Evangelism

 

 

How I was Converted

To a runner’s world, that is.

 

 

I’m no runner.  I tried it once but gave up.  That was back in the 1970’s when the first big aerobics movement hit the ground running.  It just didn’t work for me.  One of my friends persuaded me to try running.  All I discovered is running may work for some people, but not for me.

 

I didn’t fit with the running crowd.  I’ve known runners, at least from a distance.  Most of them are tall gaunt figures that looked like they just escaped from a POW camp.  Me?  I'm built something on the order of a beer barrel.  Beer barrels have a hard time running.  I figured I wasn’t cut out for doing things like marathons.  So I simply never ran for 30 years.  Walking was just fine for me.

There was one runner I did admire quite a bit.  Jim has an office next to me and I frequently whisked by him in my car as he was running.  I admired his discipline.  Jim never tried to talk me into running.  He never made me feel guilty for not being a runner.  In fact he pretty much kept his running to himself and only occasionally talked about it, and even then never in a bragging sort of way.  I admired Jim, b