Trail Running in Merrell Pace Gloves

The winner of the $15 Road ID Gift Certificate (number generated by random.org) is 1 – Jenn DeLuise! Jenn, send me an e-mail with your address and I will send the gift certificate to you! 

I confess, today I cheated and went running for 2 miles in my Merrell Pace gloves. On a trail. I had one of the best runs of my life! I could barely contain my excitement and the only people I knew who could truly appreciate this feeling are my fellow readers! I was on the Cape this weekend (where I grew up), and for those of you that don’t know–the Cape is pretty much my favorite place to run. After being pretty cool yesterday, I woke up this morning to warmth and a beautiful sunny day. I decided to make a good faith effort at not running and opted for a long walk along Surf Drive. Upon my return home, I was informed of the family plan to hit Beebee Woods, which is composed of 383 acres of land owned by the Town of Falmouth. The short walk through the woods would be followed by a trip to the children’s book store and the candy store (planned in advance by my scheming 3 1/2 year old).

I made it about half way through the 1 mile loop when I decided to throw caution to the wind and run the rest of the way. I felt so good that I ran the other half mile back to my family. It was exhilirating to run again, even though it had only been three days since my last run. There is just something about running on a trail through the woods that takes a run to another level. Running up the hills in the trail and then running down so fast, dodging rocks, reminded me of skiing down a mountain. The feeling was just too great not to come back later in the afternoon to do two more miles. I didn’t push myself too hard, and I have to admit I didn’t feel any lingering soreness in my shin.

I was wearing my Merrell Pace Gloves (I am working them more into my running shoe rotation) which afforded me the ability to feel the changes in the ground under my feet without risking injury. I have never been more aware of the different textures under my feet, it was akin to running barefoot. Anyone who knows me is aware of how much I like to be barefoot and the Merrell Pace gloves were really the next best thing! I will continue to be cautious with my shin, and I am going to incorporate more running on softer surfaces. Being an urbanite, I don’t usually have the opportunity to do much trail running in my weekly training, so my trail running will have to be confined to weekends. I am also looking forward to hitting the trails on my trip to New Hampshire later this week.