A lot of the reason I choose Team for Kids was I want to support running as a charity. Running has had a profound influence on my life. To name a few things I can trace my MBA, moving to NYC, meeting my wife, and a good part of my career success to being a runner.
I took up running as an adult shortly after getting my first post college job. I would say I was out of shape but I had never been in shape. But more accurately I was a little depressed, gaining weight and spending a lot of my time indoors.
Running was and still is a way to get outside, socialize, and think. In the early day I was a social runner, using running to meet new people. I also would run and use the time to think about my place in the world. Eventually running even took me somewhere… New York.
My first NYC Marathon in part helped me get into NYU Stern. I was wait-listed at Stern and decided to enter the lottery for the marathon. I was accepted into the 2003 NYC Marathon and finished in just under five hours. A few months later I was accepted into Stern and made my way to New York. Since that day in August of 2004 I have not left.
Later, in 2006 my future wife and I went to watch the NYC Marathon on our second date. It was on this date that we really connected. Our first date was much more casual, a meeting of two strangers at a restaurant in Manhattan. On this second date, two kindred spirits were watching thousands of people accomplish one of life’s great accomplishments, winning the NYC marathon.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate what being able to return to running has brought me in terms of stability, friends, and mental health. When I’ve hit a point in my career where I struggled I’ve often I wish I had found running sooner then I did in my life.
Today, in 2019, running is giving me time to myself. Whether its before the rest of my family gets out of bed or on the way home from work my time running is my rare alone moments where I can do a little bit of what I once had a lot of time to do. This can be as simple as listening to music or a podcast or as complicated as trying to solve a big problem at work in my head.
Running has had such a profound effect on my life. As such, I’m raising money for Team for Kids so that the next generation might find running earlier in life.