Yasso on Running, Community and Inclusion

“Was I scared when I ran in Africa? Never. Disney was the scariest place I ever ran…”

{Note: this article was originally published here on Elephant Journal}

 Bart Yasso spoke at the Florida Track Club meeting last night, held at the University of Florida. Who is Bart Yasso? Yasso’s a runner famous for a workout someone coined the Yasso 800. Basically, Yasso noticed that if he ran 800 meters in 2 minutes 50 seconds, he’d finish a marathon in 2 hours 50 minutes.

Yasso joined us from Pennsylvania via the Internet. It was as if he was right there with us. In a way, he was, because we could see him and hear him just fine. He could hear a pin drop on our end. And, all that happened with no more than a little white Mac computer, a couple of cheap speakers and a projector.

Yasso said he often got asked what two words best described running for him. He said you’d think they might be interval training or negative splits. Nope. Yasso loves running because of community and inclusion.

Yasso talked about running in East Africa. He said it was fun for him to think about running with Tanzanians, Ethiopians and Kenyans, who are some of the fastest runners in the world. Was he ever scared running in Africa?

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