This Month's Random Runner ... David Yon

Please join Capital City Runners in welcoming

David Yon as  August’s Random Runner.  

CCR:  As a child, what was your dream job?

David:  I don’t really think I wanted a job when I was a child.

CCR:  When did you start running?  Why?

David:  I started running on a regular basis in 1983.  I have always participated in a lot of sports activities, but once I graduated from college and started working it became harder to do enough of those activities to stay fit.  Running was probably just something to supplement flag football, tennis and softball at first.  Of course by the end of 1984 it had pushed everything else aside.

CCR:  What is one of your most awesome running memories? i.e. proudest, favorite, most memorable...

David:  Maybe finishing my first marathon (in Killearn) and doing so in just under 3 hours.  There are a million more though – a strong effort at Comrades Marathon (South Africa); running in Alaska (and a lot of other great outdoor places); running a marathon in Antarctica; looking down from high up on a bluff or cliff to see the covered bridge at the bottom, the Pacific Ocean to the left, and giant hill across the way with the baby grand piano waiting near the top knowing I had to run it all to finish the Big Sur Marathon; running Boston (especially the first year when I ran single file through the tunnel of women from Wellesley College); and the incredible friends I have made through GWTC.

David near the finish of the
2013 Palace Saloon 5K.

 CCR:  What is your current occupation:

David:  Practicing Law.

CCR:  If money were no object, what would you love to do?

David:  I love taking on life’s challenges the best way I can and hope I will always do continue to do that.  I can’t really look out there and identity one particular thing I would love to do if “money were no object.”  

CCR:  Do you have any indulgences?  What is your weak point?

David:  I very much enjoy good craft beers. 

CCR:  Do you have a favorite non-running hobby?

David:   I guess, if you can call writing a hobby, I enjoy it a lot and that would be it.  The pressure to produce something once a week, every week is not so fun.

CCR:  What are some of your most recent “reads”?

David:  I just read Stanley McChrystal’s memoir – My Share of the Task, I think it is called.

CCR:  Do you have any particular running Inspiration or personal motivator?

David:  I just love the activity and the sport so much.  There is just a wonderful link between the body in motion and one’s sense of being.  Running offers so much, from competition, to personal enjoyment, to health, to great friendships that it seems inseparable from what I am.  Of course injuries have a way of changing all that…

CCR:  What is your idea of “The Perfect Day”?

David:  Those days when at their end, I can put my head on my pillow and think “today was a good day, I met life’s challenges and opportunities with the best effort I had.”

David and his wife, Mary Jean,
on vacation earlier this year.

CCR:  What is your biggest challenge to staying motivated?

David: I really don’t have any problem staying motivated; the biggest challenge though I would say is staying healthy.

CCR:  How has Capital City Runners been a contributor or positive component of your running career/life-style?

David: Capital City Runners has been a great addition to Tallahassee and its running community.  I have loved working with the store every November when it becomes one of the hubs for the Tallahassee Turkey Trot!

Additional Comment:  David Yon commented at the 2011 annual Gulf Winds Track Club Awards about how he had walked into the shop shortly before Kevin and Nate opened it and looked around wondering if the shop would be open at Thanksgiving.  That was 2010.  David, we, at Capital City Runners, are happy to report it was decided that we are here to stay.