OSHA trail - Cloudcroft, NM

This image was shot on yesterday's trail run. The trail is a little thing about 2 miles long just next to the mountain town of Cloudcroft, NM. Normally I take to the streets and get most of my running down on flat pristine roads. Earlier this year I started to explore this whole concept of trail running. Since I'm a relatively new runner might as well add more newness.

Let me make an observation about trail running. Is not easy. At least it's not that easy at almost 9,000 ft. And, when you're running on minimalist shoes like my Vibram Five Finger toe shoes with little if any sole padding, it's a real pain when you're stepping around rocks like this trail.

The image above was shot on one of the less rock strun sections making the whole thing look like a run on single-track pillows. Its not. The rocks require constant, immediate, and instantaneous attention to avoid accidentally impaling on a rock or root.

Okay, that doesn't sound like fun. It was, it is! It's a lot of fun. Its just fun that requires instant, immediate, and instantaneous attention. There's nothing wrong with that type of fun is there?

A couple of laps around the trail was just about all I could do. Definitely, it was a great workout. Today I can tell because muscles that normally aren't sore are now sore. Specifically my quads are sore, probably from all the upward climbing I did.

As is normal when I'm out there exercising, I was the only guy running. There were many hikers out with their dogs. Fortunately, all were very polite allowing me to run past them by giving up the trail and moving just off. Unlike the area where this image was taken there was lots of room to move off trail.

Oh, since I was wearing my toe shoes, that seemed to attract some attention. As I ran by someone would ask "how do you like those shoes". As I faded down the trail I'd shout back "they aren't easy but they sure are a lot of fun" which is exactly true on this trail.

I'm glad I brought my phone to document this little section of the trail. I like doing that. If you've ever seen or read about Galen Rowell, you'll know he sets a high bar for adventure photography by running with a little slr, a small lens or two, a tiny tripod, and maybe a filter or two. Damn, that's a lot. I'm happy to just get going with my phone. Maybe when I'm a stronger runner I might carry more. Till then, it's the phone or nothing.

Cheers

Tom edit

Photography by Tom Hill

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