We're November — and Athens, Ga. — bound

Now that summer's (almost) over, it's time to get started again 🏃

A photo I snapped last fall in downtown Athens, Ga., where we’ll run together this November.

We’re getting into late August, one of my favorite times of the year. I know, I know… especially here where I live in the South, this is the “dog days,” when summer’s hot, humid weather holds on just a little too long.

But these weeks leading into fall have always felt like a beginning to me, ever since I was young. They framed how I thought about the year, as everything I loved always started around this time — school and later college, the Major League baseball playoffs, college football, the new television season (back when network TV ruled the world, anyway!).

They feel that way especially to me right now, as my summer running has been a story of fits and starts — I’ll string together a few good runs over a week or two, but sooner or later, life gets in the way and keeps me from lacing up my shoes.

But as Deena Kastor, one of my running heroes, wrote in her great 2018 book Let Your Mind Run: “Here’s something I learned about the mind: It forgets.”

Fall is a chance to begin again, to put the disappointments of earlier in the year behind us. To wipe whatever has happened in the recent (or even distant) past off the books and start anew.

Looking at the calendar, I see there are just shy of 11 weeks between now and Sunday, November 3 — our second race meet-up for our subscriber community, at the AthHalf in Athens, Ga. I hope you can make it, as I’m excited to meet up with you there and run the streets of the “Classic City,” the home of the University of Georgia, R.E.M., and one of my state’s most beautiful cities.

I happened to be in Athens for the race last fall; my stepdaughter is a student there now, so we make the trip over a few times a year. I didn’t run in it, but I got to see the runners out on the course in several spots, and I’m pumped to run it this year — hopefully with you! Here’s where you can sign up:

If you’ve stumbled with your running — even if you can’t join us in Athens — right now, today, is a perfect opportunity to turn it all around.

Over the next 11 weeks, I’ll lay out the miles we’ll run each week as we build up toward running 13.1 on November 3rd. You can run these miles too along with us — I hope you do, and I hope you share your progress each week, no matter how fast or slow you run, or where you’re starting from.

I’m thinking of different ways to keep us connected through the fall on the way to race day. Would you guys be interested in check-ins via a Zoom call? Or through our subscriber chat, which we’ve done before? By the way, you can join fellow subscribers in our chat here:

In the meantime, I thought I’d share some words of encouragement from two of my heroes: Kastor, whom I mentioned above, and Kara Goucher, the beloved Olympic medalist and now a frequent announcer of track and field events for NBC.

First, I love what Goucher has to say about getting started and not pushing ourselves too hard, too early — because there’s plenty of time for challenging ourselves later (from her 2011 book Running For Women):

Go easy most of the time. There are two main categories of runs: hard runs and easy runs. Hard runs are things like tempo running, hills, interval running on the track, that sort of thing. Easy runs are… easy runs! Happily, even if you start training for races and get serious about competition, they’re also the type of runs you need to do most often. As long as you keep the pace comfortable and avoid running farther than you are ready to go, these runs will give your body a solid foundation. Actually, as a new runner, all your runs should be easy runs until you have created your foundation, then you can move on to more challenging runs. Or not. Some runners only do easy running for their entire lives, and that’s fine, too! Even advanced runners do more easy runs than any other type of run.

Finally, I’d like to share with you this recollection by Kastor of her early years as a professional runner, after she graduated from the University of Arkansas and moved to Colorado to train under the now-legendary running coach Joe Vigil.

After Kastor had made the move, she went to see Vigil in his office, where he asked her about her dreams and goals, as well as her potential and possibilities as a runner. The coach was honest and direct with her about the level of commitment he’d ask of her — and then he said this:

“Repetitio mater studiorum est,” he replied, leaning forward in his chair and pronouncing each syllable with precision. “That’s Latin for ‘repetition is the mother of learning,’ You’ll see it applies to every aspect of training.’”

The first time my eyes came across those words, I sat back in my chair. That’s really what it takes, I realized — you can’t go out for a single run, or really try anything a single time, and expect to fully learn it, or become good at it. What you need is repetition, doing the thing again and again, for your body to learn.

I’m so excited to get started with you and run together this fall — and, once we’re into our training, to feel the feelings it will bring: to feel strong, to feel my body improving, to feel myself getting better, to feel myself becoming more confident. (I don’t know why we have to re-learn these things again and again, but we do, don’t we?!)

As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going — and especially let me know if you’re interested in running with us in Athens!

Your friend,

— Terrell

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P.S.: If you’re in need of a little inspiration, here’s a song by Athens’ own R.E.M. that always pumps me up:

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