Trail Connections

I always joke with my friends that I have a love-hate relationship with trail running. I love the beauty of the trails, but I barely pick my feet up when I run, so my feet get caught up in stones and roots a lot. I have fallen so many times that my friends ask me if I brought the med kit when they hear I am doing a trail race.

At least for me, trail racing is different than road racing. I take it a little slower on the trails which means it is easier for me to talk to the runners around me. I love the connections that I make on the trail. I always say that trail runners have the best stories.

One of my most memorable races as far as connections was a rugged half-marathon trail race. It was the hardest half-marathon I have ever done, but it was also one of the most fun because of the people I met.

It was crazy hot the day of the race, so I had already decided to take it nice and slow. Luckily, I ended up behind a group of eight women who were running the race together. Their pace was perfect for me, and they had music playing quietly. After a mile, I asked them if they would adopt me into their pack and I became known as our new friend Jen. At the first aid station, we all stopped, and when the group was ready one lady said, “New friend Jen, are you ready?” I loved running with them for the first 8 miles, but then they wanted to stop for photos, and I said I was going to keep going.

One young lady, Michelle, asked if she could run with me. Not only did we run together, but we talked about everything under the sun. She told me she was working with physics, she told me about her boyfriend, and she recommended an amazing book called Daughters of Distance. We talked about how our favorite animal is the elephant, and we shared our hopes for the future. I fell almost at the end, and I was pretty ugly. Michelle was concerned, but I said, “No worries! It happens all the time. Her boyfriend met us at the end with two massive, cold bottles of Gatorade. He gave one to me and instantly became one of my favorite people.

Fast forward about five years. I was nearing the end of a trail race when a young lady came up next to me and said, “Jen, do you remember me? The half?” We had a great talk and her former boyfriend, now husband was at the end. He said, “Do you remember me?” “Um, of course! Mr. Gatorade!” I hope we keep seeing each other at races.

Ultra-marathons offer many chances for connections. When you are out there on the trail for 12-plus hours, you have time to chat. Here are some of the characters I have met, Carl Line who is a professional clown, and who stayed with me at night and held the light when I had stopped eating on my way to 50 miles and I hit the wall harder than ever. If it wasn’t for Carl I would have left my chair and the rest of my gear right where it was when it was time to leave because I didn’t feel like I had an ounce of energy left. Trail races are full of encouragers. Then there was the man that I introduced myself to after running with him for 12 hours. He is the runner who made me think I need an ultra-name because he introduced himself as Cornbread. At my last race, I met Bryan who said he started running because the dental assistant had called him fat. We discussed the crazy things that people say, and how he took a negative and made a positive by turning his health around. There is so much inspiration on the trail.

There are also those moments when you become the encourager and it can be at a crucial moment of someone’s life. I was talking to a young lady before the race, and we stayed together for most of the race, I ran her into the finish helping her beat a woman in her age group. She came up to me after and told me she needed my encouragement because she had been in a bad spot mentally. You never know when your encouragement is going to make a difference.

As always, I think runners know that a race and running in general is often about more than just running.