1386
It all started Friday afternoon. My girlfriend and I had been driving through Coolidge Corner, chatting about who-knows-what when it happened. I saw a familiar-looking man outside of Brookline Booksmith surrounded by Born to Run posters and engaging a modest cluster of individuals. I'd seen the man's face prior to on tv. He was Christopher McDougall.
Then I stopped, realizing he was midway via a conversation with an additional fan. I sheepishly withdrew inside to purchase a brand new copy of Born to Run.
When I got back outside, Chris was all mine. We spoke for some minutes, covering his book and how it changed my life and how I just began to read it a second time to pump myself up for my initial trail 50k and how I do not often say this but he's an astounding writer and it's such an extraordinary book and how I don't ordinarily read much except for school and how I gave five copies as Christmas gifts and... You get the picture. When I felt I'd possibly given him sufficient to write my life story, he signed my book: To John, Run Wild! [signed scribble scribble].
As we parted ways, Chris suggested I show up outside the Boston Public Library at noon the next day for a barefoot enjoyable run. For the rest of the day it was all I could take into consideration.
I showed up the next morning around 11:50 to uncover roughly twenty other bare- and
Vibram FiveFingers-footed runners already there. By twelve o'clock sharp our numbers had swelled to at the least fifty. Amongst the group were Chris, Vibram's Tony Post and... Scott Jurek! The god of trail running himself! The man who set the American record for miles run in twenty-four hours 165 was about to run with us around the Esplanade! The machine who won Western States some seven times in a row was an actual flesh-and-bones human dude! The trail warrior who raced the Tarahumara on their soil and nearly won..
All excitement aside, there was one quite calming, particularly reassuring aspect to the fun run. All of these men and women of whom I'd read about and idolized Chris, Scott, and Tony had been truly fairly down-to-earth, genuinely nice guys. Chris remembered me by name, Scott graciously chatted with me about I-don't-even-remember-what-I-was-so-excited, and Tony created a wonderful running buddy.
Indeed, of the whole star-studded cast, I enjoyed my time with Tony the most. Impossibly modest (Tony mentioned that he employed to run marathons but not until I read Born to Run the other night did I find out that he was when nationally ranked), Tony was also rather laid-back, enduring my endless questions about
Vibram FiveFingers and even offering some great suggestions for acquiring rid of their stench: soak them overnight in denture cleanser and enable to air dry. If you've recognized anybody who wears the toe shoes, you know what a lifesaver this advice is. (And yes, it works.)
Chris with his humor and wit, Scott with his genuine modesty and kindness, and Tony with extra of exactly the same (and excellent housekeeping guidelines) all produced me feel oh-so-proud to share their passion for distance running. And though I may perhaps by no means trek into Mexico's Copper Canyons to hang out using the Tarahumara and write a bestseller about it, nor trudge by means of 165 miles in a month let alone a day, nor finish a marathon south of three hours and run a multi-million dollar organization, with this crew I didn't have to. It was cool. I was 1 of them and we together were just a clan of running folks.
For that day I was afforded the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest time with characters from my favorite book. And they were even better in individual.
Vibram fivefingers
Linear Mode
