Resilient I/O: This is about running…
2020 has been unrelenting. Thanks to Coach Bennett, so have I.
I can’t tell you exactly how I came to the Nike Run Club app and Coach Bennett; installing a free app from a running apparel company didn’t seem notable at the time. But I vividly remember that first run at La Tierra Trails.
I started at La Cuchara trailhead. Track 1 was “No Quarter,” by Led Zeppelin.
“Close the door, put out the light.
You know they won’t be home tonight.
The snow falls hard and don’t ya know
The winds of Thor are blowing cold”
The ground was pockmarked and slick with the refrozen footsteps of the runners and hikers who’d been out the day before. I started the guided run. Coach Bennett introduced himself, and he offered his most consistent advice. He says it differently every time, but it always amounts to:
We’re just getting started, and there’s a long road ahead. Start easy. Run the right way now, so you can run the right way later and finish strong.
I’ve come to appreciate that generic coaching entails relevant instruction at a moment in training, while good coaching advances the arc of a runner’s journey as an athlete, and great coaching speaks to the athlete’s journey as a person. I had no idea at the time, but in early 2020, “reserve some resilience for the long road ahead” was exceptionally great coaching.
Coach Bennett often marks moments of great coaching with words that bring a smile to my face: “This is about running. This is also not about running.”
As someone who speaks often about the importance of reading during our runs, I suspect he recognizes the literary faux pas in making the metaphor so explicit, but Coach Bennett wouldn’t risk letting an athlete end the run with any less than everything he’s offering. This, like his occasional indulgence in bad jokes, is an essential marker of his warm and generous nature, and these charming moments earn trust and endear him to the runner.
In the time I’ve spent on roads, sidewalks, trails, tracks, and treadmills with Coach Bennett, I’ve completely reframed my view of athletics. Growing up, every season I was expected to participate in some sport. I better appreciate my parents’ reasoning now, but at the time, I never learned to shift my anxieties about competition into excitement that might have inspired a real love of my time in jerseys, cleats, and goggles.
To make matters worse, many of my most memorable teammates were the cruel ones. As they made my life miserable, I came to resent sports, viewing them as a route for brutish people to gain notoriety and acclaim, rather than a means for thoughtful seekers to grow strong in kind and quiet confidence. Through most of my adult life, that sharp angle only dulled slightly, until recently.
In that first run, I was coached through 5 miles of meaningful movement. In the months since, good coaching has helped me carry my body almost 500 miles by my own power. Great coaching has helped me carry myself by that same power through grief and disbelief at the shape the world has taken around me. I’ve learned to take each run and each day as they come, and to focus on the things I can control to keep making progress.
I’ve seen unbelievable scenery along the way. Runs like the “Thank You Run” have elevated my gratitude, and runs in the “Mindful Running Pack” with Headspace Co-Founder Andy Puddicombe have helped me grow in resilience and joy (you can find the Headspace app here). I’ve been inspired by stories from runners like Lopez Lemong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, and Joan Benoit Samuelson, who won the first-ever Women’s Olympic Marathon at the 1984 LA Games.
I’ve learned to approach massive challenges with patience and openness. I’m on track to run my first marathon in December. I’ve proven to myself that I can keep going, rising to any new challenges along my way from starting line to starting line, knowing there are no finish lines.
This is about running. This is also not about running.
In an exceptionally difficult year, I’ve endured and built endurance for whatever else is yet to come, and I am very grateful for that. There’s so much more I could say about the particulars of my time running with the Nike Run Club app, but I suspect these moments are better experienced than recounted, so I encourage you to click the link below, download the app, navigate to the Guided Runs section, and spend some time making miles go by with Coach Bennett.
If you’re just getting started with running, remember there’s a long road ahead, so start smart and start easy to maintain the energy and enthusiasm you’ll need to keep going later. Take advantage of the “Get Started Collection” of easier runs, and feel free to walk instead of running as you get comfortable out on the roads, trails, or treadmills around you. Keep in touch with how you’re feeling. Be honest with yourself. Focus on engaging with the program in ways that keep you progressing, while feeling your best, and you’ll be amazed at what you can do.