For a few years during my time at the Colorado College I wrote a column for the school newspaper called Conversations, featuring interviews with workers on campus. We would sit down and discuss various aspects of their lives, their day to day routines and interests and lives outside of work. I’d let the questions and topics just sort of freestyle along, the whole thing evolving naturally just like what it truly was, a simple, easy conversation. I sought out some of the little-known, unique details that made them who they were. Even the mundane, seemingly ordinary aspects of a person’s life can be rich and fascinating when viewed, or read about, from the outside. Connecting with the lives of others can accomplish many things: it can make us feel a part of the larger whole of humanity, it can inspire and inform us, it can be a temporary escape into another world, another life. And, of course, it breeds an empathy and compassion for others. That’s always a good thing.
After seeing for myself what an amazing place Portland is and experiencing the wonderful community of trail runners and generally good people I thought it would be fun to do something similar to Conversations on a local level. I know I’ve been inspired and impressed by countless folks in Portland in the last 2 years and so I thought I’d be worth interviewing some of these great characters and amazing athletes and sharing their stories with you. After all, it’s the mosaic of different people around us that make up the so much of our lives. Our friendships and relationships on all levels to the people around us are primarily what colors our day to day experiences. It’s crazy to think you could see somebody everyday, pass by them on the street, see them at the cafe or on the bus, and just never has any idea of the treasure trove of stories they have to tell, the myriad experiences they’ve had in their lives. They could had gone anywhere and done anything! And we’ll never know unless we talk to them… or have someone to interview them! This is Members of the Tribe, Profile #2 and we’re talking with Stephen Petretto (this is Part III of III, read Part I here and Part II here).
(Continued from last week…)
W: Do you listen to music when you run?
S: Ahh, 50/50…if I’m doing a really intense run. I little to a lot of pod casts. When I run there’s different pastors and sermons that I like to listen to…I listen to Mark Driscoll a lot when I run.
W: Who’s that?
S: He’s a pastor for Mars Hill Church which is based out of Seattle and has churches all around the northwest. So I listen to him a lot. Francis Chan is another pastor who I listen to. I like podcasts because you’re out there for so long. Songs are good for sections of running where you want some up-tempo beat to kinda go to but otherwise it’s podcasts. They’re sort of like having a partner or companion but I also get to learn something. And then I really like sports podcasts, especially more commentary related, not so much schedule or score updates, somebody who’s got commentary on the universe of sports. And sometimes I just turn it off and enjoy when I’m out there. If I run with people I’ll never wear them; I know sometimes people still wear headphones when they run with each other, I would just much rather chat with the person. Even if we’re not talking, just hearing the other person kinda working hard is encouraging.
W: So what keeps you in Portland? Are there any other places you’d consider moving or are you pretty set here?
S: We’re pretty centrally located in a good place in respect to our families. My wife’s family is in Bend and Pullman, my family is in southern Oregon, also in California, so northwest is good ’cause it close to them but…neither of us want to live in California right now in our lives, ’cause we both have at different times in the Bay area. I used to spend my summers there and Whitney used to live in San Francisco–that’s my wife. And she and I have talked about where else we would live…I think we like a lot of the outdoors part of living in Bend and just the culture and scene there as far as running and different sights to see–and her family’s out there. I think we both just really like Bend. It’s kind of reminds me of southern Oregon and it’s away from the city but for now, being in our late 20’s and early thirties, living in they city is kinda fun and as far as work goes there’s gonna be some more opportunities for both of us and to be honest, although Bend has a lot to offer right out your doorstep, Portland is pretty darn close with respect to being able to access areas of the [Columbia] Gorge or even right there in Forest Park or just to go up north. You get so many great places in Washington to go exploring. Living along the I-5 corridor in a major city like Portland you can easily head somewhere else if you need to travel whereas if you were located somewhere like Bend it would be a little more challenging if we had to travel to see our family. And–to be honest–I think we like being in a place we our families can’t just pop over for dinner. It’s nice to have a little…
W: …a little “buffer zone.”
S: Yeah.
W: And the trail running and mountain running community in Portland, you’ve found to be strong?
S: Yeah…I know some for the folks in southern Oregon, having done some races down there and I didn’t really get introduced into the trail running community until when I did the Forest Park 50k and I met a few people down there from southern Oregon who were up here running the race and then I saw them again at the Siskiyou Out Back and I saw Carly Koerner there and met Tim Olson there and then I ran Pine to Palm [100 mile] and I met you and Yassine–for the second time. You do some races and you start to see all these familiar faces and before you know it you’re getting to the race a little early not because you need extra time but because you just want to catch up with all the people you don’t get to see regularly and then you find yourself packing an extra set of clean clothes because you don’t go home right away and that’s been the biggest difference with [road] marathon running where I would wait until the last minute to show up to the start of the marathon because it’s cold out and everyone’s just standing around, you’re not really hanging out, everyone is just geared up for the marathon. And afterwards people don’t really hang out, they just grab the silver shell thing they put around them–for the most part I’ve found–and just kinda got home where it was warm, nothing wrong with that, it’s pretty far, it’s nice to get warm. But people liked hanging around [after ultra/trail races], in all their sweaty clothes or not. Because it’s a smaller community people would sit around and have meals together after the race and chat, not even about the race necessarily, just use that as an opportunity to catch up. So the race was a piece of it. It was competitive but it was also very cordial and there was a lot of friendship. You were chatting with the people you were racing against until the last mile, you know? So the community here extends to periods before and after the race. The next thing you know you’re doing your training runs with these people, because you have so much commonality and you, lo and behold, run on the same trails. And then you run on the same trails and run into them and that’s probably one of the collect parts. I’ll run in Forest Park and if I ever do Wildwood end to end, I don’t think I’ve ever gone through a period where I’ve done that and not actually come across somebody that I’ve seen before because we’re all using that trail system and it’s really cool. You’re like “Oh, how far are you going today?” or “What do you got coming up? What races? What are you looking forward to doing?” It’s shared experience but it’s not competitive, you’re not trying to one-up each other when you’re talking about your shared experiences because we all know know that any given day a race could go really well or really poorly but when you toe the line and you cross the finish line…the only thing that differentiates anyone is the time that it took but you still covered the same ground and it’s difficult and people really respect that and I do too. I respect really any distance that people aspire to do because it’s hard.
W: Excellent. So we’re about to enter a new year…two questionS: Are you excited for the year ahead? and What words of wisdom would you impart on any age person who’s entering into 2013?
S: 2013…I’m super stoked! I’m starting the year with a classic race I was fortunate to get into, via the lottery, down in Hawaii, the H.U.R.T 100. Every month that goes by that I’m in this community I’m learning about other races and other places to run, not just races but places to adventure and it makes me think about how much I wish I’d learned about or knew that this existed or had gotten into it earlier on, not to be better at it but to have more time to get to experience this and yet I still have a ton of time. So 2013 is going to be built around that, being able to experience so many things and visit different places and, you know, try my share at different mountains. As far as wisdom to impart…umm…I think for me, each time I go out to run I try to remind myself, I try to slow down at certain parts when I’m running, or even take a break and just look around and not get so fixated on how many miles I’m gonna go or how long this is taking me–I don’t even wear a watch most days that I run. I have routes that I do but I don’t keep track of how long it’s taking me, I do it by feel. How did that feel today? Somedays it feels really good and somedays it doesn’t, I’m not thinking about the time. What I would say in terms of wisdom is what I’ve always said, what I try to do myself, which is…in each run, in every period, if I’m at a stop light waiting for my turn to cross or if I get to a really tough part of a climb on a trail and I get to the top and there’s a bench there…just take a minute. Sort of settle into the fact that you are either 6 miles from home and you still gotta run back and it’s 7 in the morning or you’re deep into the mountains somewhere or even just in Forest Park thinking about how 8 miles that way is a road and that road will take you right into downtown Portland but in the meantime I’m stopped and I look around 360 degrees and there’s no one around. I’m just getting to hang out here at 7 o’clock in the morning and in two hours I’ll be in a suit at work but right now I’m enjoying the ability to run, just the ability to be out here, just to appreciate it. I get excited to get up in the morning. I don’t loath having to get out of bed at 5…I might be tired but I’m probably more excited to get up in the morning than I am to try to go to bed at night when I have a run in the morning I’m looking forward to. Whatever you want to do–if it’s a race or just a “fun run”–make it social. Whether or not it’s for you, something that you’re doing to get in touch with yourself, where you’re taking some time to reflect on your day, how you’re treating people, how you’re being treated, and just evaluate that, but also, if you’re running with other people to interact with them. There’s a biological endorphin that takes that is literally about sending neurons to your brain that are saying “Enjoy!”…it is that…it’s something physical that’s taking place. I think that’s intended to be a shared experience. Whether it be before or after or the during, just do it together. That’s the part that I enjoy the most and so if I’m at a race by myself and I’m meeting other people out there or my wife and I host a Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving morning–just for fun., people that run a few miles or people that run a lot of miles show up and we do a social, casual, conversational pace and it’s just basically…you know, we know people around Thanksgiving morning so we get together and my wife makes muffins and hot cider and we go for a short run and then come back to the house and hang out. And no one is talking about how fast we’re going, no one is trying to beat anybody, it’s just social…
W: That’s excellent, perfect. Well, thank you for your thoughts Stephen and your time and I’m glad you’re part of the Portland community!
S: Thanks!
Willie McBride is a native of Chicago, IL but has been living in and exploring the American West since 2000. He attended the Colorado College, majoring in English with a focus on Creative Writing, solidifying his love of writing and his need for mountains. An avid hiker, climber, and trail/ultramarathon runner he now resides in NW Portland, close by the trails of Forest Park. He started a personal/group training and coaching business called Animal Athletics (AnimalAthleticsPDX.com) with fellow ultra runner Yassine Diboun in spring of 2012 and the two provide top-notch services to aspiring outdoor athletes of all abilities.
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