TRAINING IN AN URBAN JUNGLE

How do you train for a full season of distance trail running races while living in a city as urban as Manhattan? Just ask Glen Redpath.

By Lisa Jhung

PUBLISHED 03/29/2010

When did you get into running?
I ran my first marathon when I was 13 back in Winnipeg where I grew up, and have been running ever since. One doctor told my mother I might get knee problems if I continued to run marathons. That's probably when I realized I could get more out of my running if I trained on soft surfaces like trails. I still run and race on roads occasionally (2007 New York Marathon, 2:45; 2008 World Cup 100-K in Italy), but the majority of what I do is on trails.

What drives you on a day-to-day basis?
I attempt, to the best of my ability, to lead a responsible and ethical life. There's an irony here because underneath I'm a bit of a wild man. One of our theatre professors here at Fordham was recently quoted, "What the hell is wildness, and how do I get me some more of it?" In a way that's what my running is all about: getting me some more wildness.

Can you expand on that "wildness"?
Keeping myself challenged, tough, and aware in trail races is wild, and I prefer fighting fatigue, slogging through mud (as I did last June in Vail at the Teva Mountain Games 3-K Mud Run), skipping through rock fields, and sliding in snow to road running. It's these natural experiences that release my inner wild man...Unlike the urban jungle of NYC where I have to submerge the beast within. With a number of snowstorms this winter in NYC, I have turned my training towards running stairs (12 stories at a time) in preparation for Western States this June. Western States has 18,000 feet of up and 22,000 feet of down, and I'm doing what I can to be ready for it.

For more on the races and locations mentioned in this article, see the Runner's World RunPedia under Races/Schedules and Where to Run.