In Pursuit

A few evenings ago, despite my best intentions to head to bed early and get some much needed recovery from my current training, I instead became wrapped up in one of my favorite movies, The Pursuit of Happyness. In the tear-jerker of a film, Will Smith plays real life "obstacle-hurdler", Chris Gardner who overcomes an avalanche of adversity to become a successful stockbroker. Yes, the movie even manages to make stockbrokers sympathetic characters, and it is guaranteed to make your stomach turn at the thought of the excuses you've made over the past week.

Running with Jason

In his classic book, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, Alan Sillitoe wrote, “the long-distance run of an early morning makes me think that every run like this is a life- a little life, I know- but a life as full of misery and happiness and things happening as you can ever get really around yourself.” When I first read Sillitoe’s book, the solitary, individual journey his protagonist, Smith, takes as a young man – using running as a vehicle of rebellion – spoke to my typically angst-filled youth. Through the fictional Smith, and later living running heroes like Steve Prefontaine and Roger Bannister, I learned to believe that the purist form of distance running occurred alone and simply. A man and the miles became my definition of running, which lasted long into adulthood.