To find a club in your area, call the Road Runners Club of America at (703) 836-0558. The organization keeps a running list of local clubs and can put you in touch with one in your neighborhood. Or just look under "running" or "athletics" in the phone book and call a local running store. The proprietors are usually serious runners who probably know where to find a few clubs.

As a beginner, you should start with a relatively smooth local trail with few, if any, steep inclines. As with any new activity, it's better to ease into it. After a few weeks, when you're ready for something a bit more challenging, look for trails with steeper inclines, or remote locations with more obstacles to up the intensity.

What you'll need
The surface of the trail will determine the kind of shoes you should wear. If the surface is relatively smooth (grass, wood chips, cinders, or hard-packed dirt), you'll be fine with regular running shoes. If the trail is rough and rocky, you should probably invest in a pair of trail shoes. Here are the features you should look for:

First, examine the bottom of the shoe and check for a tough, waffled outsole. The tread should have a series of wide canals and ridges to help hook into rocky terrain and give you more stability.

To protect your feet, ask for shoes with toe bumpers (padding around the front of the shoe). This extra cushioning around the toe box will protect your feet if you stub them against something on the trail.

Also get a pair that's a half-size bigger than what you normally wear in a running shoe. This will keep your feet from being too squashed inside just in case you hit something along the trail.

If the places you're running on tend to be damp or muddy, you'll need a shoe with some form of waterproofing to protect your feet from getting wet. Look for anything that uses a Gore-Tex outer lining.

The rest of your trail gear depends on what kind of trail you're on. Shorts are fine but if the trails aren't well maintained, you may need to buy a pair of tights made of synthetic rip-stop nylon material to protect against scratches, ticks and poison ivy. If wearing tights is too warm (or just not your thing), try a pair of gaiters instead (lightweight, sock-like booties that protect from the knee to the ankle).

Wear a long-sleeved, synthetic T-shirt to protect your arms from exposure-sun and otherwise. A pair of lightweight biking gloves is a wise choice, too, just in case you lose your balance and fall forward.

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