Return, Not Escape

Thirty years on the trails taught me that peace isn’t found in leaving, it’s found in coming back


I follow a lot of trail and ultra-runners on Instagram and watch podcasts and YouTube content. I love the sense of community in the trail and ultra scene. There’s one message I hear a lot from athletes and creators — that trail running is an escape from work, stress, noise, everything that grinds us down.


I have to disagree. I get why people say it, but I think it’s the other way around.


The trail doesn’t pull you away from life; it brings you back to it.


That sense of calm and balance we feel on the trails, especially in forests, doesn’t come from running away from our problems. It comes from returning to the environment where we belong.

After more than thirty years of running trails, I’ve come to believe we’re not meant to live surrounded by concrete and glass, but by rock, soil, and trees. We’re not built to hunch over keyboards, but to move — to hunt, to notice, to be awake.


Our stress levels drop not because we’ve escaped reality, but because we’ve returned to it. We’ve just mixed up which world is real.


Science even backs this up: time in nature reduces cortisol and restores balance. The Japanese call it shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing — the simple act of being among trees. And running, our most natural motion, is something we share only with a few endurance animals like wolves and wild dogs.


It’s primal. It’s honest. Out there, surrounded by rocks and trees, I feel more complete than I ever do among my possessions. On the trail, there’s nothing I need — apart from water, fuel, and the rhythm of my breath.

 What's next? Find your wild! 



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