Run number 9 turned into a true outlier: a half marathon split between a cruise‑ship treadmill and a tiny floating track somewhere between Mexican beaches and Los Angeles.​

Running on vacation at sea

This stretch of the 52@52 project happened during a 7‑day family cruise from LA to a few Mexican beach towns, which meant logistics were very different from a normal weekend at home. Run #8 was squeezed in the day before sailing, but run #9 had to happen while the ship was already headed back toward LA, turning the last days of vacation into an improvised training block at sea.​

Changing the plan mid‑cruise

The original plan was straightforward: run on Saturday, the last full day on the ship. But after the right knee felt good and a deep, recovery‑friendly night of sleep from Thursday to Friday, it made much more sense to move the half marathon up to Friday morning and capitalize on that window.​

Discovering the “track” reality

Before boarding, the ship’s app promised a running route on the pool deck, which sounded perfect, even though the exact lap distance was unknown. One of the first on‑board missions was to check it out, only to discover a short 200‑meter loop wrapped around the pool, cutting in front of doors and high‑traffic areas where people constantly crossed with towels, drinks, and deck chairs. A half marathon there would mean endless weaving and frustration, so the plan pivoted: most of the distance on a treadmill, and just one symbolic lap outside to register at least a small GPS‑tracked “run on the boat.”​

Thirteen miles on glass‑front treadmills

Running 13 miles on a treadmill can be mentally brutal, but the setup helped: the machine sat right by a huge glass wall, facing west into nothing but open ocean. The main surprise was a built‑in 30‑minute limit; mid‑run the treadmill abruptly slipped into cool‑down. No big deal, I just had to enter the remaining distance as the next distance goal (a photo at the end of each block helped avoid any mix up) and restart the run. In the end, the half marathon took a bit more than four 30‑minute segments, with a fifth partial block of 1.22 miles, and the short breaks doubled as perfect moments to grab water and reset mentally.

My Google Pixel Watch 4 did a great job tracking the treadmill portion, showing 13.9 miles instead of just the original 13‑and‑a‑bit plan thanks to those short cool‑downs between cycles, but unfortunately the activity no longer appears in my Fitbit history—most likely because I jumped straight into the outdoor GPS run afterward before properly saving it.

Minimal fueling, maximum views

All the usual gels were actually on board, but buried in luggage in a dark cabin where your wife was still sleeping, and rummaging for them at dawn did not feel worth it. The experiment of running the half marathon without gels worked fine this time, helped by the steady pace and the lack of heat or hills, proving that not every medium‑long run needs the full race‑day fueling playbook.​

GPS, straight lines, and a floating track

The 360‑degree camera stayed behind during the actual run, but the tiny pool‑deck loop was too interesting not to document later, so it became a family walk‑through video instead.

The GPS track from the Google Pixel Watch 4 tells an even funnier story: instead of an oval around the ship, the outdoor portion shows up as a single red line from point A to point B in the middle of the ocean, because the ship was moving far faster than running pace. In other words, the “course” was a short floating track, and the watch mostly captured the ship’s path across the sea with a subtle wiggle where the laps happened.

After finishing the run and heading back to my deck, I took one quick selfie on the way to the stateroom and another later on the balcony with my breakfast, enjoying a pretty spectacular view.

Shoes, audiobooks, and minimalist curiosity

The initial idea was to repeat this half marathon in the Altra Rivera 3, but the Topo Athletic Phantom 4 ended up being the shoe of the day, adding more data to the ongoing comparison between different zero‑drop and low‑drop options. During the miles, the Born to Run audiobook kept feeding the curiosity about more flexible, less cushioned footwear and five‑fingers‑style shoes such as Vibram FiveFingers and Peluvas, which are designed to let toes splay and feet move more naturally. The current plan is not to jump into long runs with them, but to start with walking and short outings to gradually strengthen foot muscles and refine running form.​

A good day for the right knee

The best news of run #9 was the right knee: it behaved far better than the previous weekend, with some discomfort but no real pain. Several choices probably helped: focusing on landing with the feet under the body, doing hip‑mobility work in the days before the run, spending most of the week either in sandals or flexible zero‑drop shoes, enjoying the smoother, curve‑free surface of the treadmill, and, thanks to vacation, avoiding the long, cramped sitting sessions that I face at work and definitely irritate the knee joints. The day after, the knee only complained after a long seated period, and two days later it felt almost 100%, with just mild pain during the six‑hour drive home, a very encouraging sign for the next chapters in this 52@52 adventure.​

See you next time!