Characteristics of a good trail runner? How to improve as a trail runner?

These responses rock. So helpful! I'm just now reading the last few, I'll reply when i get out of work and have more time!

zzzz wrote:

I watched Emelie Forsberg win Mt. Marathon a couple days ago and she was amazing on the downhill - as fast as noted downhiller Rickey Gates and faster than the 3rd place guy in the men's race. Here she is on a different downhill, showing speed, quick feet, and great flow:

Gates may be a "noted downhiller" in the trail running world, but he's not, objectively, particularly good at downhilling. I believe he's lost to Strabel before, maybe even on Marathon, because he's so bad at downhilling in the grand scheme. Strabel's not much of a runner, but he's strong, and he crushes downhills relative to most of the rest of the mountain running community because he's running, not braking the whole way like Gates. I'm not convinced "quick feet" or "flow" have anything to do with it. Maybe quick feet in the sense that they've gotta be explosive and ready to correct in a split-second. But the "Gates-style" descent, which appears to be in vogue among a bunch of trail folks, strikes me as a terribly slow and inefficient way to cover the terrain theyre covering. Watch a dog or a reasonably athletic boy under the age of ~15 go down hill, and do it that way.

Trail Dawg wrote:

I'm admittedly not a very good collegiate runner.

You answered your own question.

ataglance wrote:

Trail races are like XC, don't worry about time, if you are racing it (not just trying to finish) just concern yourself with place. Every race is so different that fretting over av pace is an effort in futility.

I think this is the cause of a lot of people going too hard on the climbs. When racing for position, it's very hard to let the pack or leader go ahead. I very often manage to catch (and pass) people on the descents, after conserving energy on the climbs. Perhaps that's partly due to my particular ratio of trail-skills to fitness (I finish much better in technical terrain than on the road), but I encourage more people to try and work on more even effort, making up ground at the end of the race.

It's like HS XC races... everyone goes out REAL hot, and while it's tough to let the leaders gap you from the start, it can be the smart decision, and result in a stronger finishing position.