Welcome to the Kexp runcast. I am your KXB runner and host, John Richards. So glad to be with you

here today. Now, I wanted to start today's runcast. And maybe before you run, you'll just stop and

listen to this message. It comes from someone I know through the service industry. I want a bar.

And Chris wrote me a message. We have a lot of connections,

and he finally reached out to me and said, John, I wanted to first thank you for making runs more

pleasant. I got back into running about a year ago after years of treating my body the way

most of us do in the bar industry. I felt out of balance and missed my hobby. Now I'm training

for my first marathon. I'll be trotting from

Detroit into my hometown of Windsor, Ontario, and back. But the second reason I'm writing is to say

some things that keep me going when I'm running. Sometimes I think about the movement of my legs

and how utterly grateful I am to be able-bodied. I know this is a gift, even if it hurts sometimes.

Sometimes I think about the ground under my feet, the way humans treat the earth in each other,

and how no matter what, the earth itself will outlast our species. It makes my footsteps feel light,

as I know we won't be here forever. Sometimes I think about the air in my lungs and how I am grateful to be alive for this

indetermined amount of times.

Occasionally, this also makes me think of George Floyd gasping for this thing that I freely

enjoy and how I so desperately hope that change is coming even if it happens in a slow

or violent way.

Sometimes I run past my friend Marco's house and think of the incredible Fourth of July party he and Ashley would throw every year. He has been gone years now. But I still shed a tear when I run past his house and sometimes whisper, thank you, because he's impacted me so much. And sometimes I think about myself as an old man and how I look back fondly

on the days when I used to be able to run. It is difficult to know that your glory days are actually

today. And sometimes I think about love. I think about the friends I've had to say goodbye to and all the

grief that surrounds me and how proud of me they would be. I think of our group of bartenders who

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