Breakfast Club: August 7, 2018

breakfast club

the east bay's running newsletter 

Photo: Jimmy O'Dea

It's a big world.

Indeed faced with the enormity of life, with all its complexity and obstacles, and with all its manifold evils, it is easy to be disheartened.  It is natural to give up on ourselves or, more likely, to never begin whatever task sprawls outward beyond our grasp. 

I've certainly felt this way.  I can't begin to count the number of starting lines I have toed feeling inadequate or all the pre-race moments where I've felt unworthy or like a pretender.  But I've had the good fortune of family, friends, and teammates who have given quiet words of faith, fist bumps of solitude, and small bits of encouragement.

The word "encourage" is, of course, a derivation of courage— itself a French term that translates as en courage, or to give or instill heart.  Here the literal and figurative blur, as the Latin root of "cor" can mean both heart and soul.  So to give encouragement is to literally embolden the life of another…