Trail Sisters’ mission is to increase women’s participation and opportunity in trail running through inspiration, education and empowerment.
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Lately, I’ve been running less. It’s not because I’m injured, or because I don’t want to run. It’s about balance (kind of). I actually think balance is a myth, and that there’s a different goal we can have to feel good in running and life.
On day one in the dark of the early morning, I stood with my husband, Nate at the Southern Terminus of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT). As I straddled the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, I started my GPS watch and satellite tracker and took the first step toward the 310 miles to Canada.
Trail running may not always seem like a walk in the park (or the woods). For folks who are new to it, getting into trail running can be incredibly intimidating – from the distances some trail runners love to the remote places where trails can lead us, it can even seem scary. So how do you make the jump over the river and through the woods?
We tend to focus on trail running here at Trail Sisters, but let’s be honest…not all of our time spent on the trails involves actively running. Even during races there is hiking. Whether it’s into the aid station, up the hills or through a rough patch, we all have experience hiking even when we are out on a run. This unique mix of running and hiking opens up a whole new world of adventure on the trails: fast-packing.
During the last mile of the last trail race I ran, several large boulders on the trail required strategy to get over them. When I approached the first boulder, my thoughts were, how am I going to get over this huge boulder? Why are there all these huge boulders on the trail? Will I get off course to get over these boulders?
“Jimmy!” I can still hear my mother’s adrenaline-laced scream as my father was lying there, soaking wet on the living room floor. His eyes were like a pendulum, swinging but seeing nothing.
