Hello, and welcome to the well. As always, I am your host, Dylan Bowman. And this week, I have the distinct pleasure of welcoming

my friend Markell Taylor to the podcast in an episode that is really special for me. Markell and I met

when he was serving a 15 years to life sentence in San Quentin State Prison in Northern California. I was living there at the

time and volunteering for the running club in the prison. And at that point, Markell was the fastest

member of the group by far. And based on our pacing and the fact that nobody else could keep up with him,

we naturally became training partners and eventually friends.

Markell ultimately served 18 years and was released in early 2019

after breaking every record in the San Quentin record book.

And since being released, Markell has continued using running as his therapy and as his tool for self-improvement in his life as a free man.

Now, as a disclaimer, I've been hesitant to ask Markell to come on the show because I've

honestly felt protective of him as a friend.

And part of my commitment as a volunteer for the Thousand Mile Club is that we just

don't ever ask the club members how they ended up in prison.

Sometimes guys offered up what they'd been convicted of, but for the vast majority of guys,

we honestly have no idea.

Our focus as volunteers is really on helping the guys where they were in the moment, not judging

them based on what they'd done in their past.

And as such, I would encourage you all to reserve your own judgment based on Markell's mistakes

and instead maybe focus on how far he's come. In our conversation, we talk about Markell's mistakes and instead maybe focus on how far he's come.

In our conversation, we talk about Markell's journey of incarceration, how he dealt with the reality

of a life sentence, how running helped him with that reality of prison life and how he now

sees his 18-year incarceration as a positive part of

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