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Bob and I started our habit of running weekly when I moved to ��«Ӱҵ in 2001. Our first run was remarkable in that it was both unique and in that it set the tone.  Unique because it was pure competition, a proper race, which was not what I  expected since when we made the arrangement to go for a run I had laboured my  excuses, “I was just starting again, not fit, still trying to quit smoking” etc. And  because these excuses had been accepted and Bob did not seem the competitive  type, or someone who would want to make a run into a race. Of course, I now know  that appearance to be misleading but also know that he was competitive in the best  of ways. There was no frustration that he failed to drop me, just pleasure in the  game he had sprung. And that run set the tone because it showed us both that we  equally took pleasure in making runs effortful.  

This mutual enjoyment led to Bob persuading me to run the ��«Ӱҵ Half  Marathon in 2002. This was my first race since I was a teenager and set me on the  path to becoming a runner again. We then did this half marathon every year together, until I broke down with injury from too much marathon training in 2012.  Bob continued yearly until 2021 with his best time being 1:29:08 in 2013. This quick time was owed, I think, to parkrun. I persuaded Bob to try parkrun in 2011, with his  first being 30 April 2011, in Endcliffe Park about half a mile from our houses. And  parkrunning soon became a loved running habit, and when I ran his last parkrun  with him on 27 April 2024, it was his 388^th. I would join him at some of these, but not  so many – writing this I am only at 99. But parkrun became his weekly competitive  focus. This made him quicker: 2013, the year he broke ninety minutes for the half,  he ran his best parkrun of 18:49 (where for context, Bob was early fifies, a ‘V50’ in  running-speak, in 2013). And this shift in competitive focus meant our weekly runs  changed; they became more leisurely. We could talk the whole way round, rather  than merely part. 

We always ran two routes. A Summer route out through the parks: Endcliffe,  Bingham, Whiteley Woods and on to the point where the path goes steeply up. This  is about seven miles. And a Winter route up through and around the expensive  ��«Ӱҵ suburbs. This was slightly shorter but hillier and so the same time-wise.  Sometimes we would vary these routes but rarely. While Bob was open to variation,  he was obviously discomfited by it. At first, I was a little frustrated by this, since  historically I’d used running to explore, but Bob’s logic prevailed, and there is logic  here: in following the same tracks, we both knew when to push (early days) and had  nothing to distract from talk (later days). These running talks were a real pleasure.  We all have friends from different places and times of our lives, and no one  connects all places and times, but Bob connected four things that matter a lot to  me, which, in no order, are running, philosophy, work – and by this, I mean  University life – and family. He had a family before me so understood the early  sleepless nights and all the stages you go through bringing up kids. I could moan  about work – University life – knowing he understood the people and issues and  would have the good judgement to help me see how to deal with things. And  philosophy: we both used these running talks to work through whatever research  ideas we were working on. At one point, running and philosophy even connected. If  I recall, Bob saw running partly in terms of a Kantian duty of respect for himself  and his abilities (but he might have just said this could be argued). And he inspired  me to turn my frustrations at never being sure I’d pushed hard enough in a race into  a paper on the epistemology of trying. What was great about discussing philosophy  with Bob was his infectious enthusiasm for philosophical questions. So Løgstrup,  who occupied a lot of our talk, has come to permeate my thinking on trust. I’ve even  written a paper on Løgstrup on trust – two if you count one co-authored with Bob  and Chris! And Bob had a remarkable ability to see through the philosophical  details and complexity and get to the nub of things, the big picture.  

So I could rely on these running talks to help me think through philosophy,  let off steam, and work out how best to deal with whatever issue I currently faced.  And I could rely on them with regularity, every Tuesday, or occasionally Thursday, after work. And it is only now that I am beginning to realise the depth of this reliance and how important was this prosaic habit.