Category Archives: running

Be thankful if you’re not decommissioned

There are not many statistics about how many endurance athletes are forced to give up their sports due to injury or other conditions. But it happens. And if you’re still running, riding and swimming, you should be thankful. Not everyone … Continue reading

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Shut up and run

Perhaps you’ve been through a phase in life in which you’re not so proud, or weren’t so happy. It’s quite common for example at 19 or 20 years old, to go all Goth in the head and question everything you … Continue reading

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How to run a marathon without really trying

A photographer friend sent me a photo after yesterday’s Fox Valley Marathon. There was some guy named Chris that looked like me who was running the race. Perhaps I ran 26.2 miles yesterday and did not even know it. That’s how … Continue reading

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Separate ways

I had the best friend ever growing up in Pennsylvania. Our family moved to Lancaster when I was five years old. Within days, my mother somehow met up with a woman whose son was the same age as me. We … Continue reading

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Rehumanize yourself

Now that football players have come to the realization that they are not robots run by the NFL, the nation has been grappling with what it means not to stand during the National Anthem or recite the Pledge of Allegiance … Continue reading

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Before (and after) the frost

During a cross country season my sophomore year in high school, a friend and I were paired up to do an outdoor field biology project. His name was Doug Benson, I believe, who was a teammate and friend. The instructor … Continue reading

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When the autumn light leads to inner light

The last few days have been so pristine and beautiful here in Illinois it almost takes your breath away. The skies have been clear. Hardly any breeze. That led me to take a run in the forest preserve where the … Continue reading

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Moving on

  In 1973 my father made the decision to move our family from Elburn, a town in the cornfields of Illinois, to a city in the far west reaches of Chicago’s suburbia. The move hurt because I was sixteen going on … Continue reading

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The Biggest Loser

  Through the third week of the high school cross country season during my senior year in high school, I had not lost in a series of dual meets and triangulars. Then came the first invitational of the season, a … Continue reading

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Embracing our animal characteristics

  While sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for a physician’s assistant to look at the weird bruise I picked up on the back of my arm, I glanced through a children’s nature magazine sitting on the counter. And there … Continue reading

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