Chasing Trails with Christine Reed

Christine Reed always hated running when she was young. She even has memories of crying when she had to run the mile in phys ed class. But then when she was 25, she hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail, and upon returning home, she realized she had a lot of energy she needed an outlet for. “I went from hiking all day to sitting on the couch all day, and I knew I had to do something,” she says. “I started running just to move my body.” 

Even then, it took years for her to admit she liked it. She went through a couple of Couch-to-5K training cycles followed by a half marathon, but it wasn’t until she started training for ultra distances that she realized her love of it. How did she go from hating one mile to running ultramarathons? “I had that moment when, in the midst of running, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m having fun right now,’” she recalls. “That never happened until then. And now, I do like running.” 

Trying Out Trail Running

Christine says part of her discovery was transitioning from road running to trail running. “I like being out in beautiful places, and with trail running, there’s less pressure to be running the whole time—I can walk some of it,” she explains.

Although Christine has done a 50K, she doesn’t do a lot of races. Instead, she sets other types of goals, such as her current ambition of summiting all 29 of the 12,000-foot peaks in New Mexico, something she wants to be able to do in under 10 days (the current record is six days). She’s hoping to attempt that challenge this fall. 

One of the things that keeps her going is a chronic illness, which she feels “defiant against” when she challenges herself in these ways. “I can use this as an excuse to not do stuff, or I can use it as motivation to see what’s possible even with this condition,” she says.

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Managing Expectations

Even with such a positive outlook, she’s realistic about her limits. She’s made a few attempts at the Ouachita National Recreation Trail — a 200-mile expanse that’s dubbed an Epic Trail by the International Mountain Biking Association—but she hasn’t been able to finish it yet. Her first attempt was in 2022, and she says, “That did not go as planned for various reasons … I needed to stop because I was going to get injured.”

In other circumstances, it’s about managing expectations. She had similar problems with her feet during a 40-miler, but managed to finish by slowing her pace. “I probably recognized about 8 miles in that I wasn’t recovered from a previous thing I’d done and this race wasn’t going to go the way I thought it was going to go,” she says. “I still did it, I still finished, but it was slower than I expected, and I paid a hefty price for it afterward.”

You Can Do It, Too

Her message to others who see her undertaking the challenges she does is simple and encouraging: You can do it, too. Barring a physical disability, she believes most people who can run a mile would be able to train for these distances. “If you can run 1 mile, you can run 100 miles, because it’s about the motivation to go out there and do it,” she says. “The motivation to complete a training program is all you need. The distance doesn’t matter all that much.” 

As for Christine herself, she’ll spend the summer dedicated to that training plan for the 12,000-foot peaks—and when fall comes around, she’ll be ready to undertake her next big challenge.

You may not go from one mile to running ultramarathons but you do have to take that first step if you want to reach your goals. This is applicable in running but also other facets of life. Don’t let fear stop you. Instead, use it as motivation to tackle that obstacle in your way.

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