Specular Skyline Run

Leaders
David Charatan (Co-Leader), Hannah Schlueter (Leader)
WIMP
Stella Lau
Program
3-season hiking
Type
Trail running
Trip date
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025
Difficulty rating
Difficult (L4)
Prerequisites
Physical fitness for running this distance; see details in trip description

Join us for a morning run of the Skyline Trail at Middlesex Fells, a classic local trail run. It's about 7.5 miles and 1500 ft of elevation gain. This will be a no-drop run: we will run at a pace that's comfortable for everybody on the trip.

We'll leave MIT at 7:10 am, start running around 7:30 am, and be back on campus later in the morning (usually between 9:45 and 10:15 am, but possibly later depending on traffic and pace).

There are no trip fees for this trip.

Prerequisites

Prior trail running experience is encouraged, but this trip can be fine as an introductory trail run too if you run regularly and have some hiking experience. As a rough guideline, you should:

  • Have no trouble running 8 miles on flat road at a 10:00 min/mi pace
  • Have no trouble on hikes with 3,000 ft of elevation gain

If you don't satisfy the prereqs, you're welcome to sign up anyways, but please email the leaders describing your recent running experience and fitness routine so we can make sure this is the right trip for you. The Skyline Trail is a bit more unforgiving than the Reservoir Trail (hillier, rockier, etc.); if you're unsure about Skyline, there will likely be Reservoir Trail runs to join instead in the near future. We usually run the loop in about 90 minutes.

If you're interested in joining after the sign-up period closes, please email the leaders so we can make sure we're set on logistics.

Gear

Make sure you bring the following gear:

  • Your phone
  • What you've worn in the past for running in similar conditions (current forecast: 10 C and sunny)
  • Water (can be left in the car)

The current trail conditions can be found here.

Ride Share

Please sign up for the ride share here after signing up for the trip! This trip is sometimes car-limited, so please sign up to drive if you're willing to do so!

(There is also an option to indicate alternative means of transportation if you don't need a ride. This will help us keep track of things.)


Signup

Algorithm
first-come, first-serve
Maximum participants
8
Signups opened at
April 18, 2025, 10:17 a.m.
Signups closed at
April 22, 2025, 8 p.m.
Notes
  1. Do you satisfy the prereqs? (yes/no)
  2. Will you fill in the ride share spreadsheet to sign up for a ride or mark yourself as not needing a ride immediately after joining the trip? (yes)
  3. What's a spectacular (or specular) adjective that starts with the letter S? You must name a unique adjective each time you join this trip.
Signups for this trip are closed.