How Santino Williams Realized He’s a Runner

Santino Williams suspects he got into running the way most people do—it was just a way to get in shape. Then he got serious about it.

He says his relationship with running had been influenced by childhood sports, when running was more or less a punishment for any number of shortcomings on the practice field, so he always thought of running as a chore. Great exercise, but not something he necessarily enjoyed.

“That was how I looked at it for the longest time. Even when I voluntarily started running in my 20s, I had gained some weight and had let my overall fitness slide, so this was a way to get back into it,” he says. “But even then, nobody wants to do cardio.”

The 75 HARD Spark

Or so he thought at the time. That changed a few years ago. If he had to name a catalyst for his changed perspective, it was when his sister was undertaking the 75 HARD challenge through Spartan Races, which his sister does every year. She challenged him to do it and he thought, “Well, why not? Let’s give it a try.”

He decided a daily 45-minute run in the Arizona heat wasn’t so bad, and it became a habit. The next thing he knew, he found himself signing up for a 5K. “The spark had always been there, but that really fanned the flames for me,” he says. “It wasn’t even necessarily like ‘Let me get super, super serious about this,’ but you know, you find it’s your thing, and you start buying nicer shoes or nicer equipment.”

A Ritual, Not a Routine

His love for running evolved slowly over the years. He calls it his ritual. “I work in a creative field, and a lot of times, if I’m just stumped, I’ll go out on my run the next day, and it’s not like I’m deliberately thinking about whatever project I’m working on, but it’s like the ideas just kind of come to me,” he says. “There’s something about being out there and it’s just you and the road—it clears your head enough that you can kind of work through things.” 

He didn’t actually think of himself as a runner until he did his first marathon in San Francisco. “Afterwards, I was looking around at all the people who did this, and I was like, ‘Wait a second, I did this too,’” he says. That was when the imposter syndrome went away and he was able to proudly call himself a runner without anyone else’s permission. He started connecting with other runners and realized the community has people of all abilities and personalities, and it makes him want to be a runner who encourages others. “There’s no need to wait for permission from anyone, and that’s something I want to drive home to all runners,” he says.

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Home Course Advantage

This year, his goal is to run three marathons, and he’s currently in the middle of his training block for his second of the year, the San Francisco Marathon in late July. “That’s really my favorite race to run because it was my first marathon,” he says. “Also, I grew up in the Bay Area and I didn’t necessarily always appreciate how walkable it is—not that San Francisco is the most walkable city, but it’s definitely one of the more walkable cities if you can put up with the hills and everything, and I didn’t appreciate that when I was younger. Now it’s just kind of cool to be able to go on this grand tour of this city that I know, that I’m familiar with, but still get this different perspective running through the city as opposed to driving through it.”

Running for the Long Run

Overall, he keeps his approach to running relaxed and laid-back, even when he’s dedicated to it. “It’s very much kind of an all-journey-no-destination thing for me,” he says. “I don’t have a particular goal in mind. This is just something I want to carry with me for as long as I can.” Sometimes that means recognizing running is a small part of a fulfilling life he has, and it’s okay if it isn’t his biggest priority—he is, after all, still a runner. “I have to tell myself, ‘You’re also a father, you’re also a husband, you have a business to run,’ and running fits into the bigger picture,” he says. “That’s actually been really good for my relationship with running as well!”

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