iCandybyWangC

• With what velocity and zest •

[1½ MIN READ]

Oh, the stories that come from runners and the ones they live.

I met Ab as a traveling-team member to Black Men Run last week. The typical runs there from Lloyd Hall are 5 miles, pacing around 10 minutes/mile. There are plenty of opportunities to gab with one runner or another and I learned that Ab had just started running 6 months ago. He’d been trying to get out to BMR regularly. Ab was 40-something by my guess and had an indefatigable spirit. I could tell that he was working pretty hard at our pace, but he wasn’t going to grouse about the effort as he cheerfully commented, “It’s all good.”

The plan was to go down the riverfront trail for 5, but construction turned us away from the Schuylkill into Center City and we decided to cross over into University City before returning. As we traversed UC and returned back, it became clear that we were going to exceed the usual 5 miles. We closed in on Lloyd Hall as we passed 5½.

As they reached the recreation center, T’Adam and Ab passed our starting point together. I yelled out to them, but they opened up their pace as I realized they were targeting exactly 6, even if it meant adding on, and that at top speed.

There was much congratulating going around as we closed out the evening in a cheer for family. During our drive back to Jenkintown, Jay-var, T’Adam, and I spoke admiringly about Ab from whom we had all learned his new-runner status. He had come far, but he was clearly going to keep going with all the gusto he could muster.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue

FINE PRINT *With thanks to Dr. Seuss (Amazon). ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2025’11’05’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun with added caption and enumeration.

 

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