Spending National Running Day the Best Way I Know How

I haven't been doing too much running over the past few months but today was definitely a run day. I have been toning down the running so I can focus on improving my cycling for my upcoming triathlon and also so I don't burn out before I start marathon training. Some people can run and run all year long and never get bored with it. Well I am not one of those people. I love to run but in moderation. After training for and running two half marathons five months I started to feel like I needed a break. I wanted to switch things up and not feel tied down to only running. I want to make sure that I am always doing something because I love it and at the time that meant taking a hiatus from running.

I have still been running here and there since running is the third leg of triathlon. I run when I want to and I run for as long as I want to. And recently I have been wanting to run more and more. So today I laced up my new trail running shoes and drove to the lake for my very first trail run. I really didn't know what to expect but I made sure to keep an open mind and try not to get lost. I looked at the map, tried to make a plan of attack and set off running.

Right from the start the run was hilly. I haven't run hills in quite some time so my legs were not too happy about this but we pushed through. The trail was a dirt path that was covered over with grass at times. For the first mile or so it wasn't too hilly or technical. Then the fun started. The trail started splitting and I had to decide where to go. I was starting to worry about how I was going to find my way back with so many trails. But I just kept running. I decided to try to run as close to the lake as possible but a few times I wound up lost.

Once I turned around I decided to try a new trail and see where that went. I figured I could always turn around again if I got lost. The more I ran the better the views were. I started getting deeper into the trails but I could still see the lake. At one point I came out into a clearing and realized that I was at a different parking lot. I tried to look at a map to figure out where I was and the best way to get back to my car but unfortunately for me there was no map. I decided to take the main road instead of heading back into the trails and ended up finding my original trail. Before I knew it I was back at my car.

I think I only ran 2.5-3 miles but I loved every minute of it. I felt so free and relaxed. I loved being able to explore and not worry about traffic or ending up in an unsafe area. Even though I didn't want to get lost I knew I couldn't truly get lost because there is only 12 miles of trails total. I loved being able to go wherever I wanted to and seeing the beauty of each new trail. To me, this was the perfect way to spend national running day.