125 miles of trails.

All of it contained in the Blue Hills – Conservation land 10 miles south of downtown Boston.

“Hike ‘em all” – They said.

“See the whole park.”

This is the challenge they set forth.

 “They” – are the Friends of the Blue Hills Not For Profit that assists in caretaking the reservation.

The challenge concept started in 2021.  I was intrigued at first, but then thought I’d trail run most of park already and this was for Newbies.

Blue Hills 125 was put on the shelf (but not forgotten).

For the next year as I ran and hiked the same ol’ routes, BH125 rattled around my headspace.  Unknowingly gaining momentum – snowballing – stealthily moving up the priority list.

December 2022 I was poking around the web thinking about running / hiking / biking destinations for next year when the commemorative patch for finishing all 125 miles of trail on the Blue Hills website was in front of me.

I do want to run all the trails! 

In prior conversations I would sometimes boast, “You could drop me anywhere in the Blue Hills and I’d know where I was.”

Really?  Would I really know?  Or are am I just being pretentious?

That self-shaming and the glory of earning the patch is all it took – I started in January 2023. 

Mile 0. 

No runs or hikes from the previous years count.

Novelty set in immediately running trails on sections of the Blue Hills I rarely go to.

And something unexpected happened.  With a legible section of the map in hand for every run, my mind descended into the process. 

Need to check off the trails in some semblance of order.

Concentrating on maps and figuring the turns during short February days had me running at speed and with urgency to get the hell out of the woods before the sun set.

Looking down at my watch to see I’d run 2-3 miles more than planned. 

Pushing some edges to clip off trails far away from the any parking so I wouldn’t have to run 2 miles back in to capture 50 feet of missed trail.

This happened at least a dozen times. 

So many times that I gave it a name – “125 Nuttyness” (Yes, misspelling is intentional).

The usual motivation to run – physical and mental fitness – was going through a metamorphosis.

It was becoming something other. 

It became a project I committed to.

Which was all very interesting to experience.  I’ve been a consistent trail runner for over 20 years and this was just trail running too – Right?

Yeah, but the motivation had been completely reframed.  There was compound meaning behind each run.  There was more navigation through the trails.  There was preplanning each run to efficiently get on new trails. 

I’d printed out sections of the map and highlighted each trail I ran.

Sooooo satisfying and rewarding streaming the bright yellow pen over the trail while mental images of being there escorted my hand motions. 

The page went from black and white to covered in yellow until the section was complete.  Then a new section was printed out.

I was thinking about the trails – when and how I’d run them when not running.  I thought about finishing and filling out the online form to get the patch.  I obsessed over the entirety of the entire map and which section to tackle next.

Momentum built and I put to rest any ideas of going for a run that wasn’t purely a new trail gettin’ part of BH125. 

February turned to March turned to April and I was seeing highlighter yellow on most of the map.

With over 75% of the trails complete, gravity took hold. 

This was going to happen.  None of it was an effort.  I was addicted to this process.

By early May, Blue Hills 125 was my identity. 

Conversation with people at work, my friends, family, any casual query…

 …“What have you been up to?” …

 All filled in with tales from the trails in the Hills.

Memorial Day weekend was the last run.  A double effort running two different sections where I had to drive and park between them. 

I never do that.

Sitting in the car means the running is done. 

But there I was – restarting for the last run on trails I’ve never been to. And admitting I wouldn’t know where I was if dropped there.

Trying to unseize the muscles that constricted and tightened from the first run during the ride over.

I loved it all.   These last steps were the victory lap of a 5+ month project.

All up, it took 37 individual runs over 206 total miles to run every trail.

Better route planning and more focus on just new trails in Jan. & Feb. would have lessened the totals.

But I liked that it was mildly haphazard and – NOT – fully planned.  Too much structure can ruin the party sometimes.

So what’s the big take away from this?

Why did I post my silly little trail project to you all?

Reframe the familiar.

Break large goals into small attainable pieces.

Focus on the Process.

20 years of trail running in the Blue Hills had me thinking I’d seen and done it all.

Nope.  Not even close. 

Because it wasn’t the trail and forest I was seeing with my eyeballs, it was the newness of motivation to…

“Run ‘em all.” 

…To navigate and strategize the trail gettin’.

37 runs during the first half of the year – each one unique. 

Normally, I repeat the same half dozen routes or string together familiar trails as part of my usual efforts. 

Routine, comfort, non-thinking, habit.

We make our lives like this both purposely and unconsciously to make it easy. 

To reduce the friction. 

To cycle through the days on Auto-pilot.

That’s all well and good.

But you’ve got to shake some shit up and tune that lazy brain to a different station.

You’ve got to put some resistance in there.  Repackage the regular. Lean into it.

And sometimes – you get a little token to mark the effort 😊.