Fdip

My friend Steve Walker

Running can be a lonely business. The struggle and persistence are usually endured alone. The victory of pushing up a hill and cresting it's top on a sultry summer morning is typically celebrated by ones self. In the cold months the feeling of solitariness is all the more profound as fewer runners are out on the roads. Being a distance runner complicates things too as few friends find the idea of running for an hour very appealing. We're not like everybody else and we know that.

But as I've said before, there are times when running with a friend just feels right. Sometimes it's just an excuse to see that person again, such as my old friend Bob. Other times it's to help push me toward a certain goal while on a run or simply to help me find the strength to get my ass out there and get it done. Randy has been my bud for those needs. But there is another friend that I rarely talk about.

Our relationship is rather unique I have to admit. I've never met him and yet I know him very well. We have much in common; our age, love of history, astronomy, baseball, camping, celtic music, tending the garden, living in a small town, our teenaged sons and of course -- running. Yet he knows little about me. Like me he seems obsessed with his mortality and consciously lives his life as a journey of exploration on it's meaning and human purpose. His attempts to meld the spirit of his heart with the realities of his head are so similar to my own. He's made me laugh out loud like an idiot and more than once shed a tear when overwhelmed with the love for his son. Once a week we going running together for an hour. I get caught up on what's happening in his life and his running. It is a unique relationship but one that exists just as it was intended.

I guess you could say that Steve is the host of a running podcast. But to those of us who join him each week it is so much more. He is so genuine and passionate about life that bonds quickly form. Although Steve constantly fusses over quality and accurate content for his weekly theme, those of us in his running circle couldn't care less. We're not in it for the running tips. We go for a run with Steve simply because we like going running with him. If all the glitz, theme music and production stuff were to disappear I would still be there. All he needs to do is clip his mic to his running shirt and head out the door. But he does so much more.

As I said, he's a passionate person. He puts everything he has into what he does and that includes Phedippidations. How he is able to produce such a high quality show every week is way beyond me. I can't even hack out a weekly blog entry. But every Friday good old Steve has another hour of friendship locked and loaded and ready for me and my weekend long run.

To the faithful the formula is familiar. Steve regrettably breaking away from the family routine to run, stepping through the squeaking door and assessing the day. Procrastinating in his yard, talking about his recent runs, troubles at work, size of his tomatoes in the garden and of course the weather, before finally giving up and pressing the start button on his Garmin. On the run Steve delves into the topic - that isn't always about running, but that just doesn't seem to matter. This more about the friendship and no one really cares what we talk about.

Always promoting everyone but himself (it's no secret that he doesn't need to) he spends the second half of the hour talking about other runners: other podcasts, blogs, websites and fellow runners race reports. Steve even mentioned this little blog in the summer of 2007. He's recently coined the phrase "race net community" to describe the new social media web that joins so many runners together. In a way, the expanding network has diminished the intimacy of "Fdip", but that's just Steve message: let's all get get connected.

I have to admit that the show formula becomes part of the allure, the familiarity and pattern of it induce a type of anticipation. Sparring with his son John Michael while waiting in the car for the school bus, trash talking his defenseless running friend Joe Steindl, gushing over his running advisor the great John Ellis, the inside relationships are as regular and cozy as those in an episode of "Mister Roger's Neighborhood". Blueberry ales, books and wine, canoe camping, the Worcester Tornadoes, "The Curra Road", bad drivers in Oxford, harping on Tom Cruise and Barry Bonds, the sanctifying of the complex George Sheehan -- like a good friend I have come to know what to expect.

This just scratches the surface of our friendship. After years of running together I know a lot about Steve, while I admit that he knows virtually nothing about me. But this is a new time and there are indeed new kinds of friendships. And that's just how Steve intended it. Still, how much do I like Fdip? Tree-si-so!

(Fdip can be found and listened to on your computer at http://www.steverunner.com/ or you can subscribe to Phedippidations and download it for free on iTunes.)