Calvin Wang's running persona based on Shawmont Running Club's trail tag. GO TO: https://icandybywangc.com/flavors/ctcloser/
• Serendipitous and deliberate • [1½ MIN READ] Since travel during race-training season often overlaps with customary training runs, one must make allowances. For me, making them gives me an opportunity to make friends in new spaces. Take Wife’s professional meetings, for instance. I’ll have her put out an announcement about a morning group run … More Accommodating Has Its Rewards (#324: 2025’10’01’W)
• I did 2024 okay • [2 MIN READ] Last week’s ZY Newsletter feature, “Elsewhere on the Web” (“Rumination 2”), got my attention because I wanted to compare notes with my experience last spring 2024. Then, I did two marathons in a row for the second time in my 14-year running career, those were to … More A Double-marathon Season (#198: ZY Weekly Newsletter 9/20/25)
• Instead of “Run” • [1½ MIN READ] It’s odd to think how many JRC GGR-ers, back in the day, were not actually denizens of Jenkintown, given the store’s name; but, you know, retailers can’t discriminate: it’s bad for business (Jenkintown Running Company online and this website). What’s odd, relatively, is how many Jenkintonians there … More Walk Report (#323: 2025’09’24’W)
• Yer a big deal already • [2 MIN READ] Newbie Kate joined the Growlers for the first time and created trouble immediately. For me anyway. As someone who writes about the club and its peeps, I don’t use full names. So, the first appearance of any name among the crew is not a problem, … More Welcome to a New Runner (#322: 2025’09’17’W)
• Begun as early as possible • [1 MIN READ] Torin was bor’n [sic] just 2 months ago and he’s already getting out there on the course. We’ve had a bunch of infants and kiddos joining the crew—some actually running—so we’re hoping good things for Torin’s interest in the Growlers. Whether the early exposure to … More Positive Influencing (#321: 2025’09’10’W)
• Accommodating • [2 MIN READ] All the phone gazing I do that SRC-ers tell me to stop caught up to me. What with the starting and pausing of MapMyRun or the logging of a thought or detail, club runners are worried about me injuring myself. “Ah, I’ll be fine,” I say dismissively. Until I’m … More Lessons from a Sprained Ankle (#196: ZY Weekly Newsletter 8/30/25)
• Avoiding • [2 MIN READ] Minimizing distraction would be a good way to avoid spraining an ankle. I could read a book and walk home from elementary school as a kid, but using a smartphone and running is not the same thing. Spraining an ankle off the roadbed where there was no curb was … More Lessons from a Sprained Ankle II (#197: ZY Weekly Newsletter 9/6/25)
• A certain kind of failure • [<1½ MIN READ] Using both Strava and MapMyRun to track every week’s run is a thing for me—both apps—as is getting a nice, round number to prove my compulsiveness. So, imagine my dismay when my phone battery died on me last week, midrun. Some people will argue running … More Run Report: 08’27’W (#320: 2025’09’03’W)
• Manor Road is great, too • [1 MIN READ] Twenty-one recorded runners took off from the horse stables at the top of Forbidden Dr with one newbie in tow, Lynette. She’ll get to Shawmont Avenue eventually—what with her sights on a first marathon with Philadelphia in November—but that run was to be an 8-miler … More Run Report: 6/14/25 (#190a: ZY Weekly Newsletter 6/14/25)
• Certainty amid uncertainty • [<2 MIN READ] Every marathon training cycle I’ve gone through lately has seemed to bring something unprecedented. With Philadelphia coming up 11’23’U (Sunday), this one has me needing to work especially hard on pace and bringing weekly mileage in line. Since the last marathon, Delaware Running Festival Marathon (04’06’U), I’ve … More Working Toward Philadelphia Marathon: 2025’11’23’U (#194: ZY Weekly Newsletter 8/23/25)
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