RUNNING WITH HANK
Runner's World US|Fall 2024
How my daughter's rambunctious mutt saved my sanity while she was lost to the darkness.
RUNNING WITH HANK

I HAD TAKEN TO WRITING MY DAUGHTER'S OBITUARY, revising it week after week. It usually cropped up during a run, as if the movement jarred the sentences loose from the dark place where I hid my fears.

Shea was a witty, big-hearted kid who loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, old-time game shows, and vamping on stage. At our courthouse wedding she was the official witness, our marriage certificate bearing her loopy signature. During a trip to Los Angeles, we watched with pride as she bravely approached Owen Wilson in a Venice Beach bookstore to ask for an autograph.

But then I'd get stuck. All these sepia-toned memories were of her as a child. I'd struggle to conjure anything meaningful from the previous 10 years. Where was that impish blond-haired girl who loved to draw and silly-dance to TV theme songs, who didn't care what people thought?

That kid had been replaced by someone I no longer recognized-a stranger as thin as a coatrack, with vacant eyes and sores hidden beneath thick makeup. Addicted to heroin and fentanyl. At 25.

I still couldn't believe it. Shea used to be terrified of needles. She used to be a lot of things-a soccer player, a prankster, someone who sang in the shower. Now I didn't know where she was or who she was with. I expected a pair of stone-faced cops to knock on our door any day. I couldn't think where we would bury her.

The only thing of Shea's that I could reach out and touch was her 3-year-old dog, Hank, a 30-pound mutt who was now living with us. I started running with him at the nearby Middlesex Fells Reservation a few times a week after a particularly low point in Shea's journey.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Fall 2024 من Runner's World US.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Fall 2024 من Runner's World US.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من RUNNER'S WORLD US مشاهدة الكل
TO RUN 26.2 IS TO FEEL ALIVE
Runner's World US

TO RUN 26.2 IS TO FEEL ALIVE

THE SUN IS rising from the east, and the waves of the Pacific crash below to the west.

time-read
2 mins  |
Fall 2024
LEAVE IT UP TO A PIECE OF PAPER TO TEACH YOU TO RUN EASY
Runner's World US

LEAVE IT UP TO A PIECE OF PAPER TO TEACH YOU TO RUN EASY

BEFORE I FELL for running, I thought the hardest thing about the sport was the fast stuff: the speedwork, the sprints, and the intervals.

time-read
3 mins  |
Fall 2024
WHY-AND HOW-YOU SHOULD RUN DOUBLES
Runner's World US

WHY-AND HOW-YOU SHOULD RUN DOUBLES

Those are just a few of the titles entered into my training log for the second run of a day.

time-read
2 mins  |
Fall 2024
FIND YOUR RUNNING COMMUNITY, ONLINE OR IN PERSON
Runner's World US

FIND YOUR RUNNING COMMUNITY, ONLINE OR IN PERSON

I SIGNED UP for my first marathon while sobbing in the back of a rideshare, on my way to the airport to fly to my uncle's funeral.

time-read
3 mins  |
Fall 2024
FUEL WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO EAT
Runner's World US

FUEL WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO EAT

AS AN ULTRARUNNER, I'm all too familiar with the saying that long-distance running is an \"eating contest with a running component.\"

time-read
2 mins  |
Fall 2024
AT THE FERTILITY CLINIC, MY PAST CAUGHT UP WITH ME
Runner's World US

AT THE FERTILITY CLINIC, MY PAST CAUGHT UP WITH ME

I SAT IN the fertility doctor's office white walls, bare wooden desk, opaque window-alone.

time-read
7 mins  |
Fall 2024
THIS IS NOT AN ESCAPE STORY
Runner's World US

THIS IS NOT AN ESCAPE STORY

AT 15, DARLENE STUBBS WALKED AWAY FROM A POLYGAMOUS CULT-THEN DISCOVERED A NEW LIFE AND COMMUNITY THROUGH RUNNING.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Fall 2024
RUNNING WITH HANK
Runner's World US

RUNNING WITH HANK

How my daughter's rambunctious mutt saved my sanity while she was lost to the darkness.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Fall 2024
WHEN I FOUND OUT I HAD MS.I THOUGHT I'D NEVER RUN AGAIN.
Runner's World US

WHEN I FOUND OUT I HAD MS.I THOUGHT I'D NEVER RUN AGAIN.

I checked the pins on my bib, shimmied my spandex shorts into place, and teed up the stopwatch on my wrist.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Fall 2024
A RUNNER'S GUIDE to sleep
Runner's World US

A RUNNER'S GUIDE to sleep

Nike rocked the running world in 2018 when it released the Vaporfly 4%, claiming that the shoe could boost a runner's efficiency by that amount.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Fall 2024