Runners World - Trail Special

I was really worried when I saw the mail and noticed a special edition Runners World titled "Trail", yes I still read Runners World. I thought to myself, I am doomed, soon all of the road runners in the twin cities will read it and decide that they should give up their roads and come to the trails.

I scanned the titles:

• Best Train Runs
• Off-Road Gear Guide
• Run your first race
• Simple 30 day training plan
• 2011 event guide
• The Crown Jewels - the 25 best trail runs in America
• A guide to America's top trail running towns

If these titles are backed up with great info, not good.

You see, I like that a lot of my trails aren't populated with people, I love zoning out and soaking in the trail. I like that trail runners are a little different than road runners too. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

So I opened the magazine and proceeded to scan through the articles. As it turns out, I think we will be just fine, the articles look ok but they don't divulge a lot of information at least about Minnesota.

Did Superior make the 25 best trails?

nope. Ice Age did though, so keep that in mind when you head over to Wisconsin.

Did any Mn races make the event guide?

nope, closest one looks to be Keyes Peak Trail Run (never heard of it before)

Did Minneapolis make the top trail towns?

yep but they only mention Afton, Wirth, O'Brien, Dodge, Nerstrand and Winchell Trail System and not Lebanon Hills, the river bottoms and Murphy so my trails are safe. Matter of fact I had to look up Dodge and Winchell as I didn't think there were a whole lot of trails there.

What about races listed with the trail towns?

only Afton, Big Woods, Lifetime Trail Run Series, Salomon Autumn Trail Series and Trail Mix

Heck 2 out of the 5, I haven't heard of and of course those 2 are the races series and they have races on some of my favorite trails, check them out and it will make sense but No "Surf the Murph", No "Superior Trail races", No "Zumbro", No "In Yan Teopa", No "Voyageur", No "....." well you get my point.

So I think Runners World delivered at least for those of us that live in Minnesota, our trails and races are safe from the masses except they did put in a link to the Upper Midwest Trail Runners (let's hope the roadsters miss the link :-) If you want more links to the races above or places to run, check out the Upper Midwest Trail runners link.

I do have to admit though that since they mentioned some races that I haven't heard of, it's not that bad of an issue.