Coach Spewak’s Running Journey
When I was 12 years old, I proclaimed I was going to become a runner. I had no formal running experience outside of running to first base or up and down a basketball court or football field. My oldest brother Mike was a successful high school cross country and track and field athlete. There aren't many 12 year olds who idolize skinny high school boys running around in short shorts. However, I was one of them. Mike and his friends were my heros and I aspired to be them some day.
What many people don't know is that my second oldest brother Danny used running as a way to get in shape for football. He encouraged me to start running 1-2 miles a few times a week on the treadmill after dinner. He could technically be considered my "first" coach! I am not sure why he prescribed evening miles to a boy trying to get into shape who most nights was hopping on the treadmill with a full stomach of Nancy Spewak's famous spaghetti meatballs.
That winter and spring I became really excited about running and loved that each run you could challenge yourself in so many different ways. I loved that feeling I had after hopping off the treadmill and realizing I had accomplished something special. I fell in love with everything about running and decided in the late spring that I was going to take my running shoes and skinny legs to the roads of Ladue. I kept my routine of evening running and started running on a 2 mile out and back path that became the staple course to my success that summer.
My mom had driven with me in the car to confirm the distance of the route. The first 800 meters of the run were climbing a massive hill out of my parents' neighborhood. I learned very quickly, this was going to be a little harder than the treadmill running I had been used to. I saw Mike log so many miles with his friends on summer nights and that encouraged me to stick with it. I started the summer running around 17-18 minutes for 2 miles. By the time I hit August, I was running 13 minutes. I only wore a watch once a week and on that run I would race myself to see if I could beat the time from the week before.
I ran in every condition you could imagine because I saw Mike do it. The only run I missed was when we had a tornado hit town and my mom grounded me and Mike from the roads. Mike still tried to still get miles done in our basement with a flashlight in his hand. However, I figured it was okay to skip a run and enjoy the excitement of watching him stubbornly run his miles in the dark on a very short track covered with dirty laundry. Later I would realize that he was crazy but all runners are so I might as well embrace it. The roads were calm in the evening and I ran with the same blue shorts and white shirt each night. Don't worry, we probably washed them a few times a week.
My shoes were a pair of Nikes that I had gotten at Sports Authority. They were on display with a patch on the tongue of the shoe that read, "Stop Pre" on each foot. Wearing those shoes gave me so much confidence. They also made me feel like a real runner! What I learned that summer through racing myself each week was that running was a real sport. If I wanted to be great like my brother and friends, I had to be willing to push myself to new limits. As a teenager, having the buy in to have the discipline for a hard sport like running required next level motivation. I am grateful I had a family to feed off of to keep me running.
In the fall I went out for middle school cross country. I instantly found success and loved being a part of a team. I met lifelong friends who were competitors including Jordan Mann from MICDS who has gone on to have a successful professional running career. I consider this year the magic year of my running career. I have had many great moments in the sport of running but when I really think about the happiest times, I think about the middle school version of myself who desperately wanted to see how far I could take a new passion. Every week I learned and experienced something new. I was hooked and although I didn't know it then, I was setting the foundation for a lifelong passion that would later turn into a career.
If you ever are in a rut with your running, take a step back and think about what the beginner runner version of yourself would think of your complaints or concerns. We all have different reasons for why we got into running. However, most of us had a period of time where we didn't care what the time or pace said on our Garmin. We didn't care about the medals, PRs, or accolades. We cared about doing something fun and different that made us feel a way we had never felt before. Every time I get low in the sport, I think back to my beginning days and thank my family for helping me cherish those moments so that I could preserve that same love to this very day. Thanks for reading.
