Running as Adventure
I’ll never forget the moment I realized that running could be an adventure. I was standing on top of a mountain in New Mexico with miles of ridgelines all around me. While I had set out for a hike, I soon found myself trotting, and then full-out running along this pinnacled ridge, until I began spontaneously hooting and hollering with unbridled joy.
Until then, running had been a steady and dependable schedule of daily miles on local roads and trails, with the occasional 5k, 10k, or half-marathon. It was a practice, an escape, a dedication, sometimes an endorphin rush and sometimes a slog, but it had never felt quite like an adventure. That day in the Sangre de Cristo range, everything changed.
Endless Possibilities
It was as if I had opened a portal to another world: a world of possibilities that few dared to enter. I could do this anywhere. How had I not known about this before? Could I use running to explore wilderness? To traverse foreign cities? Could I pick out a trail on a map and run it with friends? As I bombed down the mountain, flowing down the single track, jumping over rocks and around trees, I felt like I was getting away with something, that this was the greatest thing in the world. My life has never been the same since.
It’s common as a runner to focus on goal races and times. We obsess over heart rates and zones and mileage and eccentric heel drops. We spend hours on websites studying goal races. And all of that is great and necessary. But what if we shift our focus and use running as an opportunity for adventure? What if we use fitness as a vehicle for exploration? Just think of all the places your fitness can take you.
Any place you can walk, or hike, or even maybe climb, you can run. National parks. Exotic cities. All runnable locations ripe for adventure. In recent years, and highlighted during the Pandemic, this choose-your-own-adventure philosophy has had something of a renaissance, most notably in the realm of FKTs (fastest known times) or adventures like Rickey Gates’ “Every Single Street” projects, where he ran every street in San Francisco and then in Santa Fe. Don’t wait to find out if you got into a race, instead, choose your own race, your own adventure.
Since that first eye-opening experience, I’ve run across Alaskan glaciers and Incan ruins, through the bustling streets of Tokyo and the Belgian countryside. I’ve dodged Mexican Narcos and Norweigan roller skiers, sidestepped mountain goats and Vietnamese tuk tuks. Closer to home, I’ve learned about my backyard, meeting neighbors and discovering little-known trails on conservation land. I’ve created adventures that combined running with kayaking and biking. As an educator, I’ve often adventured with students and former students, which have some of the most rewarding moments of my life.
Support for Going Deeper
As a guide at Aspire Adventure Running, I have an opportunity to share this perspective and experience with others on multi-day wilderness runs, supporting and guiding them as they spend a few days running the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier or traversing volcanic calderas in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. It is inspiring to see people push through their own boundaries and do things they didn’t think were possible. While many runners are used to exploring their limits with races and training, it’s a different game to do it when you’re surrounded by a field of alpine wildflowers or when you run into a herd of mountain goats. And there’s nothing like sitting around the campfire at the end of the day with fellow runners sharing stories of your day’s adventures.
Aspire’s runners train for our experiences for months just like they would a race. For many of them, these curated adventures give them the confidence to go out afterwards for bigger adventures on their own, and it often serves as a training block for bigger ultramarathon trail races or the catalyst of a new friendship.
Build Your Own
Looking to design your own running adventure? Start with a place that gets you excited and brainstorm possible routes of where your legs could take you. It could be a simple canal trail close to home or a far-off national park. You could pick a city that you’d like to explore or an island. Take time to dream of possibilities. You can also take a route you already know and try it during a different season, or at night-which will make it feel completely different. I’ll always cherish an all-night full moon traverse of New Hampshire’s presidential range that I did with a former student.
As always, think about safety and always be prepared. Make sure you have the appropriate clothing, nutrition, communication, hydration and safety equipment and skills in place. Take a wilderness first aid class. Learn about Leave No Trace and how to use maps. Start small and gradually build up your skillset, distance and experience. When it’s an adventure, things can go haywire: I’ve been stuck above tree-line in lightning storms and chased by countless dogs. I’ve been caught out after dark with miles to go and have run out of water. You’ll get tired and sunburned and muddy and bonked-out. But often those are the moments when the greatest magic happens. The double rainbow after the torrential downpour or when a campesino appears on horseback to offer you water. You’ll find reserves inside yourself that you didn’t know were there. If there’s anyone who understands the beauty that exists at the edge of our limits, it is runners. Get out there. Find yourself an adventure!
Explore Aspire’s calendar of supported adventure runs for some high quality motivation.
Ultrarunner Ian Ramsey is based in Maine, where he directs the Kauffmann Program for Environmental Writing and Wilderness Exploration, and teachers writing, ecology, brain science, music and mindfulness to high school students. With over two decades leading trips and expeditions across the US, Alaska and internationally, he loves empowering people to take agency in their lives and discover new places. Ian is a poet and graduate of the Rainier Writing Workshop, and his writing has been featured in places like Terrain.org, Orion and High Desert Journal. He also directs a community steelband, loves kayaking big water, drinks copious amounts of coffee, geeks out around nutrition, literature and fitness, and was once a member of an Inuit Dance Troupe. You can learn more at www.ianramsey.net.