Welcome to the Wild World of Trail Running

A collage of outdoor athletes running and hiking through a scenic mountainous landscape. — Titouan Bessire Filmmaker. Eljay Briss. Luis Escobar. Gary Hughs. Kyle LaFerriere. Getty Images.

IN THE YEARS following the Covid-19 pandemic, road running experienced a boom in participation and cultural cachet. We’re still in the midst of this, with race registrations breaking records and the zeitgeist firmly focused on the latest, greatest marathon shoes and the records that continue to fall in major races. But running isn’t only for the road. Trail running has also become much more popular over the past half decade—and appears to be growing at an even more rapid pace compared to other forms of exercise.

Stats bear this out. Trail running participation has increased 8 percent over the last five years, according to a Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) report, while running more generally has grown just .4 percent. Strava saw twice the number of trail runs logged in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2022. More runners than ever have been finishing ultra distance races (overwhelmingly held on trails), with every year since 2023 eclipsing pre-pandemic levels and 2026 on pace to set a new high.

But there are other signs of trail’s popularity and its community’s deep engagement: 93 percent of trail run activities on Strava receive kudos, according to the platform’s 2025 Year in Sport Report. Even more compelling: A State of Trail Running Report claims that only a tiny percentage of those who participate in trail running actually enter races (257,000 of the 14.8 million people).

What’s driving this growth? There’s bound to be an overlap between trail racing participation and the dopamine drive that has inspired an increase in fitness competitions across the board, especially since ultramarathons offer such an extreme challenge for thrillseekers. There are also just more runners generally, so it makes sense that more have taken interest in expanding beyond paved roads.

But there’s also the fact that trail running is so different than the other, more rigid activities that are popular today. As so much else in modern culture has become obsessed with optimization, trail running is stubbornly difficult to predict and perfect. There are too many variables to make trail as uniform as road, from the surfaces and course upkeep to the longer distances and the environment’s lack of infrastructure. That means that training, fueling, and racing are all different than the more standardized road approach—and in some ways, that can be liberating. As Nike Run Coach and Brooklyn Trail Club founder Jes Woods says: “When it comes to trail running for me, the dumber the better. The the harder it is, the better it is—because it takes all the pressure off of pace.”

There’s also the appeal of running in (relatively) untamed nature; there are reams of research about the mental health benefits that come with spending time outside. Trail running becomes an exercise of moving within an environment and adapting to its unique challenges, not just hitting the road and getting from point A to B as quickly as possible.

There’s a whole wide, wild world of trail running to explore—which is what you’ll find in these stories. From a first-person account of the mindset shift from roads to trails to training advice to our top picks for gear you can use on your own excursions, these articles will help you to be ready to get outside and into adventure.