Mark Bourgeois

Q: When did you begin running and why?
Surfing begat running. In the summer of 2015 I had just come back from an overseas surfing trip for which I’d dedicated the previous six months working like crazy to get in shape. Somehow I reasoned that the best way to keep this new fitness was to set another ridiculous fitness goal. Why not run a half marathon? At the time I had never run a race of any distance and was running one, maybe two miles at a time. Tops.

I signed up for a race that, um, was seven weeks away. Searching online, I couldn’t find any seven-week or “couch to half” training plans. Odd. So I picked a 12-week plan, the shortest one I could find, and started at week five. The race came and somehow I did fine: ran the whole thing, didn’t die.

In training for that half, the chains of my running habit grew from too small to be felt to too strong to be broken.

Q: How did you find out about DCRR and when did you join?
After signing up for a May 2018 marathon, I was daunted by the prospect of training alone through the winter. I researched online, checked out a few clubs and chose DCRR. If memory serves, I signed up in Dec 2017.

Q: What are you training for right now?
Richmond marathon! I love Richmond, it’s got great architecture, murals and carbohydrate products. Oh—the race is excellent, too. Well organized, solid crowd support and great swag.

Q: What is the toughest run or race in which you have participated?
The 2017 Army Ten Miler. At the start the announcer said, “Enjoy your 77-degree, 76-percent humidity race, runners!” After that fiasco I swore never to run another October distance race in the DC area again (and haven’t). My body has never felt as sore as it did after that race.

Q: What is the most important lesson running has taught you?
Well, I just mentioned “Never run an October distance race in the DC area” . . . just kidding . . . sort of . . .

As far as life lessons, actually two:

1. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Or as Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “If you can recognize and accept your pain without running away from it, you will discover that although pain is there, joy can also be there at the same time.”
2. But first, coffee.

Q: What is your favorite route in the area?
Probably Ross Drive, as much for a moment as for the route: there’s a stretch on Ross Drive proper where you hear no sounds made by humans. No cars, no airplanes, no beeps, no whirs, no cell-phone yelling—nothing. It doesn’t happen every time but it happens often enough. To be in the midst of a major city and hear nothing more than the rustle of leaves or the rumble of Rock Creek in flood: I’m often lost in thought on runs but on Ross Drive I listen.