Confessions of a Runaholic…Meet Jon (YEG)

By the time you get to the end of this story, you’ll be counting down the seconds until our next workout. It’ll make you want to show up to November Project. In fact, this guy is so inspiring that his mother, who lives in Phoenix, would go to November Project Phoenix as a way of supporting her son. I’m told that she’s a legend down there. But enough about inspiration, there’s plenty of that below. There’s a good chance you’ve met this guy either at Old Man Coffee (OMC) or at a workout where he’s sporting his short shorts so he can show off his pasty white legs. And now as you prepare to be inspired… Meet Jon

As I tried in vain to sleep before my first marathon this past summer, I decided to get a head start on my post-marathon post, this was the result:

777 days ago, I decided to show up to November Project. Like many others, I followed along on Twitter for a few months before finally committing to it.

My first workout was at Commonwealth, I think I died 14 times that day. Being the dumbass I am, I went at the pace I ran in high school, turns out that was 2-3 times faster than I could actually run. I made it through one set of stairs (and not even a full one, just that little half set at the beginning of the lower bowl) before wanting to keel over. I was so far behind I missed the picture, and spent the day Costanza-ing under my desk. But good new, after a while of showing up, I only died once or twice a week.

Soon, I was hooked. 3 days a week; through that monsoon at Emily Murphy, -30 at Louise McKinney, the grossly humid morning at the Shaw, every morning in between; people that once were strangers, I now counted as friends, and a city that I had inhabited for a decade finally started to feel like home.

Like a lot of you, I was convinced to run a MEC race. I signed up for a 5k in early 2015. It took everything I had to run for the full 5k, but I did it. And the tribe was there to cheer everyone on. That was a key moment – it truly hit me – the awesomeness of the group of people that is November Project.

That one 5k turned into a few more, which became a 10k, which somehow turned into traveling to Utah for Summit 3.0. Aside from tearing my shoulder doing a somersault at the pop-up, the thing that sticks with me the most was the energy there. It was every bounce, every cheer station, all turned up to 11 on a scale of 1-10. It was at that point I think I became a runner.

Long runs, tempo runs, whenever I needed some company for a training run, someone was always there. Dragging my ass up Walterdale, pushing me through near-puking intervals at Commonwealth; whenever I needed that extra motivation, someone was always there. That’s the great thing about this community, someone is always there.

Standing here toeing the start line, I’m reflecting on every one of these amazing people, drawing inspiration from their journeys, aspiring to their examples, I…I just…words escape me just how much these people drive me to be a better person. You all got me here, and I can’t wait to see where you take me next!

– Jon