I only subscribe to a couple email newsletters, but one newsletter that I’ve been following for well over a year is Mario Fraioli’s The Morning Shakeout.
Each week he delivers interesting commentary along with links to articles about running, writing, and a hodgepodge of other topics.
The most recent newsletter resonated with me because his reasons for running are similar to mine. One of the biggest reasons I keep returning to running is the draw of running on trails. There’s something special about trail running and Mario captures it as well as anyone in the latest newsletter:
While my initial interest in running was fueled by competition, my perpetual fascination with it has been sustained by something greater, a tough-to-describe feeling that’s been tugging at me since I first fell in love with the sport some 20 years ago. I still train to race a few times a year, and I’ll jump into the occasional track workout when a fast mood strikes, but most of my running time these days is spent exploring and enjoying the trails, where I pay little to no mind to pace or splits and instead try to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings while embracing the challenge of tackling the naturally tough terrain that surrounds me. Despite (or perhaps because of) this evolution, running is as fun—and challenging—as it’s ever been, even if I don’t have a race on my schedule. Trail running, specifically, has become my preferred form of putting one foot in front of the other, a sort of moving meditation that provides me distraction-free solitude that’s borderline spiritual by its very nature.
Mario Fraioli – The Morning Shakeout
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