Great Runs Note: This is the first in a regular series of articles by John Silvia, a lifelong distance runner and manager of the Marathon Sports running store in Brookline, MA. 

A Humble Introduction

Hello!  My name is John, and welcome to my humble little column here on Great Runs!  I’m a lifelong distance runner and the store manager of the Marathon Sports store in Brookline, Massachusetts (hard by the 23-mile mark of the Boston Marathon). Marathon Sports is a small chain of running stores which serve the both metro Boston and New England communities.   I began my running career while in high school, continued to run throughout college, and then after college ran in everything from 5Ks to marathons. And I’ve continued to run to this very day, and I even hope to have an ultramarathon (or two!) in my future.

A few weeks ago the founder of Great Runs, who also lives in Brookline and has known me for some time, approached me to ask if I knew anyone (he knows that I know a lot of people) who might be interested in contributing a bit of written content for this website.  Being the kind of person who is often happy to oblige, I immediately said “Sure!,” and began reaching out to friends, coworkers, and other people in the running community.  Soon thereafter I found myself almost reflexively saying “Well, I could probably contribute a little, too,” though I really didn’t give it much thought deeper than that.  

After a little further reflection, I thought to myself “You know, you’ve been a runner for 30 years, and working in a little neighborhood running store for over 20 of them.  You’re always there helping new runners out with shoes, training advice, and other little pearls of wisdom, why not put some of that down here for others to read?”  And soon after several ideas started flowing through my reflective little running mind, and lo and behold, this column was born!  I plan on making my “Off the Beaten Path” column to be all about advice from my perspective as both a distance runner and a running store manager, and I will certainly be writing in my own personal capacity.

What Does ‘Running Advice’ Mean? 

Now, I want to retread just a little bit and go back on that word advice.  One thing is that there is a seriously immense and overwhelming amount of information about distance running out there in this very big and very great world.  Some of that information can be found in long, well-written and well-researched books about distance running, some of which can be found on dedicated, labor-of-love-like running websites, and some of which can be found from conversations with seasoned distance runners, coaches, and fellow coworkers who don’t run but who will politely inform you “just so you’re aware,” as they seemingly love to emphasize all the reasons why running is bad for you.  Hopefully however, you’ve come to realize that not all information in this great big world is created equal, and that reading a well-researched book about distance running is probably good, and that listening to armchair-quarterback (or maybe armchair-runningback?) advice from a fellow coworker who not-so-subtly resents your running might, how shall we say, not be quite as helpful.

So my hope here with this column is not so much as to give you advice on distance running as it is to share with you many of the things I’ve learned throughout my 30 years of running and 20 years of working in a little neighborhood running store, and hopefully have some of those things which I’ve learned become things which you can make work for you.  

I realize that not everything I share will be particularly useful to you.  You might love some parts and completely reject others.  In fact, I hope that’s the case–one of the most significant things I’ve learned over the course of my running lifetime and one of the major themes of this column is how important it is to learn how to learn and discover what does and what does not work for you as a runner.  That’s not to say I won’t occasionally and absent-mindedly hop up on that lovely soapbox we all find ourselves on from time to time.  Just like you, I’m human–if there’s anything I’ve done over the course of all those years of running, it’s be absent-minded and make mistakes.  But it is to say that the purpose of my column, the effort I’m trying to make, is far less to give you advice and far more to give you something in this column which you find useful and you can make work for you and help you with your running life.  After all, it is your running and it belongs to you.  No two humans are exactly alike, and consequently no two runners are exactly alike.  Your running is individual–it is perfectly individual–and it is based on you as a human.  

What’s Next?

So that said, welcome to my humble little column, and thank you for reading!  The next column will be about the value of experimentation as a form of learning what works (or doesn’t), and how I learned the hard way that pizza is not, in fact, pasta.  No, really. My 17-year-old self did not know that.  Now, let’s begin that running journey of ours…

Author Bio: John Silvia. A former high school and collegiate cross country athlete, John began working in the run specialty industry while in graduate school only to discover the run specialty industry he joined was growing, and that he himself was growing along with it.  He now manages the Marathon Sports in Brookline, and his long-held goal within the running specialty industry has been to make distance running as possible, enjoyable, and beneficial for others as he possibly can.