Running News Daily

The original editor of Runner's World magazine has had a rough couple of years

"I have been trying to get ahold of Joe Henderson for a couple of years," says MBR publisher Bob Anderson. "Joe was my first Runner's World editor many years ago. We worked together for years before I sold RW to Rodale Press in 1984. Joe has broken his silence and I wanted to share the message he posted on FB this last weekend. My heart goes out to Joe.  We have missed you..."

A message from Joe Hendeson:

"You might have noticed. Running Commentary had an unbroken streak from 1982. Then it suddenly stopped coming to you about three years ago.

Writing for public consumption stopped then. Running ceased too, possibly forever.

At the least, I owe you an explanation.

In November 2019, I suffered a stroke. Much of the year 2020 does not exist for me, so far out of everything was I then.

I don’t remember at all the first two places I lived after having the stroke. The third is a partial memory,

I don’t remember falling out of bed and hitting a low-slung bookcase, only waking up on the floor — missing two front teeth, with a broken nose, broken right hand and left eye that pointed the wrong way.

Worst, my wife Barbara died in early 2020. I wondered for months afterward why she quit coming to see me.

It turned out that the hard fall was the beginning of a wake-up call. It was a slow but steady return to a new normal.

The physical therapist dismissed me after a year — with the warning to always carry a phone in case of a fall. One eye doctor said I was stuck with the odd eye condition.

He did perform successful cataract surgery on both eyes. Another doc later told me that the left eye was moving toward its proper position, though ever so slowly.

The right leg remained affected, but much less so than at first. I was told that it as 95-percent impaired when first tested. It is now five percent off — but still requires a walker. Running is impossible, in the third year post-stroke (or fall).

I now live at a senior center called Shalom House. I don’t try to run, and use a walker for daily walks of 30 minutes or more (which sounds better than saying a mile or so).

My running is no longer personal, but my interest in the sport remains strong. I attended a small part of the Olympic Trials last year, and more of the Pre meet, NCAA and Worlds in 2022. I still hope to get back to coaching, if the runners will have an ex-runner whose running days are increasingly ancient,

Best of all, my mind is almost fully awake again. I realize that my wife is no longer with us. I returned to published writing with this brief tribute on the second anniversary of her passing:

Barbara Hazen Shaw — July 27, 1944, to January 19, 2020.

My dear Barbara. I treasure our time together — though that time was too short at more than 30 years, and it ended too soon, several months before the actual ending.

A stroke incapacitated me at first. But I’ve made up for it by thinking of you every day since that fog has cleared.

In your 75 years, you lived a life to be admired — if not imitated. On your deathbed, you promised to keep “exploring the universe” in your own ways.

This you will do, I am sure. We should all be so lucky.

So what does this have to do with Running Commentary? Perhaps nothing if you never subscribed, and maybe just this if you did.

I’ve felt lately that I have taken advantage of you while giving nothing in return. So between now and early next year, I’ll send you chapters from a yet-unpublished book, Miles to Go."

(08/29/2022) Views: 2,515 ⚡AMP
by Joe Henderson