All those who wander...

It's snowy today, but it was beautiful and dry on Sunday.

A couple of times a year, I drive out to Lunenberg to visit my friends John and Sue LaChance and to do a long run with John and some of my other running buddies on the back roads of Lunenberg and Groton, and on the miles of trails along the Nashua River and through the Groton Town Forest. These runs are "adventure" runs, typically lasting two or more hours and involving all kinds of terrain, including genuine river crossings. John has good navigational skills, but he likes to challenge those skills by finding new and interesting trails. When we stop at a trail junction and he says "Hmm... I don't remember THIS place..." well, we might have anywhere from ten minutes to an hour left to run.

John invited a few of us out Sunday to see the course of the Groton 10K (the race will be held on April 29th and will serve as the New England USATF 10K championship), and then to extend our day with another 8-10 miles of trails.

It was a beautiful spring day, with temperatures perfect for a long, meandering run. The trails were unusually dry for so early in the Spring, although there was still snow in spots.

Running through unfamiliar woods...with John...on April 1st... instills a mood of fatalistic calm. One runs without definite expectations of getting anywhere any time soon. The only expectation is to wait for the trail to turn muddy and the terrain to turn precipitous. Will we have to sprint up the side of the steepest hill in town? Will we have to climb under some barbed wire? Will we have to build a makeshift pontoon bridge to cross the river? Pondering these and other possibilities, no one even thinks about pushing the pace. We just trot along as efficiently as possible, avoiding the worst of the puddles and bogs while watching the ground for tree roots and other hazards.

It's hard to find any training books that recommend this particular kind of running, but I find it indispensable. First, it is easy on the joints. Second, it requires constant tiny adjustments to uneven surfaces, teaching the feet to be smart and nimble. Third, you can run a long way when you aren't obsessed with how fast you are going and how much further you have to go. Fourth, nothing beats the camaraderie of running in the woods with your friends.

In the middle of winter, after many weeks of running in the dark on hard asphalt, I pined for the soft trails and the fascination of the woods. It might snow once or twice more this season, but I know that summer is on its way and that means Sunday long runs at the Hale reservation, or at Walden, or along the Battle Road trail, or on carriage roads in Maine.

After an hour and a half, we reach a parking lot and a main road. We stop briefly to make sure everyone has survive, and John gives us a new choice: take the road and be back in fifteen minutes or take trails and be back in "about twenty minutes." None of us hesitates, and we head back into the forest. When we finally arrive at the cars -- thirty minutes later -- no one complains.