The Runner Dude's Motivation

By Thad McLaurin, Greensboro, North Carolina

As appeared in

One good thing about being unemployed—maybe the only good thing—was I could dress however I liked. No more business casual.

That morning in April 2009 I came in from a five-mile run around the neighborhood and plopped down in front of my laptop in my sweaty T-shirt and shorts. My wife, Mitzi, was at work, and the kids were at school. I was the only one with no place I had to be.

I checked my email, to see if I’d gotten any responses to the résumés I’d sent out. Nothing. Pretty much the same story since I’d gotten laid off two months earlier, after 13 years with an educational publishing company. I couldn’t even look for work in the same field because I’d signed a non-compete agreement when I was hired. Not that there were jobs available in educational publishing. Or publishing, period. Not in this economy.

I’d always believed things happen for a reason, and that in time, God would let me know what he had in mind for me. So I’d kept busy taking care of things around the house and applying for every position I was remotely qualified for. Mitzi remained confident that I would find something. But now I was getting scared. My severance pay would run out soon and I had no clearer idea of my future than the day I was asked to clear out my office cubicle. What was God waiting for?

I really would have sunk into depression if I hadn’t had running to pick me up. That and the blog I’d started writing about a year before the layoff. Initially it was just a place for me to brag about my running buddies and their racing accomplishments.

On our Saturday morning group runs, we’d get to talking about this running trend or that. Sometimes our debates would get lively and I’d go home intrigued enough to dig around online and find out more about the topic. I must be kind of a geek, because I really loved learning everything I could about fitness and nutrition and improving athletic performance.

I’d fill everyone in the following Saturday, and I got so into it, my friends nicknamed me Runner Dude, which is what I named my blog. I began posting my findings there. Before I knew it, I was getting comments not just from my friends, but also from people all over the country wanting to know more, even asking my advice.

I clicked on my blog. Lately I’d been posting daily. It gave some structure and purpose to my day, and at least for an hour or two, it kept me from worrying. Today I’d post something funny, I decided. Lord knows I could use a laugh. I found a video on YouTube about two guys who go a little nuts training for an ultramarathon. It was so hilarious it had me totally LOL.

And boy did it feel good to laugh out loud. Almost as good as running.

I started running in college at UNC Chapel Hill. I figured it would be a good way to get fit. Just for fun, I signed up for the 1984 Great Raleigh Road Race, a 10K run. I set out on the cordoned-off street, huffing along with thousands of other racers. I remember the burn in my thighs as I passed the first mile marker. Then I got into a rhythm, and the pain faded. Inhale, four strides, exhale. The next thing I knew I’d crossed the finish line. I wasn’t fast, but man, what a blast!

I was hooked. Thirteen years after that race, I ran my first marathon. When Mitzi and I moved to Greensboro, a year later, the thing I looked for right after a house and a church was a running route.

“Why don’t you run with us?” asked Rick, a friend from church. His Saturday morning runners’ group, the BlueLiners, trained on an 11-mile greenway trail.