Sounds of the light pounding of sneakers on grime and labored respiratory fill the skinny, mountain air. With seemingly nobody else round, a pack of runners stampedes down a protracted grime street. Winding by means of the forest, there’s a sense of belonging. The symphony of footfalls echoing round them evokes a shared feeling of function and achievement.
It evokes one thing else, too. They hadn’t anticipated it, however the farther they ran, the extra they regarded round on the landscapes that surrounded them, the extra they realized they weren’t simply coaching. They had been part of one thing a lot greater.
In late Might, I left my house in scorching and humid central Texas to search out some cooler air 1,000 miles west and seven,000 ft increased in elevation. My pilgrimage took me throughout farmland in west Texas, by means of the huge deserts of New Mexico and up into the peaks of the San Francisco Mountains, the place I discovered a mecca of distance operating: Flagstaff, Arizona.
Yearly, a whole lot of runners make their very own pilgrimage to Flag, because it’s colloquially identified. From the world’s very best to excessive schoolers with massive desires, runners flock to the mountain city for the altitude, cool morning temperatures, intensive networks of forest service roads and the group of smiling runners.
I went to Flagstaff for those self same causes. With my closing collegiate season as a aggressive runner quick approaching, I used to be decided to do the whole lot in my energy to succeed in the targets I had set for myself. I wished to be stronger, fitter, quicker. I wished to push myself farther and more durable than I ever had earlier than.
In order that’s what I did. Every morning, when my alarm rang with the rising solar, I ran. Down curving trails, up steep mountain ascents and thru wooded forests, I ran. With 14 miles on the docket some mornings, I ran (albeit begrudgingly). Alongside shut buddies, a few of whom I knew earlier than and lots of extra that I met alongside the best way, I ran.
The coaching wasn’t straightforward. Altitude took fairly a toll on my physique. Residing at 7,000 ft, the place there’s about 25% much less oxygen than my house at sea degree, I felt like I used to be respiratory by means of a straw. Considerably much less oxygen with each breath made runs typically brutal, gasping for air when there seemingly was none. However that’s precisely why runners go to Flagstaff. Over time, my physique tailored, creating extra purple blood cells to hold oxygen extra effectively. What had been my battle coaching within the mountains was turning into my power.
At summer season’s finish, I had achieved all that I had got down to do. I used to be stronger, I used to be fitter and I used to be quicker. However there was one factor I had achieved that I hadn’t got down to do in any respect: I finished to odor the flowers. So usually I had been so centered on coaching that I by no means took in my environment. I didn’t totally respect the proper area that the pure world had given me to follow the game I beloved.
Working in a spot like Flagstaff will try this to you. With every step, I discovered to understand the world round me. The pinecones littered throughout the forest ground, the comfortable grime for my ft to land on, the deer that ran throughout my path all started to catch my eye.
As every mile handed, I started to really perceive not simply the great thing about the paths, the mountains and the animals that surrounded me, however the necessity of constructing positive they had been there for the subsequent runner. My summer season would finish ultimately. However there will probably be extra summers, and extra runners. I understood, greater than I ever had earlier than, the facility and the need of conservation, of guaranteeing there would at all times be the chance to immerse oneself in nature in the best way that I had.
I had gone to the mountains as a result of I knew I wished to run. What I didn’t know was how a lot it could change the best way I noticed the world round me.
In truth, I shouldn’t have been shocked by the connection I felt to nature by means of operating. The very beginnings of the game hint themselves to the connection between people and the good open air. As soon as, as naturalist and distance runner Bernd Heinrich notes, people ran to seek out prey. They ran for survival. For the reason that starting of human reliance on the land round us for survival, we’ve got run. Working has at all times been an integral a part of our connection to the Earth.
As we speak, the tie between operating and nature might not appear so apparent. Not will we run from predators or to catch our subsequent meal. Now we run for well being, for group, for a morning adrenaline rush or for another variety of causes. And but, nature nonetheless supplies us with the paths we run on, the solar illuminating our path ahead, the cool breeze we really feel with every step and the whole lot round us that makes operating so particular.
When my summer season roommate, Walt, and I talked about our journey collectively, we each reached a conclusion on what had made it so particular. No less than for us, actually experiencing the gorgeous locations throughout our Earth was solely attainable by means of coaching. For us, the connection to nature feels deepest as we fly throughout its trails, by means of its rivers and down its mountains. With adrenaline speeding by means of our physique, we don’t simply really feel on high of the world. We really feel at one with it.
The light pounding of my sneakers on grime and my labored respiratory not fill the skinny, mountain air. I arrived among the many ponderosa pine bushes to run. The footsteps I left alongside the grime roads that wind by means of their leaves inform a distinct story. They mark the a whole lot of miles that confirmed me how a lot I owe to nature, and why the combat to preserve it issues a lot.
Thomas Melina Raab is a student-athlete at Trinity College in San Antonio, TX, the place he runs cross nation and monitor. He spent Summer season 2025 as a Trigger Advertising & Model Partnerships Intern with The Nature Conservancy, working particularly on elevating TNC’s sports activities advertising and marketing efforts. Thomas spent a lot of his internship creating messaging that wove collectively the worlds of sport and nature, an intersection he has grown acquainted with throughout his time operating.
