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The world of trail running is not for the faint of heart.
Dan Grip did his share of prep work before venturing down that path, so to speak.
The 40-year-old Millers Falls resident wasn’t a dedicated runner until only a few years ago. His foundation for running in the woods came due to his love of hiking, and he thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2010. The journey took 4½ months, and when he returned to Western Massachusetts, the South Hadley native’s desire to travel long distances never went away.
“It was hard to readjust back to normal life,” he admitted. “I was craving long-distance hiking afterward so I hiked the Finger Lakes Trail (N.Y.), did the Long Trail through Vermont. I wanted to keep thru-hiking.”
Grip’s ability to dedicate weeks and months at a time toward hiking changed shortly thereafter when he had his first child. He needed a new way to remain one with nature, but preferably something that sped the process up just a little bit.
“I didn’t have time to go for these elaborate, long hikes anymore,” he admitted. “So I turned hiking into trail running. I was able to cover larger distances in less time.”
If you’re not a trail runner yourself, you’ve probably been in the woods on a hike and seen harriers motoring past you, up and down hills, over tree stumps and rocky terrain. Trail running is a whole other discipline, requiring planning and constant vision on the ground ahead of you. Grip likens it to problem solving, finding solutions at a high rate of speed.
“There’s an extra skill set you need for it,” he began. “You have to be constantly computing steps ahead. You have to look at a projected line and think about what steps to take before you take them. It does really come down to quick problem solving. And it makes you use a lot of different muscles than you normally would running. As the terrain varies, you’re constantly changing gears.”
Franklin County is home to an abundance of trail running options, and Grip said his “backyard” trails take him from Millers Falls down toward Wendell State Forest, passing through the Montague Watershed and dry-hill trails along the way.
“Where we live in Franklin County, there are so many options to get out in the woods,” he said. “For a trail runner, it’s the best. I usually stop at beautiful places like mountaintop views, or waterfalls, or at any of the many picturesque locations that the trails wind through, and take it in. I find the beauty in the world most evident in the least disturbed places, and it’s a form of therapy for me.”
In just a short amount of time, Grip has turned himself into an elite trail runner. Last fall, he won the Mount Toby Trail Race in Sunderland. It was part of an impressive trail running season, where he claimed victory in seven of the 14 races he entered as part of the Western Mass. Athletic Club’s Grand Tree Trail Race Series.
“(Mount Toby) is probably the race I’ve run more than any other in my life,” said Grip, who won the 14-mile jaunt with a time of 1 hour, 31 minutes and 16 seconds. “I’ve been running it even before I became a serious trail runner, probably seven or eight times. That’s a race I’ve charted my progression as a runner so it’s a gauging race for me. That was a sweet victory, to finally win it.”
While Grip embraces the rush and achievement that trail running provides, he did note that stakes are a bit higher in terms of injuries compared to road racing. With constant elevation changes and uneven terrain, one wrong step could present problems for runners.
“I don’t count it as a fall if you catch the ground with your hands,” he said with a laugh. “I did a 42-mile run last weekend and toward the end, I saw people side-stepping mud ahead of me. I hopped the rocks but went down into a huge mud puddle. I’ve had a few scrapes but nothing terrible for the most part. The worst injury I ever had was about two and a half years ago, I had to get stitches on my knee. There is the risk for some bad injuries but usually the times that I fall, it happens on simple sections where you’re less careful than you would be somewhere else.”
With no new races on the immediate horizon due to the coronavirus pandemic, Grip said he’s been going after some records on the Strava app, which tracks runners’ times and routes throughout the world. He said he’s averaging about 60 trail miles per week over an average of three runs.
While he has spent some time on paved surfaces, including a third-place finish at the Manchester City Marathon in New Hampshire back in November, his passion still lies in the woods.
“I like that maintained focus aspect of it,” he offered. “I’ve done a lot of road racing and you can get in this Zen mode there. Trail running is more of an active mind, which I really like about it.
“I don’t even call it training, this is just what I like to do,” he continued. “I like to go out and run in the woods.”