Trail Love

My trail running career began last fall when I took part in the Colorado Outward Bound relay. Teams of 10 completed a 170 mile course from Idaho Springs to Glenwood Springs Colorado. We started at 8am, ran through rain and snow all day and all night, and finished the next morning to a beautiful sunny day in Glenwood Springs. One of the greatest parts of the trip was the friendships that developed. Speedo, an energetic and quirky infectious disease doctor I met in Malawi, led the group. Zen, his best friend from medical school and a general surgeon who volunteers for Doctors Without Borders provided thoughtful conversation and balance. Monk, a recent graduate from Duke's seminary, impressed us all with his competitive spirit. I got to know Bling, a classmate from my medical school class, who psyched us up with her music, and Juice kept me laughing, which later led to my trail name...Smiles (which turned into Nitro, as in nitrous oxide aka laughing gas, because smiles "didn't sound tough enough"). After 27 hours our muscles were exhausted, our van smelled horrible, and our capacity for Cliff bars, sport beans, and shot blocks had been exceeded, but we were all closer and ready to sign up again.

Monk was a member of the "Trailheads", a diverse group of people in Chapel Hill and Carrboro who run and bike on the local trails. Up until that point I had been doing all of my running in Chapel Hill on the roads - I didn't even know about the 20+ miles of trails on the north side of town! He convinced Juice, Bling, and I to try it out for a run and I've been hooked ever since. Trail running gets to what I believe running is all about -- being outside and running around in the woods. It's not about holding a certain pace or doing a specific time, but about trying your best, opening yourself up to nature, and doing your best not to wipe out on a root or a rock. In fact, it's not if you wipe out but when. Trail runners refer to "trail love" as the effects of these falls -- the scrapes, bruises, and mud that inevitably result.

The trailheads recently hosted a race at the Little River park on northern Durham. The race raises money for the park to help them maintain and sustain their beautiful trails. Last Saturday couldn't have been better conditions for a race -- 45 degrees and sunny with tons of friends around to share in the fun. Willow and I got up early to do a pre-race sweep. The race was a team effort; I don't think there was a trailhead there that didn't have some 'job' assigned to ensure the race ran smoothly. We did an easy loop of the 9 mile course, stopping to move logs out of the trail and make sure the course was clearly marked (although, I would argue that getting lost is part of the fun!). We finished with about 20 minutes to spare before the official start of the race - just enough time to drink some gatorade and eat a gu before lining up at the start to run it again. Both of us put forth a solid effort and finished as the 5th (Willow) and 6th (me) females overall. Not bad for 18 miles! I also wore my new toy - a GPS watch that interfaces with Google Earth so I can map where I've been! More important than the overall place or the overall distance is the joy of being active in nature. I'm looking forward to many more runs out there, and of course, the inevitable "trail love".