Running Log

Here's my running log that I'll update weekly. To view details of workouts, please visit this Google Docs page and highlight the workout. Additionally, you may choose to view my Strava profile. Last but not least, I've also started writing some race reviews on JustRunLah!



Thursday, June 26, 2014

Teamwork, dreams work

"Without them," he said, "I probably would have gone home months ago."

There's a photo of Walsh from the morning after last week's wedding. He's crossing the finish line of a local 5-K. Beet-red, hung-over, just a few strides ahead of the top female finisher. Eighteen minutes are showing on the clock–a mediocre time for a high school boy. And yet, his head is back, his arms are raised.

But it's not what you think.

Walsh spent the first couple years of adulthood drinking too much, his weight ballooning, and when the market crashed in 2008, he found himself living at home on Long Island, aimless and depressed.

"Basically," Walsh told me, "I went out into the world and came back with my tail between my legs. It's interesting, because I'm never a very focused person, I can never do the same run two times in a row, but my first week back, I ran around my block–which is a mile and a half–seven days in a row. For me to go back out later in life, I needed to start with this little circle around me."

Only now does it occur to me that he could just as easily be talking about this world he and his teammates have built for themselves.

"Before the wedding," he continued, "I would run with these guys, and my form would be choppy, trying to keep up with them. And I'd just keep thinking you're not in shape, you're not in shape, you're not in shape. And then I went home and ran a s–t race–"

"This was the 5-K?"

"Yeah. But you know, I ran. I ran a race. Finally. I put on a singlet, I put on a number, and I ran something.
"And I came back, and I was just worried. Worried about a job, worried about being 28, worried about all of this–but then I go on these runs with you and Adam, and I realize I sort of feel pretty good. And then today, none of that worry from before my trip was there. I attribute a lot of that to Julian. Because Julian is willing to, like, start easy and then we'll roll. And Julian eventually went on to push the pace on the front group.

"A day like today makes it worth it. I toughed it out, things are starting to click, and. . .I looked like a runner."

Now, he closes up the grill and carries in one final plate of food. It's almost 9 p.m.; looks like we'll have leftovers. Amid the yawns, plans are hatched for tomorrow's workout. Looking around, I realize that the whole family is here. I am suddenly desperately nostalgic for my old roommates Ian and Jeff. I know what it's like to be in your twenties, to live with your best friends. That part I know. But there's something else here. For all we shared at 2928 Pine Street, the three of us dreamed three very different dreams. The part I don't know–the part I love–is watching these guys dream together.

Adapted from Runnersworld. Read the full article here.

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