On Being An Overly Ambitious Beginning Trail Runner

I've recently been going trail running with run of my friends at dawn (or before). We've only gone twice so far together and it's been an adventure. Our first time out together, we got to the Fells at 4am, had no headlamps, and used our phones to light the trail. We also just had a paper map and kept missing turns, so we ended up going three miles less than we intended due to time. But it was a beautiful morning!

Sunrise over the reservoir in the Middlesex Fells

The next time we went, we intended to go 15 miles. Still being a very amateur hiker/trail runner, I picked the Skyline Trail in the Blue Hills Reservation because it was easily marked in the app I found on my phone and was about 12 miles long. Seemed not too bad and I thought we'd get some hills. We did... and got some great views.

However, the trail was super tough and rocky. At one point, I wasn't paying attention and fell pretty hard. I tripped at just the right spot so there was a large rock beneath my left knee... so my knee just slammed straight into it. After the shock wore off, I was able to keep running, even though my knee was swelling a bit and both knees were bleeding. However, we met our end when my friend rolled her ankle during a misstep running downhill. Luckily she was able to keep walking and we just took a short cut back to the parking lot. I looked worse at first, but I ended up being the lucky one... she hasn't been able to run the past few days because her ankle has been turning all sorts of crazy colors.

What happens when you don't look where you're going when trail running

Have we learned our lesson though? ABSOLUTELY NOT. As soon as we're both back from vacation, we're going right back out. And I can't wait.