the true spirit of trail running

"He didn’t want level surfaces or follow-the-leader crowds. True adventure was to be alone. The terrain he traversed was steep slippy grass, or sheer clumps of rock where you had to climb or jump. Sometimes only shepherds or sheep had been that way before. Often you found your way just by eye and compass. If you were lucky, there was a good bright day, and close-burned heather to run on. If you were unlucky there was thick mist, loose scree, and a headlong descent down through rocks and bracken where you had to leap as much as run, risking a broken leg."

From The Economist's obituary of British fell runner Bill Smith, who died doing what he loved best (http://www.economist.com/node/21533348)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Glass More than Half Full: A Bigfoot 200 Race Report

Image
Where to start when over four months have passed?   A lot of water under the bridge since the Bigfoot 200, Aug. 13-17, 2021.   But with some unexpected holiday and winter break downtime on my hands, I finally put together a report and some reflections on my first foray at the 200-mile distance at Bigfoot 200 in August 2021 in the gorgeous Cascades.   What a long, strange, amazing, fulfilling but also frustrating journey it was! To cut to the chase (spoiler alert), I was timed out at mile 127 on a 209-mile course as day three gave way to day four. There were 111 finishers and 88 including me who didn’t make it (a 55.7% finish rate).  So I had a little company.   Looking back, I see this as more than a glass half full in terms experience.  I hope it highlights for me where I have to improve and am still learning about the distance—even with a DNF, it was as far as I’ve ever gone by a good 20-plus miles.  I also learned that I love the challenge of the 200 format (multiple days of con
Read more

Bighorn 100 Race Report: June 15-16, 2012

Image
Ode to Bighorn Courtesy of Norm Cessna and Fotosport [ Note:  I wrote most of this prior to having any inkling of a serious injury stemming from the race.  So any thoughts on that I'll leave to the end as I don't want to spoil the overwhelmingly positive feelings I still take away from the race . The "Year of the Multiple 100s @ 50" as I christened my training blog this year now ends with two in the bag, though that's one more than I've ever done in the same calendar year.  And stress fracture or no, the fire still burns bright to take on new challenges once I'm healthy again! ] You truly run out of superlatives when it comes to capturing the overwhelming natural beauty of this course, and that's what's drawn me back to Bighorn every June but one since 2007.  Though the rivers were a bit lower and the valleys notably drier, the whitewater was still raging, the makeshift stream crossings still as tricky, and the windflowers in the mounta
Read more

Losing My Way (Iroquois Trails 100 Initial Report)

Here's a first stab at a a recap I posted on the Yahoo user group I moderate (more gory details to follow later!): We had a beautiful weather weekend in the Finger Lakes region. Saturday was sunny with highs in low 60s. The course features a real nice blend of forestedand moderately technical single track, steep ski trails at the Greek Peak skiresort, dirt roads, and a tiny bit of pavement. 18K each of climbing anddescent, and folks who have done it by comparison rate the course harder thanstalwarts like Vermont 100 and even Western States. But it makes up for thatwith a generous 36 hour 100 cutoff and 13 hour 50 cutoff. I only saw her before as we huddled in my car with training partner Garth to stay warm (it wasprobably upper 30s then!) and on the course. But local NYC friend Cherie seemed in good spiritswhen we passed on and out and back, and had a great result. They aren't postedfor the 50, but I believe her time was well under 12 hours, as she had hoped. Yeah Cherie! Look
Read more