Trail running legend advises beginners: Enjoy the view and go easy

By Joseph Wilson

The Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain — Hikers navigating rugged terrain may have noticed more people speeding along the same trail while leaping over rocks and roots like two-legged mountain goats.

Trail running has exploded in popularity in recent years. The sport encompasses everything from off-road jogs on unpaved coastal paths to alpine ultra-marathons. Extreme versions are known as mountain running, which involves moving and sometimes scrambling uphill on varied surfaces, and sky running, which is done with even steeper inclines at altitudes above 2,000 meters (6,562 feet).

Few elite athletes have done more to bring long-distance running in the wilderness to the mainstream than Kilian Jornet. The star Spanish mountain athlete from the Catalan Pyrenees holds numerous world records in both trail running and ski mountaineering. He is a four-time winner of Europe’s Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, an ultramarathon that includes a 10,000-meter (32,808-foot) elevation gain over 170 kilometers (105 miles), and a five-time winner of the Hardrock Hundred, a similarly grueling endurance race in Colorado.

Jornet, 38, completed his most recent feat in early October: climbing 72 of the 4,200-meter (14,000-foot) mountains in the American West in 31 days while traveling from peak to peak only by foot or bicycle. But he says anyone can start trail running as long as they respect their natural surroundings and use common sense to stay saf...