George Sheehan

When I was in high school I read a book by George Sheehan entitled: Dr. Sheehan on Running. It really grabbed my imagination at the outset of my first years of running. Made me see that running could be something more than exercise. Well as I enter, or have entered middle age, whenever that happens exactly, I don't know, a friend of mine recently loaned me a copy of the last book Dr. Sheehan wrote called Going the Distance: One Man's Journey to the End of His Life. It is amazing to me in this life how friendly voices come back to you. Reading the chronicle of Sheehan's dying of Prostate Cancer, well of course it will be a bittersweet read. But one I would expect from him as well. I will echo the words of the introduction written by Robert Lipsyte. At the end of the introduction Dr. Sheehan was saying that "this book I'm doing is going to be good, but the epilogue is going to be a problem." The introduction goes on to say "And no problem on the epilogue George. We are your epilogue, all the people to whom you gave courage and inspiration, all the people who want to say, again, thank you." I guess maybe middle age is that time of life when you realize how much there really is to be thankful for. Thank you George Sheehan. For writing and living and dying the way you did...inspiring others.