T-R-A-I-L, T-R-A-I-L

If you aren’t already trying a little bit of trail, then you ought to be. True for most of us unfortunate souls, this involves a degree of travel to trail but I tell thee it’s marvellous. So to unashamedly bastardise Baz Luhrmann’s great work – if I could offer you only one tip for the future, trail running would be it!

The long-term benefits of trail running have not be have been proved by scientists and this is based entirely on my own meandering experience.

Stay with me on this: I claim to be non competitive, to focus on finishing events rather than specific times; however truth be known I want to do well, I want to win (a epidemic would need to befall all sub4:45km runners globally)(I’m working on it) and I don’t like being overtaken. This focus on outcomes does a disservice to running and distracts from just enjoying myself. The great thing about trails then is, unlike fells and roads, you can run Ks and Ks without seeing other runners – are you gaining on people? are people gaining on you?! Once the initial traffic dies down you don’t see people very often, so who gives a f*&k!

Twisting and turning through rainforest on the Eungella Trail Run is a thing of beauty, the legs certainly knew I had run 21.1k but having to stay switched on and being alone with nature made it feel like a fraction of the previous day’s road run over the same distance. I’m a running romantic and fall head over heels for near every run I participate in but today was an absolute beaut. At 8am we left this:

2:02:32 later, I returned to this spectacle:

So glad I (A) got of bed, (B) chose these Nike Kruger Zooms over my slicks – perfect for a soggy trail (C) heeded the advice of the Pinnacle Pie advocates, I may have placed 23rd but I breakfasted like a champ

Marathon’s worth of Ks in the legs this weekend and beginning to feel good about running the Great Whitsunday Trail. In others news I agreed a 100k run with a bloke at work, did I mentioned he works in sales…