Ahh Running!

I frequently run on the Minute Man bike trail that starts in Davis square and goes 13 miles to Lexington, MA. The trail is smooth and flat making it a perfect training spot for long mile runs. It weaves through the suburbs with forest, beautiful meadows, lakes, and house lining it. It used to be a train route and you can see that with some of the leftover train tracks. It is on this trail that I find home putting in hours and hours of training runs. I have grown fond of the trail that lets me run with little obstruction from traffic. There are never surprises except for the people I meet on the trail. That’s right. I started to talk to total strangers that I met on trail running with them engaging with them over their training and other happenings in their life.

There was Derrick who was a lawyer who went to Tufts. I asked him about Law school and he told me about some of his regrets, but also his current enjoyment with law. His wife had dropped him off and he was now running back home to Arlington.

There was Felix a middle-aged bearded man covered in tattoos and piercing. The most striking thing about him though was that he ran barefoot. His gait was strange and slow and after asking him about why. He went into a long diatribe about the health benefits and how its “natural”. I was interested, but not ready to jump on the bandwagon. We talked about his job as a social worker and all the tough aspects but also the rewarding aspects of his job. I said goodbye to him and picked up the pace. I also still see him ever so often and give him a big hello on the trail.

There was Lisa, an internal medicine doctor at MGH who told me to run Madrid this spring which I signed up for last week. We talked about life after college and about Medical school. She seemed to love being a doctor. I told her about Felix's barefoot running and she said it was a hoax and probably more harmful than beneficial. I think I'll take the doctor's word on this. We also talked about a career which I explained to her I was very confused about. This led to a conversation about podcasts and some of our favorites including planet money. Her husband is also a doctor and her super enthusiastic about running and gave me some running tips.

There was Arman who worked in the Biotech industry. He talked to me about Bombay (not Mumbai according to him) and its history. His wife was also pregnant and due anytime. I asked him if he had his phone on him if there was a call. He said no so I told him he could use mine which doesn’t really make sense in hindsight because he wouldn’t get a call in the first place.

There was Nick, a student at HBS who worked as a bioengineer before making it to HBS. We talked about his career and then HBS. He said he was going to run his first marathon in February and I wished him the best.

And there were many more that brought company and wisdom. I am thankful for all these short-lived running partners and look forward to the new ones I will meet.

I love running and meeting these people because it is so serendipitous. We run, talk and enjoy each others companies without knowing anything about each other. It's an uninterrupted and real interaction. It's something that feels lost in this age of technology. In the end, though, we always part ways finally relinquishing our names and going about the rest of the run back home. I always come back to Tufts and tell my friends of the people I have met.