“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ~ C. S. Lewis “Ignorance is always afraid of change.” ~ J. Nehru “I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” ~ Stephen Hawking Back when I was a young man, during its season, I used to play baseball every Thursday night with a group of friends. We used the diamond at a local school and, afterwards, went to our favourite tavern to tell our stories and laugh until closing time. One June evening in 1976, the friend sitting closest to me told me that he was going to start running the next day so that he could train with his daughter. We were both lamenting our lack of fitness. After listening to him, I replied that I would begin running as well. The following Saturday, I laced up my teacher gym class sneakers and began, choosing to run from my house down to the railroad tracks and then back home. The total distance was about one mile. I can’t remember how I felt, but I know I stopped at the tracks for a breather. What is most important about this reminiscence is that I went for another little run the next day. Thus began a generally consistent routine that has continued for almost 48 years thus far. Three weeks after my first run, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to drive to Montreal to watch some of the Summer Olympics. I met a group of friendly Americans there and was gifted free extra tickets for three days. I sat with them high up in the stadium, watching every track and field event. I slept in my VW Beetle for three nights in the downtown, no easy task.
I came home with my long-dormant interest in running very much rekindled. It is no overstatement to say that my decision to come back to running, after having left it behind at the end of high school, changed the path of my life. At the time, there was no plan or thought of where running would take me. I didn’t know anything about the sport, and I had no one to run with. As the months and years passed, I became more and more immersed. When Juta and I moved to Georgetown in 1982, I joined the newly-formed Georgetown Runners. Ten years later, I became a member of the Etobicoke Huskies Striders, at that time the foremost long-distance club in the country. I have run in races from 800m up to 10 days. Along the way, I was selected to national teams four times, representing Canada at World Championships in France, Quebec, South Korea and Italy. I have run on four continents. What a journey it has been. Many of my closest friends and favourite memories are a part of my life because of running. In a pub long ago, I had a moment of reckoning during a conversation that seemed quite inconsequential at the time. In fact, I had recognized a weakness, wasn’t happy about it and decided to face it. Most importantly, I persevered until I became better, until I enjoyed it more and until I reaped the benefits of finding a pursuit that was the right fit for me. For the first six years, I ran almost exclusively on my own, improving somewhat because I was persistent. I did take part in some road races, including a number of marathons. At that time, running was not my main sport, but it was a key contributor to my overall fitness. Real improvement and
