Trail Running isn’t “Running”

I know I am supposed to be resuming my regularly scheduled Crossfit life and retire from running, but when an opportunity to do some trail running at a local state park with my Crossfit Endurance family came up, I thought I would give it a chance.

I woke up Saturday morning to a brisk morning, temperatures in the mid 40s and a fair amount of rain. I looked outside the window, consulted Facebook to make sure the run was still scheduled as planned, pondered for a good half hour on how to dress for said conditions, debating crawling right back into bed under the warm covers, remembered I have awesome trail shoes that I only wore once that were being neglected, made my way to my car and reluctantly drove to the park.

Sitting in the parking lot in my toasty car with the heated seats in full force, watching the raindrops stream down my window, I was a bit less than excited to get out of the car. But as the others were showing up, I knew I had to suck it up and just do it. There were six of us that showed up for the run, plus a pup. My coach mapped the route for us, but the plan was just to stick together as a group. The only other time I attempted a trail run, me and two other slower athletes got left behind and had quite an adventure finding our way back. I was going to try my best to keep up!

I was about to pop in my headphones, but I quickly put them away and just ran.. and we ran together.. and everything was just beautiful. And amazing.

This did not feel like running.

Running is uncomfortable, and boring, and stressful.

But this was not any of those things.

Throughout my struggles with running, so many have told me about this “zen” feeling they get, completely able to let go and just be in the moment. I think I discovered it this weekend.

The run This was peaceful and enjoyable and by the time we were done with our four mile trek, shoes and socks and clothes soaked from the pouring rain, trying to warm up from being overheated and sweaty against the the crisp temperatures, the only thing I was thinking about was when I can do it again.