Twenty years ago, Dave and I moved from the big city to the suburbs, lured by homes with bigger backyards, open spaces to ride our bikes, and an incredible trail system for running. However, as working parents to young children, we never rode our bikes (I used my trainer for indoor cross-training) and I always hesitated to running in the trails. We did enjoy our backyard. Now that our kids are older, we aren’t in our yard as much but we are riding our bikes along quieter country roads and I am running more and more in the trails.

During my fall marathon (that didn’t happen) build, I started to spend more time on the trails as the softer surface was kinder to my master’s body, which meant that I could run further while increasing my mileage. I loved how every day through the trails seemed different than the one before, a result of switching the route slightly or noticing the change in the colours and sounds of nature from the day or week before.

There are several other benefits of running through trails:

1. Everyone will play the “hello” game with me. Each time I say greet somebody walking in the trails with a “Good morning!” or “Hello!” they reply. This never happens when I play the “hello” game on the roads; sometimes I hear a similar greeting but, usually, people just stare at me, unsure of how to react.
2. Getting lost is fun. I have a fairly good sense of direction but not when it comes to trails. Sometimes, I think I know where I am going but end up getting lost. Other times, I simply get lost in my thoughts and run without really paying attention to where I am headed until I turn around a bend and wonder “How did I get here?” Then, I have the challenge of figuring out how to get back to where I started.
3. It’s easy to add more distance. When I am trying to build distance to my week, I will turn to the trails for help. Between the loops and turns, the drive to explore, and getting lost, I often finish with an extra kilometre or two (or more). Running on trails is really running for the sheer joy of it so it is easy to lose track of how far I have run.
4. The quiet. The sounds of nature are beautiful. I love listening to the birds or the scurrying of tiny paws through the leaves as I run. Two of my favorite sounds this year are the swishing of maple leaves on the ground and the chirping of squirrels in the trees.
5. A slower pace is good for you. I have a bad habit of running at just one pace; it is hard for me to find my Zone 2 and stick with it for more than 20 minutes. When I run on trails, though, my pace does become slower, partly because I am being careful of footing and partly because trail running simply slows you down.
6. Trail running is easy on the body. In the past year, I have been running about 35% of my weekly distances on trails. It is surely no coincidence that my numbers are higher than they have been in years and the usual aches in my hips and hamstrings have pretty much disappeared. I can attribute part of this to a multi-sport lifestyle and more dedicated work on strength and conditioning, but I think running on the trails has been a huge contributing factor. Also adding some trails to my weekly plan is less jarring on my GI tract. Whether this is a result of the slower pace or the softer running surface isn’t clear; either way, I am finding it easier to run longer without a bio-break. Trail running has been kind to me.

The trails that I run on are not very technical; they are suburban, recreational trails. But they are green and fun and have helped me become a better runner. Those are good enough reasons for me to keep exploring them.