Trail Running: Get Out of the Way

Trail running is really angst provoking. Truly, I came close to losing it the other day. I was with a friend and her three kids, day-hiking a trail in the Daniel Boone National Forest. From the opposite direction came two guys dressed in shorts and running shoes, and festooned with all sorts of electronic equipment. Without a pause they barreled through our little group, without so much as a by your leave, scattering the kids helter-skelter to the sides of the trail. Cheryl had to physically restrain me from going after them with mayhem in mind.

When I was much younger we spoke in terms of running trails. It was merely a way of talking, though. What we meant was that we were going to hike a particular trail, or had already done so.

All that has changed the past decade or so. Now the hiking trails of America are covered with trail running aficionados. Trail runners see it as a form of exercise, a way of training muscles that would otherwise get unused running on flat surfaces. And, because runners tend to be competitive, they use it as a way of collecting trails. You’ll often hear them talk in terms like, “I bagged X, Y, and Z trails today.” Or they’ll brag about trail running a segment in only 19 minutes. Or some such.

The odd thing is that I’m unaware of anyone complaining. Certainly the backpacking and camping press has remained silent. I’m sure, of course, that has nothing to do with the running-gear advertisements that appear in their pages.

Nor have any of the outdoor groups, the hiking and trails organizations, raised a battle cry. It seems that multiple-use has become such an ingrained philosophy that it matters little if one of those uses is dangerous and abusive to other users.

Historically, this has not been the case. Hikers and backpackers have been quick to organize against perceived threats. When I was growing up, the big bugaboo was horses on the hiking trails. Horses can do a real number on a trail. And there are some real problems with the way many riders treat the trails. So hikers agitated for separate equestrian trails. In a similar way, they argued against mountain bikes and motorized vehicles.

Sometimes they won and sometimes they lost. But with trail running they haven’t even raised the battle flags. It’s as if the backpacking community sees trail runners as just another group of hikers moving a bit faster than the norm.

If only that were the case. But the fact is, trail runners are self-centered abusers. They seem to feel that they’re the only ones out there, and that their needs and wants come first---and second---and third. Doesn’t matter if there’s somebody else already on the trail. If basic courtesy, such as slowing down, or passing to the side, interferes with their rhythm, or with their heart rate, or any of the other things they’re measuring, then courtesy gets tossed to the wayside. With runners there is no such thing as trail etiquette. Their attitude always appears to be me first, all others last.

There’s a basic difference between hikers and runners. Hikers and backpackers know that they are sharing the trails, and behave accordingly. Runners believe that they own the trails, and the rest of us use them with their sufferance.

Part of the problem is that hikers do know about trail etiquette, and find it difficult to behave badly with other trail users. The simple solution would be that each time a trail runner misbehaved, one of us tripped him or her as they passed by. I have come to conclusion that were the situation reversed, most trail runners wouldn’t hesitate to behave that way. But doing so runs so counter to why we’re on the trail in the first place that it’s just not going to happen. They’re in the wrong, but we move out of the way.

I wish I could suggest a practical solution. But, short of hikers organizing to end the menace posed by trail running, I don’t know what that could be. What I do know is that something needs to be done before more innocent hikers, especially young ones, are hurt because they couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough.