The End of the Trail Running

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with running. Growing up, I mostly ran only when being chased. I was that overweight kid in middle school who hated the rope climb and loathed the 1-mile run in PE.  

After college, I started running because it was a cheap and quick way to get a good workout regardless of my location. And then I started running more regularly because I “had to” in order to pursue triathlons. Eventually, I came to enjoy and even love being able to explore the outdoors on foot, the rhythm and simplicity of running and that “runner’s high” when you feel like you can glide along forever.

But even as I became a more regular runner (or plodder, in my case) I still had no idea what I was doing. I mistakenly thought there was no skill involved in running but that it was just a matter of moving my feet faster than when I was walking.  

It was only a few years ago when I was determined to get a bit faster that I started to understand the technique involved in running well. Reading the book "Chi Running" by Danny Dreyer helped me appreciate that running well can be beautiful, like a form of art. 

Now, I find myself in middle age with a keen appreciation of all the benefits and joys of running but with a body that no longer wants to cooperate with my intentions. I was recently told by my orthopedic surgeon to give up running indefinitely (bad hips and a benign tumor of my femur). I am still in the process of grieving this loss.

With that as background, I recently texted Brandy Anderson about doing a trail run together. I’ve known Brandy since she moved here 15 years ago and started coaching Lake City High School’s cross country teams. In addition to coaching LCHS cross country, she’s the busy mom of four kids (all of whom do sports including basketball, running and lacrosse) and also somehow coaches swimming at the Kroc Center and tutors at Hope Education Consulting.

As we started up Canfield Mountain early on a Friday morning, the weather was gorgeous and, luckily, Brandy did all the talking (because I was totally out of breath). Brandy’s advice for new runners is to “be kind to yourself — it’s a process, just like everything else. And running is one of those things that … builds year upon year upon year ... It’s just not a fast process and if you take it fast you get injured.”  

As we came to the top of Canfield and (thankfully!) stopped to catch our breath, Brandy also emphasized the importance of cross-training.

“If you’re running, you really have to do strength training. Running is a very linear motion that you are doing over and over. You’re not doing a lot of side to side so [it’s important to] cross train or lift.”  

For Brandy, that means “trying to stay in balance, and so in the summer I like to bike or go to the lake and swim.”

On the way down, Brandy shared some of her joys of running. She loves running up Canfield with her dog because “on the trails, it’s fun” and runs without music because “I like the quiet.” Even though she mostly runs alone (with her dog) because of her schedule, she loves that “running communities are always really fun … have met most of my friends that I spend a lot of time with either hiking or running.”

As we came to the end of our run, I was simultaneously filled with gratitude for the companionship and beautiful surroundings as well as sadness as I realized this might be my last run. But, I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to end my running career than to have spent it with my friend, Brandy, on Canfield Mountain.

THE GOOD: Running is cheap (you just need a good pair of shoes) and convenient (you can do it anywhere) and is great exercise.

THE BAD: Although running injuries do happen, it’s important “not to ignore your pain” according to Brandy. “If you’re injured, it’s usually because you jumped up in mileage too quickly or you have an imbalance that you have to fix or work on.” "Train Smart, Run Forever" by Bill Pierce and Scott Murr is a good resource for running injury-free.

THE NITTY GRITTY: As Brandy says, “the keys are to be nice to yourself, go at your own pace, enjoy it and if you don’t like running, find a friend to run with because it’s way better.” You can find running friends through Coeur d’Alene Runners on Facebook or stop in at Fleet Feet for information on local running clubs.

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Dr. Emry is a family physician and partner at Ironwood Family Practice in Coeur d’Alene.  Exercise Explorer MD will appear every other week in The Press and Dr. Emry can be contacted via email exercisexplorermd@gmail.com. © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.