Hi, So, in pursuit of people to run with, I ended up going on a trail run a few months ago, and had a great time. There are some trails within short driving distance of my house and I have a coworker who is an adventure racer so runs trails regularly. She told me about the race below, which is the Pineland Farms 25k. See clumsily attached link: http://www.mainetrackclub.com/pinelandfarms.html Some background. I ran a HM in October in 1:46:31 after two good months of training, and one spotty month. Since October, my training has been lackluster (see log), but I'm ramping up right now, and this race isn't until Memorial Day. I'm thinking to train for a HM on May 10th, and I think that doing both is doable - but I'm wondering how to mix trails in before the HM date and how much I can expect my training to carry over to a race that is 2.2 miles longer and on a different surface... So, yes, thoughts, encouragement, anything?

I came across a thread in the general running forum listed as something like my first trail run. Runtowin had some good things to say and his links might be helpful to you. Run To Winview logBlaine Moore posted: 1/22/2008 at 8:32 AMQuote First, Join this group: http://runningahead.com/groups/Trails Second, I recommend reading a couple of articles that I wrote last year about trail running. The first was on a trail running clinic at a local running store (Trail Running 101) and the second was an article about how to fit more trail running into your weekly mileage (Trail Running for Road Runners) Trail running is a lot of fun. It builds up more strength than running on roads, it beats your body down less than roads, it's a lot of fun, there's no traffic (or less at any rate), the air tends to be cleaner - it's just plain fun. Did I mention that? I ran trails quite often in college, but ignored them for the most part since graduating. Last Summer I started having some achilles issues so I started running a couple of times per week with a local trail running group and I've fallen in love with it. I may not run as fast on the trails, but that doesn't really bother me. It'll leave me healthier and allow me to run more miles and I enjoy doing it, so I get out there at least once and sometimes 2 or 3 times per week. Now that the trails are covered in snow it's even more work, which is great conditioning for the early Spring Marathon. Run to Win I just published my first book: Your Comprehensive Guide to Marathon Preparation & Recovery I don't know how this will come out when I post it. I haven't done any cut and paste posts before.

First, here's the actual links, since the text doesn't help (and I don't mind pimping my website whenever I can - helps to keep me from repeating myself too much!): Trail Running 101 Trail Running for Road Runners Second, you can run the pineland farms 25k w/o any trail training if you wanted. Not that I am advocating that! You definitely should! But the trails at Pineland are basically grassy roads. There are some nice hills here and there, but you'll find that the surface is very easy to run on for beginner trail running. You aren't allowed on them when there is snow on the ground (unless you are skiing of course) but once the snow melts there are a few groups that run out there on a regular basis. I don't know if you are in Maine or just thinking of visiting that weekend, but if you live up this way you should get in touch with Ian Parlin of the Trail Monsters - he's the race director and he leads a local running club that meets every Tuesday and Saturday year round for trail running. The next group run will always be listed at the top of the page on their site. Tuesday night runs are always at Twin Brook Recreation Center in Cumberland at 6:00 p.m. This time of year, people will bring their skis, snowshoes, or just wear trail shoes through the snow. Saturdays when it is warm switch up between Bradbury Mountain State Park and Pineland Farms for the most part if there isn't a race somewhere (or even if there is) but at this time of year we always meet at Bradbury since (a) we can't run at Pineland and (b) there's some great snowmobile trails accessible from Bradbury that give you plenty of trails to run on. This past weekend, we had one person run 2.5 miles, a handful run 13.5 miles, I ran 18.5 miles, and another guy, I'm not sure what he ran he went farther away than I did but probably didn't do the extra 5 miles once he got back to his car. Generally speaking, Bradbury is a much more difficult run and its easier to get lost. Twin Brook when it is light out is very easy to run at; in the dark if you don't know the trails, it might be a little tougher. If you wait until the Spring to start running with the trail monsters, that's fine, but it is definitely worth bookmarking the home page for the club. Good luck at Pineland - it's a top notch experience from what I hear. I haven't actually made it there yet, because I ran the Vermont City Marathon 2 years ago, was out of town last year, and this year will be out of town for a wedding again. I'll be helping set up the week before I'm sure, though.

Imogene An ideal first- time trail race is coming up in a few weeks. It's called the Merrimack River trail race and is part of the popular Grand Tree trail race series. It's on Saturday 4/12 in Andover, MA. It's an out and back course, not technical. The first and last 3 miles are flat and the middle 4 are rolling. The RD is happy to email the appilcation to you. His email address and other information can be found at: http://runwmac.com/gt2008/gt08-races.html Please check out my trail running blog at: http://breakhearttrailrunning.blogspot.com/ Hope to see you at the race. Dan