Running Shorts approaches the finish line

The call came on July 16, 2009.

"All runners to the starting line," the headline of the new blog read. 

"And thank you for visiting Running Shorts," the first paragraph began.

Fifteen years later, one finish line is just around the corner. July 16, 2024, will mark my final post for Running Shorts. It’s just a good time.

Calling it "your blog," I promised in that opening post 15 summers ago for the News & Record that I would introduce you to people you see on the greenway, to some of the area's best athletes and to people who are running for a cause ... and just because. 

I got that part right.

• Nearly 500 Triad runners commanded the spotlight in Friday morning Runners profiles for either the news company’s blog or for this new Running Shorts home that made its debut in April 2021. 

• Numerous others merited other forms of storytelling, either because of your extraordinary achievements or your even more extraordinary recoveries from setbacks.

• Just more than 100 of you agreed to catch your breath after completing a Boston Marathon and to call in or connect via Zoom to tell fellow Triad runners, in real-time posts, what that experience was like. And for a handful in 2013, just how terrifying it was. 

• And hundreds of runners' impressive results have been featured in Monday morning race reports.

Besides getting to hear all of your inspiring stories, you’ve also welcomed me as a friend and as a part of your running community. 

While I had thought becoming a sports editor would check a pretty big box for a North Carolina native, writing about you offered me a place in the Triad I could never have imagined.

In fact, it was at an event as a sports editor when former UNCG men’s basketball coach Wes Miller, whom I was meeting in person for the first time, crystallized it.

"Hey Wes, I'm Eddie Wooten, the News & Record sports editor," I said.

"I know you," Miller said, shaking my hand. "The running guy."

The running guy. 

Triad runners, thank you for that. 

And thank you for visiting, reading and subscribing to Running Shorts.