Everyone that signed up for Mount Marathon got a free copy of Trail Runner Magazine in their race packet. In that issue was an article about “Fastpacking”, which has something to do with packing super light for overnight trail running trips.

While all of my friends are buying into the new pack raft thing like it’s already going out of style, there’s just something about it that isn’t for me. I think it’s the weight and the size and the fact that I’d rather run like a real runner than a waddler with a white water fixation. But the idea that you can run for miles and miles with a night’s gear on your back changes all the rules for the game.

Last year I did an overnight with a friend in an attempt to scout the Crow Pass race trail (which happens to be this Saturday). I carried my summer sleeping bag, a small down sleeping pad about the size of a Nalgene and some peanut butter and squashed bananas (next time knix the bananas). We ran in and camped about six miles in, and ran tempo intervals from there (barely sub-threshold 10 minute intervals for you skiers) the next 5 miles to the river over burley rock slides and non-existent trail markers.

The very first time that I realized that I preferred running over walking was back in the fall of 2004 while traveling in New Zealand. I was in a hard-core hippy phase and refused to buy shoes for more than $20 and had promised myself to hike the entire Abel Tasman track with an even cheaper pair of sandals in order to train my feet not to need shoes. Talk about dirty hippy drool…

After boring myself to tears for three days, I decided to run for a little ways and realized that I could cover the entire trail in only a couple of days. The experience of the trip was instantly 100% more fun!

Exactly five years later, I run the distance covered on that trip in a single workout (25 miles) while also gaining far more altitude. Subsequently, this whole “Fastpacking” thing sounds like a natural progression for people that get bored walking but also want to soak in the life juice from overnight wilderness trips.

But, while magazines will come up with trendy marketing phrases for so much as dropping a donkey, I’d like to say that cruising single track with ultra light economy sounds more like a plain old fast-paced overnight trip to me.

Hmm….I think I’ll call it running.

More to come.

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Edit:
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about how having nothing but rich white kids in nordic skiing is holding the sport back. I’d like to clarify that by “rich white kids” I mean anyone that didn’t grow up in the ghetto playing on the metaphorical milk crate basketball hoop.

In the context of tapping the poor masses, you don’t count even if you are working full time and your parents aren’t paying a dime for you to ski. If you even tried to make this argument, then you are absolutely still a rich white kid.

What I’m listening to right now: DI.fm European Trance Channel

Today I tried a couple of new rossi demo setups at Kincaid. I was up practically all night celebrating with the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame guys, so my body wasn’t all there but it was fun trying out some new stuff. I’ve never used Rossignol gear before and was stoked that that first pair of skis were FAST! They’ve got a little more pop than my Fischers and were super slick on tonight’s tilled up old snow.

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