up back at Salsa Shop afterwards.

That's become one of our favourite things about moving the Live Saucy Runs around the city. Every Salsa Shop gives us a different starting point and therefore a completely different piece of the city to explore. We've run through parks, neighbourhoods and around NDSM, and this time we got the city centre before everyone else did.

Getting up early on the weekend isn't always an easy sell. Running through an empty Kalverstraat with a whole group of people made a convincing argument for it.