Email Dispatch Sign-Up Article by Adam W. Chase. Photography by Phil Mislinski.
Trail runners are an elusive lot.
Trying to characterize the typical advocate of the sport is like trying to give a small child a haircut or searching for fireflies during the day - you don't get much cooperation and spotting them can be tricky. They are not joiners, and they often run trails to get away from it all. With 6.2 million individuals in the United States identifying themselves as trail runners, and with a reported 38 percent growth rate in trail-running enthusiasts between 1998 and 1999, you'd think the outdoor industry would know who these people are, or would want to. A simplified profile might describe trail runners as folks who run on surfaces other than streets. But even that characterization is flawed because there is a substantial crossover among trail and road runners.