Running Without a Plan Nearly Broke Me

Over the next few months we will be sharing the story of how Alethia Run, founded by Sean Roach, came to be. In this post, we learn how he got started in running, unfortunately without a plan. Many of us, Sean included, have learned how this can lead to injury. That will become the basis for how Alethia Run was started.

I took up running as an activity in junior high school in 1979. This was a result of participating in conditioning for the sport of wrestling, not as an active or independent decision to run. I am not sure, looking back many years later, that I enjoyed the activity of running itself. It did become a mainstay for reaching the high level of fitness required for wrestling. 

Over time, as I progressed through high school, I began running just for the sake of enjoyment in the activity itself. I had minimal to no official coaching other than a short period of participating in cross country my senior year. As I entered college, running became a frequent activity for staying in shape. After all, it was easy and required no special equipment. At times I would train for actual events, but this was rare. I did not have any social groups that shared this interest. 

The Marathon Attempts That Went Sideways

I did train at least several times for marathons as I closed in on the age of 30. This involved running with a small group of friends that shared the same goals of completing the 26 mile event. Each attempt always resulted in the same outcome. With no specific training plan, other than running random mileage and paces, each one of my training partners ended up injured. Inevitably, I followed that path and was down for the count. The injuries were often overuse in nature and included Achilles tendonitis, patellar tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. Basically every “itis” possible in the legs and hips. 

As I became older and helped in raising 4 children, created several private businesses and completed several advanced degrees, my running frequency fluctuated wildly. However, when I moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2004 I became very interested in learning much more about running. Eugene is the Mecca of running. Now, I had motivation and inspiration which was not available in any of my other previous environments. I was suddenly surrounded by trails close to roads in which a multitude of runners could be seen at all hours of the day. Runners that ranged from little kids to literal Olympic medalists. It was not long before I befriended many of the local runners and started training with actual coaching. This was fantastic as running is a skill that can be learned and improved upon no matter the age. 

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The Turning Point: From Frustration to Innovation

Eventually however the inevitable occurred, injuries! Despite improved technique, shoes and training I developed the same types of “itis”. At this time, I had been working professionally as a physical therapist and athletic trainer for well over a decade. Despite this background, and great coaching, I did not have the tools to create more effective strategies to prevent my running related injuries. I was working toward completing my PhD dissertation on patellofemoral pain at the time. My focus was on developing a tool that could objectively help runners minimize injuries and improve performance.

In future posts, I will get deeper into the origins of Alethia Run but know that it all started because I was running without a plan. When you first get started you don’t know where to turn. All the information is overwhelming. You ask yourself a lot of questions but seemingly nobody, and everybody, has the answer.

This can lead to injury and push many people away from a sport that helps us both physically and mentally. My goal is to help you avoid that situation. I hope you’ll come back to read my future posts as well as join me on the Fireside Chat on June 10th.

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