Because He Believed In Me

I sit behind this keyboard not sure how to express my heart. We lost a great man on February 27, 2016. He was a great man with so many accomplishments behind his name. He coached Olympians, was a brilliant scholar, created the aqua-jogger, and constantly worked to change the name of running. So through all of that – why did he choose to believe in me?

I never made it to the Olympics, I struggled to stay healthy and I didn’t finish college. All of these things that he stood for, I fell short of. But day in and day out he believed in. He told me the hard truth when I needed to hear it, but always made sure I knew that he saw my potential.

The thing that stands out most in my memory is how he never wanted me as an athlete. He knew and coached my dad back in their Athletic West days so he knew I had the genes. He kept an eye on me as I grew up, but my first love was always soccer, running was just an after thought. I was decent, so I continued at it. And Dick recognized my lack of passion in the sport. He knew that I had talent and knew he could teach me to be better, but I had to want it too. And he told me over and over again that because of that lack of passion, he never wanted me on his team.

That changed my senior year of high school. I quit soccer and decided that I wanted to run. I was a stand out my freshman year of cross country, but the next two years I did not reach my potential therefore cutting short what my team could have achieved.  So, I said goodbye to soccer and created training and racing goals for myself and made a decision to fight for my team.

It was the first cross-country race of the season my senior year and Dick happened to be there. He had no idea I had quit soccer and he had no idea of these goals I wanted to achieve but no one needed to tell him because he saw it. And that was that. He approached me that day, introduced himself and told me about the Eugene Health and Performance Foundation and how he wanted me to join. Of all the incredible athletes surrounding me that day, he wanted me – I will never forget the day I met him.

I don't hold onto race numbers like a lot of runners do, but I've never thrown away the number I was wearing when I met Dick Brown. I knew then something special had just happened in my life.

After I joined the foundation he always reminded me of when he finally saw me believe in myself for the first time. And how on that day he saw how much I enjoyed the art of running. That day changed my life. He chose to believe in me and opened my eyes to do the same. That day he took a chance on me like no one had before and it continues to give me confidence everyday. Running or not. 

He also always believed I would be a distance runner. And the first time he told me I wasn't a miler I laughed and told him he was out of his mind. Now, 11 years later, with my first marathon in sight, I will be racing in his honor. Because not only did he believe, he knew. 

I aspire to do great things and Richard Brown is a big part of that journey.

In other Dick Brown memories: 

This was an article posted by Runner’s World in June of 2015: http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/for-inmates-the-wall-has-a-totally-different-meaning 

Dick was involved with creating race opportunities for the Oregon Men's State Penitentiary – and myself and a couple teammates and friends got to join for one of the races. It was an incredible life experience and this article explains that experience well.

And not only did Dick provide me with confidence, world class coaching, laughter and adventures of a life time - he also opened the door to meet "Fast Emily", the type of friend life waits around for. 

He also let me race dressed like a chocolate truffle (in which it was too tight so I ran slow and tripped cutting my knee open) and he let me race dressed as cupid.

And that's only the tip of the memories. Thank you for everything, Dick.