Salem, Oregon's
Running & Walking Club Site
Home of
Willamette Valley Road Runners (WVRR)
www.WVRoadrunners.org.

Why Barry Runs
by Barry Jones

Since I am a board member of the W.V. Road Runners, who so happened to be next in line, I got the honor of writing this article. It is about why I run.

In the beginning, some almost ten years ago when I was about to turn 40, I was having a very difficult ongoing mid-life crisis. The symptoms included high blood pressure and medication to treat it; panic attacks including trips to the hospital, as I was sure they were heart attacks; cluster headache cycles which were extremely painful; and ongoing back aches that occasionally would freeze up. In general, I was a stress case with a whole lot of worries about my health and whether I would wake up the next morning. As silly as it seems now in retrospect, back then it was very real and scary.

So my doctor says to me one day, "You need to start getting some exercise, or this is only going to get worse." I thought to my self, "What in the heck am I going to do?" A couple of friends who had recently started running, told me that maybe I should give running a try.

So I did. I went out and ran a mile and a half or so, about twenty minutes, and I didn’t like it very much. It seemed pretty stupid to me. And I didn’t feel all that great afterwards either. But I kept doing it, and even started running with my two friends, which was pretty cool. My philosophy, if something is good, then more is better, didn’t work very well, and I was often injured and sore. I would basically run as hard as I could every day.

I was eventually introduced to John Gallagher, who taught me that what I knew about running ain’t so. Not only did he teach me how to train, but how to run also. Between him, relaxation counseling, and acupuncture, all of the aforementioned symptoms literally disappeared.

And running turned into a passion for me. It was fun being able to head down to Sprague High School way back than, in either raunchy rain, wind, and cold, or, hot and dry weather--it didn’t matter--and run around in circles with John and other WV Striders (as we were then) and with the likes of Barry Jahn and Bill McCall, and getting stronger, faster, and going longer. I started meeting many wonderful people at the track and at the races I started competing at. I was even invited to be on a relay team, which was the ultimate. Within a year and a half or so, I had run a marathon, Portland, and qualified for Boston. The feeling I got when I completed that first marathon was absolutely incredible, and I still get chills today when I reminisce about finishing that marathon, the training that went into making it possible, and where I was then and where I am now.

I had no idea where that first day out on that mile and a half run was going to take me. None whatsoever. It has been a heck of an adventure, though. I have run in many states and many different cities. Many streets and many trails. Mountains, hills, streams, and crater rims. I’ve returned home frozen to the bone, cut up, scared to death by dogs, and dehydrated. It doesn’t matter. I can be both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time, training or racing. Each day is a new adventure and I never know how it’s going to play out when I head out the door. I just know that I will feel better when I get back.

I recently ran the Crater Lake Rim Run Half Marathon and was thoroughly humbled-two hours one minute and 43 seconds, a by far personal worst. It didn’t matter. It was beautiful country, I camped with my family and ran the race with running buddies, met new people, and finished a race that was by far the hardest run I have ever completed. I even had to walk some of it. And, at the end, I was both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time.

Today, one of my biggest thrills as a runner is getting to coach youngsters who are fast, or not too fast. Eager, or not too eager. Some whine, some are excited to get moving. The ones who stay with it always get stronger, faster, and longer. They are going through a lot of the same things, at six to eighteen years old, that I go through as a runner. And they are usually more exhausted and exhilarated at the end of our runs. I’ve traveled with and have gotten to see many of our local kids do very well competing against other kids across the country. I got to see my son Jason compete at Sprague and Chemeketa. I have gone to Spartanburg S. Carolina, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Reno, Nevada to watch Janelle run in National competitions. And recently at the Bush Park runs, I got to see my little eight year old Nicole run a 6:58 mile, a PR by, I think, 43 seconds from last year. The neat thing was seeing her excitement around her accomplishment as we rehashed her race.

My adventure continues, and I have no idea where it will take me. I only know that I will feel better at the end than when I started. I feel stronger, more confident (and more realistic), calmer and more relaxed, and more excited about my life than I did when I was about to turn 40. In fact, my next goal is to run a two-marathon distance on my 50^th birthday, which is in 9 months. I don’t know if I will be able to do it, but I know that it will be fun training for it and attempting it. And I know that I will learn a lot along the journey. Running Rocks!!! And I run today because I can! And it feels good!