My favorite runs: DRB 2020

A race like no other on a day that changed my life.

Early in the morning of April 17, 2020, I set out to run a race by myself. My one and only goal was to complete the 50K Don’t Run Boston (DRB) course on my own, completely self-supported. It was a race unlike any other I’ve done, more of a mission statement than a test of fitness.  

Not only was this a tough course, full of unmarked twists and turns with almost 6,000 feet of rocky scramble going up, and coming down. It was also roughly a month into the COVID pandemic when running was the only thing keeping me somewhat sane. 

And for the cherry on top, it was during the race that I found out I was being furloughed, effectively ending a 25-year career as a sportswriter. Of course, viewed from an alternative perspective, this was also the day I decided to leave my old life behind and carve out a new path. 

Held annually on the Sunday before the Boston Marathon, DRB was the perfect place to mark this transition because there’s something about the event that rewards DIY resourcefulness. This is not a race to set a new personal best. It’s a race to find out what you’re made of. 

In normal times, there are only a handful of runners, one aid station, and a couple of water drops in the woods. The course is unmarked, there are no spectators, and times are kept manually via the honor system. The start/finish line is literally drawn in the dirt a few seconds before getting underway. 

And so, with light snow falling from the predawn sky, I drew my own line in the dirt and set out to see what I could find.