Then and Now

This past Wednesday, the 23rd, I moved back to my home town in Cape May for the summer. It has been nearly 3 years since I've been back here for anything more than a week at Christmas or Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it is a big transition. It is nice to come back to your roots, to pull into town and see the familiar places, faces, and to smell the long-missed aroma of the salty sea air. It is times such as now that give me a view of how I have changed, how I have grown, how I matured in my time away from home.

Early Thursday morning I got up to go for a run. While I start and finish nearly all of my runs from my parents' house, I decided to make this run's start/finish line at the western end of the boardwalk. I pulled up to the beach, stepped out, grabbed my running shoes from the back seat, climbed the sea wall, took a seat on one of countless benches that border the sea shore, and laced up for the first run of my summer at home.

It has been nearly 5 years since the last time I ran this route. woah.

The last time I ran this route was during my senior year of high school's cross country season. At that time, I had planned on going to school on a running scholarship. I already had offers from a number of schools but had yet to decide which one I would accept. By the end of the school year, with my not-knowing what I wanted to do with my life I decided not to begin college right away. I took a year off.

Spending that year away from the classroom was both foundational and life-shaping for my years to come. It was at this time that I took a year to run strictly for myself. I had no particular rivals that I had to compete against. I lived in the midwest and worked at a running store. It was fantastic. I ran about 70 miles per week and worked a full-time job that was entirely devoted to the sport which I love(d). I began to see running as not only a hobby or a sport that I was successful at in high school. Running was, and is, a lifestyle; part of who I am.

As that year came to a close, I decided to go into medicine and have spent the past four years at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. During these years, as has been mentioned in previous posts, running has been some what of an anecdote to the stresses of my undergraduate career. With only 2 classes to take this coming fall fall and graduation fast approaching in December, I count myself as practically graduated from undergrad.

So here I am, half a decade later, back at the starting line of the high point of my competitive running career in high school. But this time my run didn't start with the butter flies of toeing the line, the shouts of spectators, the nervous shaking of hands with your opponents, the occasional 'good luck", or that godforsaken sound of a starter gun (I always hated those). Instead, the intensity of then has been replaced with vacationers leisurely pedaling by on their beach cruisers and couples sitting on benches with the morning paper and cups of coffee.

That was then, this is now.

As my own imaginary gun went off in my head, I took my first steps of what would be maybe one of the more nostalgic runs of the past 5 years. My legs took me passed the lifeguard headquarters (which has a drinking fountain that has saved me on many occasions) and then to the smell of the local pancake house, and soon onto the boards in front of convention hall. These are all landmarks of the town I'm from, of the area where the runner inside me was born.

It began to hit me how much I and my running have changed since my earlier years. I am much more relaxed now. The harder parts of running: the setbacks, injuries and defeats used to truly rock me. I now understand, from experience, that they are merely part of the runner's cycle. This is all the more true in life. Life, like running, does not always (if ever) go according to plan.

In contrast to the disappointment mentioned in past paragraphs and posts, my post-high school running career has also included some of my greatest accomplishments in running thus far. I've run the prestigious Boston Marathon, I've taken 5th place in the Columbus Marathon, and have set personal records (PR) in both 10-miler events and the marathon.

Another aspect of running which has become so apparent to me is that, honestly, running is one of my best friends. Friends come and go, relationships are built and shattered, seasons begin and end, loved ones live and pass on.

But running; no matter how long I've had to put it aside at times, is always waiting for me when I get back. It's always ready to teach me about life; the value of persistence, setting goals, and taking time out of the day to enjoy the day for what it is, your life. Of which you only get one.


During my life as a runner, I have often questioned if I'd ever run again. But it's runs like these, runs that place you on a mountain top allowing you to look back and see how far you've come, that make me realize I will always run again. You can take many things away from a person, but you can't take away who they are. That is only given away. Given up. It's a choice. I am a runner. I will always be a runner.