The Runner's Trip: Run Long, Travel Far, Discover More
trail running and travel blog by Sarah Lavender Smith
Many runners have questions about how much and what types of exercise other than running they should fit into their week. Which approach is best, and what do you need? The answer is, “It depends.” It depends on your training goals, where you’re at in your training cycle, and where you’re at in life in […]
A rock-strewn climb at the halfway point felt as steep as climbing a multi-story ladder, and the loose-dirt descent that followed felt as frightening as surfing a landslide, hence my feeling of being a pawn in an evil game of Chutes and Ladders.
Since race directors are grappling with how to host races in a way that reduces the risk of virus spread, I thought I’d share how this race felt safe and well organized, and different but satisfying from a competitive standpoint.
Presenters are challenged to show 20 slides, each for exactly 20 seconds. I’ve never done a presentation like this, but I was game. I put together PowerPoint slides and scripted paragraphs for each, cutting away to get my talk down to roughly 20 seconds per slide and hoping my story wasn’t as boring as watching […]
As soon as I saw Morgan and Clare, I said wild-eyed, “I may blow up, but those were the best 27 miles of my life.”
“For these three days,” I told the group gathered for our inaugural San Juan Mountain Running Camp, “I want you to encounter and experience challenges on the trail that you don’t expect, and that perhaps intimidate you, because you’ll discover that you can get through and handle more than you think you can. And you’ll […]
A camp, a house, a horse, a race and some kids. These are big pieces fitting into the puzzle of my life this year.
I hated the logic that I wanted to cover 100 miles so I could be done with 100 miles because I didn’t actually want to do the full 100 miles. Ugh, none of it made any sense.
A tribute to a trio of relatives—my grandmother, grandfather and great-uncle—who challenged themselves in the San Juan Mountains in mind-blowing ways that inspire me as a mountain runner.
You could call it “extreme fast trekking.” It’s hard to articulate how ridiculously slow and tough this mountain “running” is, but I’ll try.