The Runner's Trip: Run Long, Travel Far, Discover More
trail running and travel blog by Sarah Lavender Smith
I ran and biked a network of wide trails so idealized, perfectly groomed and thoughtfully designed that they don’t qualify as “trails.” But they’re not dirt roads, either. They are the Carriage Roads of Acadia National Park, and like the people who live around this neck of the woods, they’re in a class by themselves.
Racing four very different races in a six-week period gave me a lot of time to ask “Why?” Why do I repeatedly register for something that sort of feels like taking a test? This post recaps the races and gives four reasons why.
The Trail Runner blog symposium prompt this month is, “Tell about someone awesome you’ve met through trail running.” A lot of runners think Ann Trason is more than awesome; she’s considered legendary because of her unparalleled accomplishments at the peak of her running career. But I think she’s awesome for what she’s doing now, and […]
I’m entering a new phase in my training: being coached. I hired Matt Hart three weeks ago to dictate how I run. We barely know each other, but, like Santa Claus (though not at all jolly or fat), he knows when I’ve been bad or good.
It really mattered to me to have a strong, solid 50-miler this season to build confidence in advance of the 100-miler this September. If I had another inordinately difficult 50-mile effort, then I might pull the plug on the 100-mile-debut plan. This post details the key things that worked for me for the Lake Sonoma […]
I’m sharing the details of two group trips that my husband and I booked because both still have space available and sound amazing—so sign up to join us running the Tahoe Rim Trail or rafting the Grand Canyon if you can!
The Oakland Marathon followed by a long run on Mount Diablo gave me an apples-and-oranges kind of comparison between road marathoning and trail ultrarunning, making me contemplate, which is “harder”? Which is better for me, and which do I like more?
I decided it was finally time to run Cool, which is widely viewed as the spring kickoff to the year’s ultra racing season. Could I make it a PR?
Sometimes it’s important to shelve a rigorous training plan and use running simply for solace. Last month was one of those times for me. This is the story of how I said goodbye to my dad, and how running helped me through it.
Inspired by Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild, I look back at the year 1995 when I was 26. I understand more fully now why I got hooked on running and racing marathons that year: it gave me something my fizzling career didn’t.