Our Night With Dick Beardsley

A big thanks to Dick Beardsley, and his wife, Jill, for coming out again to run and speak with us last night. I'm sorry things ran as late as they did, and I'm annoyed that I forgot to take a group picture of us with him...

When you get to know me very well, you'll see that one side of me is really focused on the mechanics and fundamentals of running, and of training for an event like a half marathon or marathon. A lot of that is just the geeky side, that is fascinated by the physics and the science and the logical processes. Maybe all that would be enough for me to want to coach, but if that were all, coaching and running would be interests, not passions. What I am passionate about is the perspective running can put the rest of our lives into, and Dick obviously epitomizes that. His life speaks to his running, and his running speaks to his life, and the attitude that results from him is what makes him one of my heroes, and like I said last night, an example for what I want us to get out of running in Team Spiridon.

On top of all that, he came out last night for honestly an embarassing pittance, pretty much as a favor. I'm looking forward to us returning that favor by raising some funds for the Dick Beardsley Foundation, as well as Emancipet - apparently, they have quite the menagerie, themselves, and Jill has been known to rescue baby squirrels...

We got to hear his recounting of the 1982 Boston Marathon. Here's video of it. Much as I love U2, the music is a bit cheesy, but I've never found another extensive video posted without it...