When William Gensburg first fell in love with trail running, he was nearly 50 years old. At the time, he played in an amateur ice hockey league in Westchester County, N.Y., but his injuries were piling up and he needed a different way to stay active. Mr. Gensburg, who had virtually no running experience, started jogging on a leafy two-mile trail near his home. He was instantly hooked.
“I became enchanted, frankly, with being in the woods doing something at your own pace,” he said. “It is a wonderful way to be in nature. It’s a very primal feeling.”
Adam Chase, the president of the American Trail Running Association and author of “The Ultimate Guide to Trail Running,” said the sport offers an opportunity to “set your mind at peace.” It gives you a sense of mental and physical escape that you don’t always get from running on pavement, he said.
If you’re just starting out, here’s what to know about finding trails and choosing the right gear.
The Benefits of Trail Running
All forms of running provide cardiovascular benefits. Research also suggests that spending time in nature can help reduce anxiety and stress.
Trail running also requires you to regularly adjust your stride to handle changing terrain. This forces you to use different muscles, which can help protect against overuse injuries and may help improve balance and stability, said Jeremy Kastner, an orthopedic physical therapist and the founder of Mountain Athletes Physical Therapy in Colorado Springs.
In traditional road running, by contrast, it’s often “the same step every single time,” he said.
How to Find Trails
Even if you live in a city, you can find unpaved places to run with a bit of research. The Trail Run Project website has a free, crowdsourced database of thousands of trails in the United States and abroad. You can filter your search by distance, elevation profile and preferences like whether you’re looking for a loop or an out-and-back route. (There’s also a filter for whether dogs are permitted.)
You can also find trails using the popular hiking app AllTrails, or Strava’s heat maps feature, which aggregates data from millions of users to highlight popular routes.
In addition, the American Trail Running Association website features a vast catalog of trail races in all 50 states, at distances ranging from 1 to 200 miles. Even if you’re not interested in racing, Mr. Chase said, most courses are accessible to the public. Race maps also typically include details on the course’s terrain and elevation profile, which can be useful for planning everyday runs.
Kelsey McGill, a running coach in Bend, Ore., said that new trail runners shouldn’t necessarily limit themselves to flat terrain, otherwise they might miss out on some of the fun. For many, tackling dramatic hills is a big part of the appeal of trails. (And if that sounds intimidating, it might help to know that even elite trail runners often slow to a hiking pace on particularly steep sections.)
You Don’t Need Much Gear
There’s a glut of trail running gear out there: carbon trekking poles, GPS watches with topographic mapping and more. But if you’re new to the sport, Ms. McGill said, the only essential items are a good pair of shoes and a water bottle or hydration pack.
While road running shoes can be adequate for smooth surfaces like dirt paths, trail-specific shoes tend to provide better traction on rocky or steep terrain. They are usually sturdy and durable and might include additional features like waterproof materials and built-in gaiters to keep out debris.
As a general rule of thumb, shoes with larger, more widely spaced lugs — the rubber treads on the outsole of trail shoes that offer improved traction — are best on loose, uneven or slippery terrain.
Find a Community
Running clubs are booming, and some runners have found that the sense of community can be even stronger when you venture into the woods together.
Shalini Bhajjan, 49, joined a trail running club in Wisconsin while she was training for her first road marathon in 2013. She found immediate camaraderie and has since started her own trail running group, Terrain Trail Runners, in St. Louis. “When you’re out in the wilderness, you are looking out for each other,” Ms. Bhajjan said.
To find a group to join, your local running store is a good place to start. Many host group runs, or they can point you to other clubs in your area. Depending on where you live, volunteering with trail maintenance organizations can be another way to meet local trail runners, Mr. Chase said.
For Mr. Gensburg, who started trail running on his own, the activity has become central to his social life. After going through a divorce and becoming an empty nester, he sold his business and set out on a road trip across the country, planning to visit outdoorsy cities and towns and pick one to retire to.
He didn’t get any further than Boulder, Colo., his second stop. He tried out some running groups he found on Meetup, he said, and “The next thing I knew, I had a circle of friends and just decided to stay.”
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