Remembering my first trail run

It was about 2 years ago, around this same time of year, that I was first introduced to trail running. I remember clearly the feeling of euphoria I felt immediately after the run was over. Throughout the run in Greenwood Park, I remember running cautiously as I really had no clue what to expect.

The person I was running with was a very experienced trail runner and she obviously had no problems. Not wanting to look too out of place, I tried my best to keep up with her but I'm sure I stumbled and was awkward throughout the run.

The air quality was so much better in the trails and I remember feeling at home running in them. It brought me back to a time when I was a child and would go running in the forest with my friends in Montreal.

As I became more familiar with running trails, I realized that I needed to have the proper shoes. They felt so awkward at first but really made a difference especially when trying to climb up some of the steep hills.

The trail races that I have entered have all had the same peaceful feeling to them. There is so much support for all the runners and the volunteers are amazing. I remember one trail race (Haliburton Forest) where there was a large bonfire at the end of the race. All the competitors gathered around the fire and waited for all the runners to finish. I'll usually see the same 10-20 runners at these races and I'm lucky that they have welcomed me into their fraternity.
While some road races have this feeling, the majority tend to be so large that you lose some of that "family" atmosphere.

I can't believe that it's been 9 months since my last trail race (Vulture Bait, October 2006) and I'm looking forward to doing at least one per month for the next few months.

As I ran my 8K this morning, I kept thinking about how nice it was just to run without having to worry about how fast or how far I was going. In fact, I'll probably switch my training to run more for overall time (1 to 2 hours) instead of running for speed. Running trails requires more endurance than speed, as the nature of the course dictates that you will be running longer than you would in a road race. I'm deciding between doing the 25K or 50K trail race in Creemore next weekend. My preference would be to try the 50 but I'll have to see how my body feels at the end of this week.