National Trail Running Day: August 22, 2009
The First Annual National Trail Running Day is set for August 22, 2009 with dozens of events and races scheduled around the United States. From California to Maine, hundreds of beginner and expert trail runners will take place in organized off-road running events promoted on http://www.trailrunningday.org/
National Trail Running Day was established to celebrate and bring awareness to the increasingly popular sport of trail running. A recent study conducted by the Outdoor Industry Association found that nearly 5 million Americans went trail running in 2008, a 15.2% increase over 2007. Trail running is a fun and exciting way to build cardiovascular fitness and promote weight loss, especially for those who may have joint problems that prevent them from running on hard surfaces like concrete.
Trail running typically takes place on hiking or mountain bike trails. Organized trail running events cover distances from 5K up to 100K and many races include hundreds if not thousands of feet of climbing along the race course.
National Trail Running Day is being sponsored by http://www.SeriousRunning.com, the Kansas City Trail Nerds, and the Xterra Colorado Trail Run series. Anyone can participate or even organize a National Trail Running Day event at http://www.trailrunningday.org. Planned events include trail races, group trail runs, and trail clean-ups.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
