Now that I have a running vest, I have a lot more freedom to run in places where I don’t normally go.  With this in mind, I decided to go for a completely different long run today; I did a trail run.

I had a two hour, easy effort, run scheduled today, and so I decided I would try some trails for a change. I could run easy and I could just walk up any hills that I encountered.

There is a locally famous trail, that runs through the local park that I use a lot for working out; it’s called the Rachel Carson Trail. I have seen the trails dozens of times, but I never run on it before, so today I decided to do just that.

Rachel Carson was born in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, and she is famous for writing a book called ‘Silent Spring’.  The book, published in 1962, documented the indiscriminate use of pesticides in America and the effect the pesticides were having on wildlife. 

The book pitted Rachel Carson against the chemical industry, who fiercely opposed her findings and tried to discredit her.  In the end however, her findings were confirmed by government scientists.  In addition, the public opinion got behind the book and campaigned for legislation on pesticide use. The modern environmental movement was born out of these protests. A few years later, the pesticide DDT, which caused egg thinning in birds of prey like the Bald Eagle was banned. 

Rachel Carson, who is largely unknown, was great scientist and a gifted writer.  Sir David Attenborough recognized her, saying that ‘Silent Spring’ was the book that changed the scientific world the most, after the ‘Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin.

I thoroughly enjoyed my run, and thought it especially poignant that part of the trail that I ran on today, passed by the nest that Bald Eagles built in our park, two years ago.  The nest, and the joy that the eagles have brought to the people of the park, is a fitting tribute Rachel…