Trail Running is Winning Converts

It could be three-mile run through a flat meadowlands, or a grueling half-day race up a 4,000 foot mountain. Either one, trail runners say, is preferable to running through cities and towns on a paved road. The Boston Globe reports that the number of trail running events has grown three to four times since the mid-1990s, and the American Trail Running Association Web site now lists more than 1,000 events. The Globe tells us that trail runners describe their races as a sublime union of exercise and nature, one that is gentler on the legs than pounding the pavement, they say, and more majestic. It’s a way to experience a runners’ high at the summit of a mountain rather than on the shoulder of a road. Makes sense to us.