A snapshot of what I, as his running coach and friend, have learned about Jim Ryan over the past 20 years.
One of my greatest joys, over the past 45 years, has been having the opportunity to coach adult runners in our community. From 18 to 80, they’ve come in all shapes, sizes, paces and personality packages. And whether they’re a retired school teacher training for their first marathon or a University of Virginia graduate student aiming to win the Charlottesville Ten Miler, my mantra remains the same for each and everyone of them: to stay healthy, happy and balanced as they journey to their personal goal.
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I don’t charge to coach, as it’s a truly satisfying way of giving back, but one of the personal perks for me is just how close I get to many of these wonderful folks. As I always say, you can’t really successfully coach someone until you really get to know them. And in getting to know someone, you get to understand how they think, you learn what motivates them and, above all else, you discover their personal strengths and weaknesses.
This is exactly what happened when I started coaching Jim Ryan, which was well before Carr’s Hill and long before Harvard. In fact, our journey, first as athlete and coach, then as close friends, began just about the time he and Katie were hauling their cleated kids all over the county to and from youth soccer games.
So, here’s a snapshot of what I, as his running coach and friend, have learned about Jim over the past 20 years:
First off, to state the obvious, he’s very athletic. But it’s not only his 2:48 marathon (6:25 per mile — only 2% of the male runners who run a marathon break three hours!), which he blazed to around the time he was knocking on the half-century door, or his 15 straight Boston Marathon qualifiers. It’s all of his other high-octane activities that make him uniquely athletic for not only his age but also for his “place in life”: adrenaline-fueled activities such as mountain biking, cliff diving, surfing and downhill (as in way-out-west mammoth mountains) skiing, not to mention all of the other crazy antics he insisted on partaking with his student-athletes, such as wind sprints with the football team and running hill workouts, first with the women’s crew team and then with both the women’s and men’s cross country teams, or jumping in the pool, fully clothed in coat and tie, with our women’s NCAA championship team.
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Sometimes Jim would first run these high injury-risk challenges by me, but more often, his coach would find out about them through Matt Weber’s (his sidekick partner in these antics) social media posts. I’d always feel a bit like a parent calling out their child when, after seeing these surprise posts, I’d text him to simply use his famous line of “Wait. What did you just do?”
One thing is for sure: None of these daredevil extracurricular activities, many of which made his injury-averted coach very anxious, are on any other 58-year-old college president’s daily schedule. But what became increasingly more evident and endearing to me is that Jim was doing all of these things as a way to keep his life scales balanced. And sometimes, for Jim, the balancing act simply meant staying connected with the people he was leading.
Jim is not only a devoted father to his four wonderful children, he also absolutely loves kids of all ages, especially college kids. My guess is that he has never lost sight of what it feels like to be that age, as he so beautifully relates to them. His pranks on first-years, his April Fools’ Day jokes and his trick-or-treating on the Lawn (a few years ago he dressed up as Ted Lasso) were just a few of the many ways this high-energy guy stayed engaged with his “kids.” And when college life would take a somber turn, the serious, empathetic Jim would kick into a whole other gear, as he and Katie would open the doors to their Carr’s Hill home as a place to find peace, solace and a family to lean on during dark times for his students.
As his coach, I suggested to Jim, even before his inauguration, to use his running and his new position as a means to connect and to do good. And his “Runs With Jim” did just that and so much more, as they magnified his commitment to not only personally connect with his students, faculty, staff and alumni, but to further his ongoing mission of bringing all kinds of folks together. Over his seven-year tenure, Jim brought tens of thousands of folks together, first in C’ville, then in communities all over the country and world, from New York, Chicago and Dallas all the way to London, through the simple act of running. And what never ceased to amaze me, on many of these runs I participated in with Jim, was not only how truly excited everyone was to meet him, but just how accessible he was making himself to all kinds of people. It wasn’t unusual for someone to run up alongside Jim, introduce themselves and say, “I’ve got something I’d like to talk to you about.” He was also known to sometimes join in with the predawn Prolyfyk runs through the streets of C’ville’s downtown neighborhoods, spreading that same good will.
And Jim never missed an opportunity to use his running influence as a way to raise awareness and funds for local organizations. Most of his Runs With Jim were in support of either a local or student cause, and every single April, he would dedicate his Boston Marathon race to a different organization, wearing a shirt promoting the group and raising dollars along the way; this past spring he raised more than $75,000 for Alzheimer’s research at UVa.
Early in our friendship journey, I came to see just how passionately committed both Jim and Katie are to caring and advocating for those in need. So many of the private conversations I had with them on runs and walks centered around them seeking ways to help our neighbors. Jim turned those private conversations into reality, when he formed the first-ever Council on Community, a 16-member group made up of university and local folks, which he charged with not only identifying the top five challenges our greater community faces but with finding paths for UVa to help support our neighbors in resolving those issues. I had the honor of serving on this inaugural group, which, quite frankly, initially got off to a bit of a rocky start. Jim attended the first meeting to welcome, thank and charge us, and after he left the room, I could feel the skepticism all around me, especially from the C’ville residents who historically haven’t always looked upon UVa as a collaborative partner. One person went so far as to say, “Here we go again. UVa is just checking another window-dressing box. Lots of talk but no action.” To which I countered, “I don’t blame you for being cynical, but I have known this man on a close personal basis for a long time and he really means what he’s saying. Please just give him a chance.” Five years later, that group, now called the President’s Council, is really getting stuff done, and they all now totally believe in Jim’s sincerity. In fact, I just noted a letter to the editor, in a recent Daily Progress, from one of the most outspoken skeptics at those early council meetings. In his letter, he was now praising Jim on his accomplishments and bemoaning his resignation.
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