Derrick is a great friend of Boston’s, a friend of NP worldwide, and a close friend of Bojan & I. He’s a solid runner, a great sprinter (first off the line this year in the Marathon Relay at Wachusett), and now a proud father of two. When this whole NP thing began he was none of the above. Like many of us, he showed up wondering what would happen next. He’s watched the growth of the entire movement and was proud to stand with all of us at the largest NP gathering a week back at the NP Summit. Without further blah-du, I give you longtime NP’er and today’s birthday boy, Derrick Shallcross.
Legend has it that I used to live on Summit Avenue (the Friday location for NP Boston) and that I came to the NP workout on the morning of my wedding. Neither of these are true, but nor are they far from the truth. I’ve been coming to NP since early July 2012, a particularly special moment in time for me and for November Project. I had just moved to Boston and was looking for new friends. November Project was on the cusp of exploding onto the scene and would have 10 times as many members a few short months later. After my first workout I was hooked on the hugs, the adrenaline, and the sore legs and quickly grew to thrive off of both the workouts and the people.
Over the following years I was lucky enough to watch the tribe grow, and to bittersweetly see friends from Boston spread out across the country, and the globe to start tribes of their own. I was also lucky enough to get to know Brogan and Bojan as more than just tall, charismatic, tattooed, loud, and fast. I watched them pour their time, their sweat and more sweat (did I mention sweat?) into building NP from something that was just a two people climbing up a set of stairs into a true movement. It was this organic movement, full of badass athletes and regular people all someone joined together that would one day become big enough to catch the eye of The North Face. I’m not sure people realize how rare it is to find a massive international brand with the guts to make a bet on bringing people together through fitness and community but it is a testament to their foresight as a brand and to NPs truly unique nature.
And so the years have flown by, and I’m five years older now. Since starting at NP I’ve gotten married, had a kid, moved to the burbs, and had another kid. And with each of those things my ability remain a “core NP member” (a phrase that I hear is being phased out) has slowly dwindled. I have so much respect for the many moms and dads that manage regular workout appearances, but now more often than heading to a stadium workout on a Wednesday I’m hitting my local high school track where I’m more likely to be joined by a stray coyote than another person. Rather than pushing one of my buddies up one more Summit Ave on Fridays I’m pushing my son in our jogging stroller. One thing that never changed, however, is that many of the people I met in the early days of November Project are some of my best friends. We all share the special moment in time that was the birth of November Project.
When I heard that the NP Summit was going to be in Massachusetts this year it was with both much excitement and a little trepidation that I knew I had to race. After missing the opportunity to sign up my own team I called in a favor from Brogan who managed to find me a slot on a team he said consisted of a “random assortment of NP Badasses.” After a less than ideal amount of training the morning of the summit quickly arrived. And so I loaded up the wife and kids and headed out to the mountain. When we arrived I spent a few frantic minutes unpacking a day’s worth of diapers, waters, snacks and sunscreen onto our stroller and then another few frantic minutes running around trying to find my teammates, whom I had never met. Finally John Nagib (truly an NPSD badass if you haven’t met him) heard my call and came running. He threw me my freshly tagged team shirt and I headed to the start line (PS if you ever want to pamper your sweaty back, check out some on North Face’s vented shirts, you’ll never be able to wear a shirt without a million tiny holes in it again).
That race itself was a blur. After sprinting the first 200 yards off the line (a tribute to Bojan’s signature dash off the line) the adrenaline quickly wore off and I was faced with the prospect of another 6.5 miles that seemed to be entirely straight up or straight down. In the end I managed to post a (somewhat) respectable time and break neither of my ankles, a double victory. What was even more amazing about the day, however, turned out to be hanging around after I had finished. I know that Love Actually (you’ve all seen it too) told us that if you want want to feel good about the state of the world you should head to the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. What I think is that if you really want to believe in humanity you should hang out at the finish line of an Endurance Challenge race. Watching people come across the line cheered on, hugged, and congratulated by long time friends and complete strangers, whether after finishing a 10k or 50k, shows us what true joy and humanity is. It is the kind of joy that comes not from doing something easy, but from doing something very hard with people who want to share in it with you.
The good news is that this is not something that you have to wait for once a year. You can find it in cities around the globe (I lost count of the number of tribes after Alberta came on board) every week at a place called November Project. And even if you’ve got a couple of kids you have to get to daycare, and you don’t live anywhere near a stadium, you can still be a part of the movement. Give an extra hearty wave to the stranger on your 6AM run, start a real conversation with someone in line while you wait for your latte, greet your friend with a hug instead of a handshake. The great secret about November Project is that it is as much about what you do when you are not at November Project as when you are. 
(Derrick seen here far right having an OK time at The North Face Endurance Challenge at Wachusett Mtn, Mass.)
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