Phoebe Miles, Trail Runner

Phoebe Miles took up running in 2010 and she just kept going . The Wakefield Trails are a big party of that story. Here are some excerpts from our conversation with her.
 
“I am a runner. I started when my son wanted to run that first Wakefield covered bridge run in 2010, and I had never run a race before.

That was the year I turned 40 so there was definitely something about running with him and hitting a pretty big milestone….. So I went from 2010 running 5k to running 80k 8 years later. It’s become a huge part of my life…. I call it a dynamic meditation….Doing those long runs in the woods gives an opportunity for taking it slow and getting into your head and out of your head at the same time. Having a structured trail network for people to use, so that we’re not impacting tons of the forest but we have a place to go and a way to get there thru the woods is really important...It feels connected, both in body and with the things around me…connecting to something that’s bigger than me. Running on the trails, you can actually feel the earth…One of the things I do love is seeing community on the trails. It’s not like at the coffee shop or the grocery store – there’s another kind of interaction there…Having this network of community trails in Wakefield is a way for people to still go to the store and not walk on the sidewalk. Having that network in this community is pretty phenomenal.”
 
Listen to the full, incredibly inspiring podcast here (you might have your runners on before its over): ​

Phoebe Miles, Trail Runner